there has to be a better word

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i always preferred aspiedar

Spidey-Sense is good enough for me

well, i suppose there's people who are better at spotting it & people who are worse; nor do i think there is only one "trace" (it's a gestalt)--but what i wanted was a WORD.

Maybe you can come up with the “word”?

indigo person?

why "indigo person"?

Indigo person sounds like some woo woo new age crap. reading people is not magical. Years ago i remember i saw a show on 'mentalist ' Derren Brown, he goes up to people in street and cold reads them. No magical gift. No mystical ability. Its just a refined observational skill.

Yes "indigo" sounds like a reference to "indigo children". A New Age notion popular like 20 years ago that there was this new kind of person being born at the dawn of this millenium called indigo children. There were tons of books written about "how to raise an indigo child".

At some point folks attached autism/aspergers to the indigo child concept.

So even if you buy into indigo children and even if link it to autism, and even if you were an autistic indigo child grownup to be an "indigo person"... that isnt even the question being asked.

The question is "what do you call the ability to recognize autism in a person you encounter?".

The answer would not be "indigo person".

If you buy into autistics being "indigo", and you can detect that... then...you have "blue-dar".

Or...

"indigo-dar".

Or maybe...you're the reincarnation of Duke Ellington!

I don't use a catchword for it. I just say "We're usually able to feel their vibe" or "There's an unspoken connection".

I remember that term Indigo children lol.

One day I spent about 24 hours trying to figure out what was "wrong" with me (undiagnosed autism), and my google searches kept talking about Indigo people. Something about crystals? It sounded so stupid. I just really wanted a diagnosis so I could understand myself. I couldn't figure out what to google. Autism didn't even cross my mind.

Whatever the word used, for it or any of it's cousin phenomena and their words, do any if you think it can be stealth distorted, hidden, minimized or faked?

This is a personal fear-based question. I use and count on my ability to pass as NT as a major cope-adapt strategy. I need it sound if possible.

The term "aspie-dar" derives from the earlier term "gay-day".

"Gay-dar" originated among straight single women who lamented to each other about finding good men, and when you find one he turns about to be gay..."I thought I had my gay-day turned on".

Then it spread to folks in general of every gender, orientation, and marital status.

Two guys I work with I myself just assume are gay. I dont give a crap whether either is or not. Dont judge nor care about it. But its still something that pops into my head when I work with them.

Its something about each guy - you just instantly peg them as that. Sometimes its "just a vibe", and sometimes its things you are consciously aware of and can name. And I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Humans just peg each other. So thats me having "gay-dar".

But here is the thing. Sexual orientation is a big deal among both straights and gays. Heterosexuals, even if they arent homophobic, know WHAT homosexuality is. And its on everyone's radar screen.

Autistics are obsessed with autism. But NTs are NOT obsessed with it. Not as such. Few even know what aspergers is, and few have a good grasp of what autism is. And few ever think about it.

So in that way its not the same as homosexuality.

But NTs are aware of "weirdness" of any sort. So you do have to pass for not being weird.

So...the good news is that one of your own might detect that you are one of their own (a fellow autistic), but NTs are not as likely unmask you as having a specific diagnosis the way that say, I myself, my guess a gay guy is gay.

But the bad news is that NTs might still notice that you lack social skills, or talk like Spock, or take things too literally, or like that.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 06 Nov 2021, 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A gay person can hide their homosexuality, not be flamboyant etc. With Autism its more difficult. I think I can pass as NT. On the surface. Up to a point. You have to decent understanding of psychology. It helps if you're smarter than the average person also. You learn behaviors by modeling others behaviors. Through osmosis.

I can't pass as NT. I've always been seen as different, with a range of terms applied according to my age (shy, bookworm, troubled, angsty, antisocial, sensitive, eccentric, etc). I can't say that I find other autistic people easily because I don't know any irl except for my family members. I can definitely find other neurodiverse people but they aren't autistic. They tend to be ADHD, OCD, hyperlexic, or otherwise off the grid.

It is.

One thesis of The Indigo Children seems to be that many children diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) represent "a new kind of evolution of humanity".  One can understand why many parents would not want their child to be labeled as ADD or ADHD.  The label implies imperfection.  Some may even take it to mean the child is "damaged".  Specifically, it means your child's behavior is due to a neuro-biological condition.  To some, this is the same as having a malfunctioning brain or a mental disorder. Understandably, emotions run high here.  Treatment of children with problems is a hot button issue for the mass media, attack lawyers, talk show hosts, columnists, and others not known for their role in clarifying complicated scientific or medical matters.

Everybody wants their children and themselves to be special in some way, so bragging about a non-existent "super-power" is one way to accomplish this goal.

Therefore, rendering what amounts to a medical diagnosis with only a brief, cursory visual inspection of the subject beforehand seems to imply some form of virtue signalling -- the expression of a disingenuous personal viewpoint of others with the intent of communicating one's own superior character, as well.

Autdar/autidar is the best word I've found for that. I don't know of any others, and it's short and concise.

Also, after 20 years of being autistic + having ASD family members and having autistic/otherwise neurodivergent friends, I've learned to pick up on when other people may have ASD. It's really not that hard when you've had that much experience with other autistic people. It's a disorder with defined behaviours and characteristics for a reason, and it's not impossible to eventually notice those behaviours and characteristics in other people.

The point I was leading up to is that while straights may peg a gay person as being a gay, NTs are not likely to peg an autistic as being "an autistic" and think that label. But they may well see you as being "off" in some way that they have no particular label for (except "weird").