How long can you pass for "normal"?

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How did that happen, javdog?

For as long as I can avoid speaking without seeming oddly quiet.

Until someone asks me what my favourite movie is and I say Return of the Living Dead. Or they realise that the ring tone on my phone is the theme from Shaun of the Dead.

I've given it some thought, and I don't think anyone, NT or not, can pass for "normal"

:)

heheheheh, I LOVE that! :) :) :)

:)

well i had the right early intervention at childhood, had tons of friends, I mean alot of friends about 10+ did well in school, even though i lost 2 of my family members i stayed strong for 20+ years then i lost my uncle who was very close about 4-5 years ago, and almost lost my grandmother to heart congestion failure and blot clot, and had a very miserable time living with roomates for a year, one being drunk and violent all the time, the other one having sex with any chick he met, which was a living hell... anyway I even reached my dreams of living off of self employment (internet business) wealthy for several years. Even worked in the grocery industry for 3+ years until the manager thought it was funny to switch me from night crew to days every other day, which cause alot of my health problems,including sleep disorder which i'm dealing with now 3-4 years later, But I've had a very distressful life the last 8 years until I found out I had aspergers, after being diagnosed with all a dozen or so diagnoses including PTSD, anxiety,Depression, schizophrenia,Agoraphobia along with the physical disabilities artheritis, spinal problems. Thanks to be passed as normal for 23 years and going along with the so called Get a job that pays well and your set for life, even if you hate that job, It's pure BS, I'm now in a living hell, My attitude and personality is so bad that sometimes I feel like ripping someones head off.

All I can say I i'm gonna laugh my head off when the autism/aspergers rate goes to 1 out of 5 people, it will happen if our country doesn't improve mental health and autism research.

Oh I see, then you don't seem different at all, I understand.

Normally until I start stimming... which when I'm around unfamiliar people is not very long...

you really need to define different Greentea.

If you define different as not having any friends now
if you define different as not being social now
if you define different as personality changes now
if you define different as having trouble sleeping now


then I guess you can be considered different, but what is Different???
just something to think about.

I can pass for normal quite a while - maybe about an hour or two if I were trying without some small thing happening. But those small things may go unnoticed and people go on thinking I am normal. There is no way though that people can spend all day with me and conclude that I am normal.

"Normal" is only a setting on the dryer topic

But I do know to that which Greentea is referring. It is that "not being noticeably sticking out from the herd thing." I tend to stick out right away, and then I am avoided as though my pockets were noticeable stuffed with nuclear waste! If I do not talk then I "pass" longer. But it is hard to stay silent, because I just have to say something. This is my weakness, so I am not a very good pseudo NT.

Even here at WP I am a misfit.

Are you?

Thinking further, how can we tell how normal we pass for?

If no-one says anything, we might think we are acting normally but they might be thinking we aren't

It depends on whether it's normal or just non-AS.

Normal, even when I do not do anything - just stay somewhere, just sit and read a book - I am perceived as 'different'. By this, I assume I somehow really don't pass for normal.

I seem to give off 'a vibe'? Whatever that means.

But from what I do, I'm easily perceived as non-autistic!

I'm getting better and better at keeping this nonsensical eye-contact, I do not stim in public, I do not do any other repetitive movements, I have knowledge of how to manipulate people and situations. I give 'stranger' answers (compared to 'average') and do 'strange' things, but I can make it look charismatic-funny. If it weren't for that... vibe.

So if people would not notice something fundamental different about me (this weird 'vibe'), I'd probably pass for at least 6-8 hours. If people are socially not as skilled or if they just don't make an attempt to observe me, I think I can pass for normal.

It's usually children and peers that pick on my 'difference' easily. Adults need some time to 'see it'. If they do at all (they usually just assume I'm emotionally disturbed or really shy when they notice I'm 'odd')

I don't know why?

6-8 hours. That's how long I can stress out myself until I am suddenly physically sick the other day (well, it has advantages to be able to not feel the pain and strain. It's not healthy though.) That's how long until a meltdown is due.

nobody has noticed yet I am called quirky somtimes though

I can pass for 'normal' anywhere from 0 seconds to 8 hours.

If I prepare myself over a period of time, and think of myself as a particular personality, the personality becomes a stronger neural pathway, and can maintain itself for longer periods.

But, if I'm at home, in my mind and in a non-personality mode, and someone knocks on the door, I'm a wreck trying to behave normally. That can be high-anxiety producing.

Normally, I prepare myself to go out. I have a ritual which establishes a personna and certain functionality. I dress a particular way, in accordance with that personna, and this dress and outward appearance makes the personna very real. I look in the mirror, and - yup - I am that person; no question about it. I have a number of very different ways of dressing, including;
- motorcylce tough guy; knee-high leather boots with 'stirrup' chains, and leather 'Brando' jacket .. including leather 'Brando' motorcycle hat. Nobody messes with me. This works so immensely well that I even bought a used, $3,000 motorcycle to go along with it; year 2000 Suzuki Marauder with Jardine forward foot controls (and fully aftermarketed including Cobra pipes; all aftermarkets worth about $3,000, so I couldn't pass it up). I just look utter.
- 'more successful-than you' eccentric but tasteful and stylish personna. People always ask me what I 'do' when I dress like that. I drive my black (complete black-out, even tinted front windows) Explorer 2-Dr Sport for this; that's just my fave personal car, like a successful person's fave comfy pair of old shoes. Everything else I'm wearing is - or looks - brand new, however; that's what makes it 'more-successful-than-you'.
- casual, just woke up or just popped out for a bit cause I'm real busy, look. This only works short-term, cause it still has to be real and honest, so I use this for a one-stop outing.
- artist-type. I wear either an artist's cap or a ponytail - along with some eccentric combination, doesn't matter too much ... because I drive my 1976 Datsun 280z, which makes everyone awed
- bad-@@s white-boy. I just walk the walk and talk the talk ... and mean it - but not invasive, always respectful; it's a fine line. Black-out Ford Explorer does wonders. Carry a big knife. I use this for when I go to the city. I like the city, cause you can just talk to anyone. I hang in the ghettos. I buy stuf there, too (shhhhhh...).

that's my basic repertoir.
I haven't taken a full shower in about six months (shhhhh...), as my house was just too cold, but it all works anyway.

I really have no idea how normal I appear to people, much less tell for how long I am appearing normal. I imagine most people consider me at the very least eccentric, though.