What age did you stop acting really different in public?

Post Reply New Topic

At a certain point, many Aspies stop acting really different from everyone else in public. I stopped when I was 13.

I stopped a couple years ago, but then I started up again recently, because I decided that I need to be more like me and less like everybody else. They are miserable...why would I want to be like that?

I still act very differently in public, but not exactly like when I was a kid if that makes sense.

I still act differently in new situations but can definitely pass for a shy/awkward NT pretty much 24/7 if I put in the effort to do so.

Can't remember. Can never remember myself acting really differently, so I'll go before 10.

I act as I wish. F**k what other people think.

I mean people don't know I'm not NT but everyone notices I'm really weird, I can't help it. Most of the time I don't realise I've been odd til after a situation has ended, or when I do realise, I get really anxious and try to change my behaviour but my anxiety just makes it worse hahah. So I guess I've not got the hang of it (yet?)

Most people don't notice that I have AS most of the time. I pass as just being eccentric, bubbly or both at the same time. When I tell someone, they usually don't believe me at first and then they think about it and they're like, "you hide it well." If my friends knew me when I was 12, none of them would have liked me. Thank goodness I got the diagnosis so I could do some research and learn how to blend in with the NTs. It has made my life a lot easier, I must say.

I want to say it was my 9th grade year (I guess that's 14 or 15) because it was after my last meltdown. But I'm not really sure.

I try to stop acting different but it is just not working for me. Yeah sure, I stopped having meltdowns by the time I was 12-ish, but I still can't act the way NT's act.

About 9th grade.

However, this year I began talking in an improvised Vietnamese accent I learned by imitating my friends from Vietnam and a prank caller from Vietnam named Loung Fa, and I've one a lot of acquaintances for doing so. I do it to entertain my close friends as well. Other than that, I'm the quiet nerdy kid who reads wikipedia articles on astrophysics in Spanish.

I've decided I won't actively stop acting like what is essentially just me. If I naturally change as I get older that's fine but I'm not changing who I am.