Have you been assaulted? ( as an adult)

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Has anyone here been assaulted (and battery to include technical legal definition), as an adult, and ostensibly due to your ASD condition??

I can say that I have in the past, but - no surprise here- it was all during that "volatile" period in my early 20s, about 5-6 times that I recall, no serious injury but just shaken up and left somewhat traumatized and full of consternation. Note that this was in the '90s, before my diagnosis...not that knowing and advocating it would've made those aggressive folks more sympathetic towards me, but at least I'd have some closure in WHY I was struggling and failing at aspects of social interaction that others took for granted+and would punish nonconformity as a visceral response.

Such were the days of high testosterone and alpha-omega hierarchy, I suppose. Differences were NOT tolerated

Looking back in a couple of those cases, the guys involved felt insulted in some way that I did clearly not intend, OR they were being a "white knight" sticking up for some female who I'd made feel uncomfortable and so that _must've been_ intentional on my part, so they rationalized

I notified the police in one case, but because there were no witnesses they said it'd my my word against the other guy's. The other times, there were either biased witnesses who weren't going to inform on the aggressor (lest they get ostracized from "the tribe"), or no witnesses at all.

So how did YOU react?? Verbally protest, physically stand up to them, call cops, walk away and avoid..?

Yes, it was related to domestic violence. I suspect my autism played some role in that entire situation. At any rate, apart from trying to avoid trouble and feeling like I was walking on eggshells while doing so, I didn’t stand up for myself because I was too afraid of what the consequences would be. Well, initially, I tried to stand up for myself verbally because I was appalled by the injustice of it all, but I quickly realized that was a bad idea. Leaving was scary, but I guess I kind of steeled myself to get through it. If I were to live that time of my life over again, I probably would handle things differently. I just had no idea what to do at the time.

Yeah, surprisingly, he admitted to gaslighting me after I left him. I think it was an attempt to prove that he changed. I’d been a very trusting/taking people at their word sort of person. I do think it is more likely for autistics to find themselves in lousy situations - both short and long-term - for this and other reasons than most people.

Yes, I've gotten into physical confrontations as an adult.

I was slapped around the face by a girl during high school, as her friend had told her I had insulted her (she made it up) just so that her friend would attack me.

I was physically assaulted by a bully in high school at age 16, and came out with many lumps on my head from the beating.

At the same age, I also was jumped/mugged at a local shop by a group of hoodlums and had my mobile phone forcibly stolen.

My brother physically assaulted me numerous times whilst growing up and into the age bracket of 16-25, sometimes leaving me in a heap on the floor.

Yep, I always had anxious body language growing up as a result of my environment with people who were at the time, emotionally stressful to be around. I think that people in general picked up on that and preyed on me, perhaps?

Thank you for the kind words Tamaya (and Rossall).

The amount of times I have narrowly escaped assault is a bit ridiculous, too. I seemed to get targeted more when I used to have long, girlish looking hair in my early twenties.

I once had a pair of foreigners on a coach start throwing plastic bottles at my head and then they said they were going to 'finish' me and pursued me into a coach station, once the coach had stopped. I did the fastest walk possible off of the coach and towards the exit of the coach station, I was almost running, but trying not to run as I didn't want to trigger their predatory instincts.

The only thing that saved me was my parents picking me up at the coach station. My battery on my phone had died and I couldn't warn them in advance (I only asked them to pick me up but my battery died before I received a reply), so the fact that they were there at the right time was like a gift from God.

My parents asked why there were two foreigners right behind me who looked suspicious/as if they were about to give me a beating?

I think the reason why I was targeted is because of tics as part of Tourette's Syndrome. It is the only thing that makes me visibly looked disabled and predators seem to be attracted to this sort of thing.