• TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Everyone wears different masks around different groups of people. Autism can amplify social problems, but everyone to some degree has experienced the image in the OP.

    Trying to ascribe specific behaviors to autism might not be healthy, especially absent a formal diagnosis or a reason to think knowing whether it’s autism could help you deal with it in some way.

    I feel sometimes like people treat autism as a pseudo-horoscope where just about anything can signify it. In reality, adult diagnosis of autism is very difficult for even professionals. Not only do autism symptoms tend to present less strongly in adulthood, but in addition to screening you, the neuropsychologist – as it’s a pervasive developmental disorder –will often ask to speak to someone like a family member who knew you when you were young. If it didn’t present in childhood, it’s definitionally not autism. Symptoms can get really fuzzy in adulthood in no small part because 18 years is a long time to learn how to act more neurotypical.

    That’s not saying “ignore it and move on”. Introspecting like this can sometimes reveal broad behavioral patterns you didn’t notice or thought nothing of. Just keep in mind that autism is generally more complicated than something you can poll and ask “is this an autism?”

    • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 hours ago

      Everyone wears different masks around different groups of people. Autism can amplify social problems, but everyone to some degree has experienced the image in the OP.

      This is very true, though it’s a bit like saying “everyone has irregularities passing stool to some degree, not just people with IBS”.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      Everyone wears different masks around different groups of people.

      Speak for yourself, that sounds like way too much effort for minimal payout, especially considering how many of them are transitory.