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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • As a psychology nerd:

    • the lack of understanding and empathy for others (even when their opinions are different or “wrong”

    • The lack of understanding of how behavior is driven and encouraged to change.

    • The comfort level with looking at something very complex and assuming you know it deeply in moments (referring to short form video “teaching” psychology and mental health stuff)

    • The overall disconnect between the physical medicine community and the psychological/mental health communities (i.e. mental health is a huge driver in cancer, autoimmune, and other diseases)

    • I could go on. Learning more is my passion but damn it’s so depressing when I begin to understand something and see the abounding ignorance on it





  • I work in a computer shop and talk to regular computer users all day everyday.

    The average user might know what a browser is. Most don’t know that the Internet is outside of their computer.

    Real quotes like this happen everyday: “I just get on the green one to check my Google”. Translation: I check Gmail using the Edge browser.

    It took me 25 minutes the other day to explain what video chat was and that FaceTime is only one kind of it, and it’s only available on Apple devices, of which an HP laptop is not.

    Do not underestimate the computer illiteracy of the common person.






  • I find your response baffling. I think it was completely out-of-pocket but I’m going to extend a one-time olive branch in good faith that there was some sort of misunderstanding.

    I am open to a proper explanation as to how specifically it was hurtful or disrespectful. And if it was and I’m missing a social cue here, I would love to know how that equates to such an aggressive response. My absolute best guess is, that you read it as “you can’t be good at anything”, but I said “you can’t be good at everything”, which literally implies that you are good at other things.

    I actually was a certified HVAC tech for a few years. I have seen people get seriously hurt not knowing when their system had steam in it or from not being able to control when the boiler kicks on (mostly renters) and steam starts shooting out of the hole mid-repair. I don’t have any way to assess your skills over the internet so I suggested the safe option. Similar logic to, if you don’t know if someone can work on cars, maybe don’t tell them to do their own brakes.





  • As others have said, this is not the behavior that is indicative of healthy adult friendships.

    You’re feelings are real, valid, and a way that your body is trying to inform you you don’t feel safe.

    You’re not a loser. Living as an Autistic in an NT world is fucking rough. I would appreciate if you didn’t kill yourself.

    capped the level of closeness they have with me to protect me

    Did you ask for this? Your preferences are not theirs to decide if not.

    My recommendation is trying to find and join communities that are more accepting. I have found ND and LGBTQ+ (even though I’m just a straight white guy) circles to be generally very accepting as they have had people be jerks to them and they are willing to accept and appreciate people for who they are.


  • How likely is it that the people you were tight with were neurodivergent as well? Looking back, I had a huge friend group of probably 25-30 in high school (though I was only close with like 2 of them, and cordial/friendly with the rest) and this left me “off the scent” of discovering my Autism until my 30s. Looking back, I would be surprised if a single person in t hat group wasn’t Autistic or ADHD at least, if not several other things too. We were just lucky enough that we all found each other and didn’t judge. We considered each other “The Island Of Misfit Toys” or the “weird” kids, which I believe tracks well.

    I also found myself to be very polarizing. Either I was super friendly with people or I was literally openly mocked with little in between.

    I also had an isolating phase when I joined the military. I had maybe one to two friends at the best times, and none through most of the rest of the time.

    Later in life (late 20s), I “perfected” my mask and got back on the social side of life but I wasn’t happy. Only recently have I learned what Autistic masking is and how to stop doing it, and I’m fairly close with about 6 people now, which is the most real friends I have ever had.



  • Might be time to do a little research my friend.

    The extremely oversimplified and short version of it is, a trauma mask is something that kicks in automatically to protect you. Autistic masking is a form of trauma masking and it is fully automatic and usually not known to the person that they are doing it. We learn the skills to get through most normal social situations, but beyond that there is little development. So we do all the neurotypical things to blend in and it works until people realize that it’s fake, and then they feel like they’ve been deceived and they don’t like us.

    The fix for this is, as you go on a journey of self-discovery and learn how to stop masking you will present yourself as your authentic self, and attract the right kind of friends. It is a difficult journey, and especially because almost always we don’t realize that we’re doing it at all. I don’t know if you believe that your neurodivergent or autistic, but I also believe that there are other neurotypes that are able to trauma mask similarly to autistic masking. You may find good company in an autistic community because they will understand how that works. There’s also something oddly comforting knowing that you’re in a group of “weird” people and it will help you get your real self out.

    I am by no means an expert on this but I found out that I am autistic after over 30 years of living on this earth. Everything before that was fueled by masking and it has currently become the new most interesting thing that I know of. If I can help with advice or information, or if I can help by just listening, feel free to shoot me a DM!


  • If you’re autistic, there’s a good chance that autistic masking is the root cause here. If you have social anxiety especially, your mask will kick in automatically (subconsciously) and come off as fake to most people, and they will not like you for it. A quick test for this is, are you good at making a good first impression or short time of friendship and then it kinda falls off with time? If yes, masking is likely in play. I highly recommend the book Unmasking Autism even if you’re not autistic. It applies to others as well and it is excellent.

    The short term (maybe long term…?) solution is to make autistic friends. They’ll understand “the weird” and it should be much simpler. Try searching around your local area for autism or neurodivergent clubs and see how you feel around other similarly-minded people.