Putting on an act for NTs.

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LOL Icarus, you're nice

NT's appear to acquire traits of those around them... accumulating it and regurgitating it back to each other. In a way NT's all act like one mass consciousness... so it's very easy for them to relate with other "normals."

When something different comes along it's very difficult for them to acclimate... and it's just easier to shrug something off as abnormal.

i love putting on an act! i love that my "default" personality is flat and boring by NT standards. i get to design my own "character", as it were, for general social interaction (although a lot of my aspie traits work through it). since i have to make a concious effort to act correctly, i'm a lot more aware of other people's reactions to the way i act and i can modify them accordingly. i can also have personality variations for different social circumstances.

ya, im very different at home vs. at work vs chillin with ppl, i read ya loud and clear ^

NT's actually are just very good actors, and they do it constantly. Very, very few of them show their "true" face for a long time after you get to know them. At least in my experience. A pretty obvious and clear example is at work, where a person wants a promotion. They adapt their behaviour and will do things deliberately that go against who they are in order to achieve (hopefully) a desired goal. So a group of co-workers goes out for lunch with the boss. They are all trying to impress him (it's a him in this case, see I'm not sexist) and he wants a Crown lager with his meal and he for whatever reason respects people who enjoy the same beer and gets all excited about it asking everyone if they want a crown.

The truth is that he really does not care what other people's preferences are, he is just saying have a crown with me or I will be offended. What a person chooses to do in such a situation is very individual. I imagine there would be both AS and NT people would both go with the flow or against it. However, the more socially accepted behaviour in the situation is to have a drink with your boss, and it should be a crown, because he's excited The distinction with ASD is that we try less often to fit in and do the accepted behaviour due to both or a combination of ignorance and apathy. So maybe AS people sometimes act in order to get along, but NT's act too. If you stripped away their outer false layer they would be very similar to us. Well they are. Anyways, I'll end it there before I ramble on too much.

nb411, so true! Brilliantly said.

I don't "put on a act" when around others.

I find it difficult and it makes me stressed, always having to think about what to say, what not to say, how to eat, how to greet people etc. Even if I try and "act" like "everyone else", it still fails to work, and in the end, I always say something that offends, or is innapropriate without knowing, which completely demolishes my "act".

Because of all of that, I just act how I feel comfortable. If people don't like me, thats their problem, and I shouldn't waste any of my energy speaking to them.

I only "put on an act" if I think it'll benefit me somehow....which is rare.

Sometimes I feel like I'm pantomiming others' actions, and there are frequent occasions when I've absorbed somebody else's mannerisms or phrases quite without even realising it until after the fact.

I have tried both being myself and putting up an act. If I put up an act i tend not to say very much at all and give off the impression of being an introvert loner. When I act myself I am far too honest, blunt and loud; particularly after a beer. Fortunately I have a small number of friends who dont judge me and are a bit immature and so are ok when i act myself. The problem is ehat to do when meeting new people, especially the opposite sex.