Do you adopt multiple personas?

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I have noticed over the years that when I talk to certain people I am completely different. Over the years I have built different personas for different people that are the closest to me, and it's incredibly hard to turn off for me.

I have always had different personas for when I go out to the store or out in general. For years I had used five different personas, to the point it seemed as if I was never myself when with another person. I had some serious identity issues as I was always portraying some sort of character to put NTs around me at ease.

There is only one person I am completely open with my issues with Asperger's so I am quite myself with them. I have another friend who knows of my diagnosis but I am worried being completely myself as I am very frank and people have the ugly habit of attaching emotions they think I feel to my words.

Yes, indeed; pretty much word for word similar to how I interact with others. I, too, have only ever felt like I was 100% myself around one other person, ever. Also, I agree that it's absolutely impossible to turn it off, because sometimes, I don't even know what that means. Don't you love when different people get together and you have to find some 'honest'-appearing blend between your personas? I think any old NT would argue, 'hey, of course people act different towards their relatives and then close friends...what's the difference?' but for us, it can be two people of similar relational status and even generally similar personalities.

I m too withdrawn in real life to have much of a persona.
But online I sort of channel different personas.

I become the person that I think the person I am speaking with wants to talk to. As the OP mentioned I have little control over this and this all happens automatically. I think I do this to avoid conflict with NT's.

If someone talks to me like I am a timid mentally challenged child then I will adapt my personality to fit that.

If I have a gangster like friend then my personality adapts to mimic them.

If I am speaking with an intellectual then my personality changes again to mirror them. I have a few close friends who know the real me and who I can completely be myself around.

I have the opposite problem. I act pretty much the same around everyone. There is slight variations, but not enough. I wish I had a dating persona. I'm trying to develop one.

With a history of being a disc jockey, it was necessary to become somebody different once behind the microphone. I even kept the same pseudonym originally given to me by my programming director when I started working in radio in my twenties. It was interesting getting used to being called two different names, but I learned to answer to both. Sometimes I wished I could become my D.J. double full-time but that would mean playing harder than the real Chris could likely take.

It depends on what the other person is like. Women who have a snooty way about them, even if they are friendly, I feel quite patronized and I subconsciously act patronized. Women who are more down to Earth and jokey, I feel comfortable with and so I subconsciously act myself a bit more. Men are different, as I just act either flirty or just ordinary around them.

For years I would take on whatever role people wanted me to take. I couldn't be myself because I had no idea who I was. Is that an AS trait or an ADD trait? Or both?

I tend to adopt the traits of those around me when I am with them or people I am fascinated with. I will use their expressions, way of speaking, slip into their accents...it's an unconscious thing really. Others have commented how different I used do speak and how I never used curse words before I met my husband and how his way of talking has 'rubbed off' onto me.

I generally am quiet around people and not overly loud or animated as I don't enjoy drawing attention to myself. Since I don't interact socially as an adult in the way I did in my teens I can be more myself. When I was younger, I definitely adapted my personality and behaviour to fit in with my peers.

Same here but my true self comes out more online.

Yes.

When I was a teenager I even named them.

Now I'm so fractured I see everyone else this way.

Whenever a person I know--no matter how well I know them--comes into a room with me, I wonder which one of that person s/he is today. If I could figure it I'd adjust my own projected (yes I mean fake) personality to be compatible or complementary.

It never works anymore. I just get so scared I'll pick the wrong one, that I freeze up and act like an idiot with no idea how to interact with other people.

Unless I know what I'm supposed to be doing, what I should say and how I should act and (pretend to) feel, I can't really function at all. I used to be able to fake it. Sometimes I still can.

But so often I just flounder around starting to do or say stuff and it doesn't fit so I keep on floundering.

I find that often times if I haven't adopted a persona I simply can't function

I do have so many personas that I could never pin point the "real" me. I also have "characters" that come out at random times. Usually when i'm at home caring for my children.. I'll take on an accent and am basically someone else for a bit (though I am aware I am in a character, I don't have a multiple personality disorder), but it's like, I have to get that character "out of my system" before I can go back to my normal self. I haven't shared this with many people because I am aware that it is not quite "normal" My kids are also cool with it, keeps things interesting.

Anyone read "Aristoi" by Walter Jon Williams? It's a space opera where this idea of multiple personalities is central.

This is my problem too, it can be problematic getting back to your normal self. I have issues trying to pinpoint what my normal self is around peoplsince I'm always playing a part

I do this too. My kids were usually cool with it and would roll with it with me and we would laugh and have fun and goof off. But now three of them are grown, the youngest only spends every other weekend and her stepdad doesn't approve of me acting this way. I don't know how to act unless I have a role I understand to play. I understand my role at work, and when I'm singing at church, and if I'm doing a task I can do by myself like cooking or cleaning or driving. But if I have to interact, and the other person(s) doesn't like my "character" mode, I get stuck and don't know what to do.