Do people act weirdly around you?

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Usually in groups, I'm just ignored. If I make an attempt to join in a conversation, the best I can hope for is for everyone else to wait patiently until I'm done, then carry on talking as if I never said anything and am not there.

People also have a tendency to, when they actually notice me, treat me like a child. I think they can tell that something's up with me but can't quite put their finger on it, but usually they assume some sort of intellectual and/or developmental disability is involved. That, and I look young - at age 27, I still regularly get mistaken for a high school student.

Yes, people have acted weirdly like that around me all my life. It's extremely frustrating because I would love to be accepted or even make a couple of friends, but it seems impossible. I get the staring, the awkwardness, and the silence you described, or sometimes outright derision or hostility. Even during times in my life that I have tried my very hardest to fit in and be the same as everyone else that only mitigates it a little - they always pick up on something.

For most of my life, before I found out I was on the spectrum, I dealt with it by thinking of most people as a bunch of jerks that just act hateful for no reason, and just staying away from them as much as possible. Now I know the problem is with me, somehow, but I don't know how to fix it. I try to say hi and be friendly but somehow it doesn't seem to work for me the way it works for everyone else.