Do you try to pass as an NT??

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It's really interesting, isn't it, this business of being aware of all the NT manipulations that go on? I was constantly being told (e.g. by my mother) to 'be more charming' etc. It's this 'charm' thing that NT's do in order to curry favour, to keep their places in the pecking order, to ensure that they are being stroked, that has always really irritated me no end.

I mean, WHY NOT tell the truth (it doesn't have to be told in a hurtful way)? I think you're right, Yagaloth, about NT lack of individuality. The overwhelming need to be liked and to fit in just stops honest relating in its tracks. It's much like a Hall of Mirrors or House of Illusions! Everyone becomes like everyone else, conforming to some unspoken, don't-rock-the-boat norm.

As you say, Summer, there's also this NT need to always be on guard - I suppose that if you know you're lying (let's call it what it is) to curry favour all the time then you must know that others are doing it to you. Thus you have to be suspicious of what others say to you.

You know what I have ALWAYS really disliked...? That people so often need to read between the lines of anything I say, that their NT default position is that there are hidden messages to decipher. Nooooo! When I say something, I mean exactly what I say! Is this really so difficult?

Oh for an all-Aspie world!

Meanwhile, I am more or less enjoying having the choice of modes to switch between. I, for one, think it's a real advantage to have this ability and to be able to use it well. (I think that, for me, AS is simply another brain type, and definitely not a pathology - that's only the label that clueless NT 'experts' have dumped on me because they, paradoxically, are too rigid in their thinking about what's 'right', 'wrong', 'normal, 'abnormal'! But that's probably a whole new topic...)

The main problem i have with 'acting' NT is that i have a hard time grasping how NT's act and so can't copy it. I was brought up in a very unconvential extended family who, because i had few friends outside it, were my main social group. Also in most outside situations i was with my sister and cousin and could sit back and let them do everything, talking, being friendly, whatever.
Invariably, because socialising has allways been such an effort, i would fade into the back ground of any group i was with and go off into my own thoughts and world. Shutting them out almost entirely. Luckily i had my sister and cousin, who were used to the way i acted, to cover for me and people tended to ignore me rather then get mad.
Anyway being brought up by unconvential people, i have learned the social cues etc. for my family but this doesn't help me when i'm with conventional people. I honestly couldn't tell you what is 'normal' is socialty and therefor faking NT in the wider society(not my family) is proably not possible.
Luckily the things i have learned from my family means i can fake being interested in chit chat, being concerned, being attentive to a mild degree and have mastered some tricks to use to make NT's view me as either 'wierd but nice' or 'ok but i don't know her very well.'
But as people do always see me as weird, i can't really claim to 'fake it' all that well!!

I agree about the social crap but I do regret not being truly interested in others and not feeling for them as I should. This isn't really something that can be learned, but I have learned to ask the appropriate questions and make the correct statements to prove that I'm human. I just don't feel it so much.

From the Father's Day Weekend, in the year 2004, until a few days after that Dark, Fateful Morning of December 10th, I was forcing myself to pass as being NT. I was denying that I've had any Obsessions of any type. I've had it in my Mind that I was over Austin Powers, therefore I've completley grown out of my Aspieness. I'd shake my head at anything that had to do with London and tell myself, "Never again. I'm moving to the Countryside and working on a Farm, if I win the Lotto 6/49 Jackpot!" I was making a very good attempt at making "Small Talk" about everything and anything. My Mantra was, "I can't do this and this and this, because I'm in Canada. GRR!" I was even trying to water down my Accent, only to end up stuttering on every third word on each sentence that I've spoken. It was just before the first week of December, that I was contemplating becomming a "Born Again Hippie", just because the Hippie Lifestyle is the in thing for the younger Adults in Canada be in to. In Mid December, I've let my Guard down and started to allow myself to be who I truly am, without waiting to move out, before doing so. I'm allowing myself to have my "London Thoughts", again.

W.C.Fields said the best way to deal with temptation is to give in to it. Maybe you should consider some travel therapy.