Does putting on a ''NT front'' in public cause tiredness?

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Woodpecker
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11 Oct 2010, 10:36 am

The aspie is often forced to live and work in hostile place, to be a good crypto aspie you need to maintain your cover (act NT) for hours at a time and keeping up an act is very hardwork at times.

You can think of the crypto aspie as being like a secret agent on a lifelong mission into the most hostile place imaginable, sadly you have little or no backup and you will need to keep your wits about you. I dream of a day when I can openly live as an aspie, it would be so much more relaxing maybe I would become more creative and productive in my hobbies and professional life.


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Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.


Asp-Z
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11 Oct 2010, 10:50 am

Putting on an NT front does indeed cause stress, which is just one of many reasons I don't bother doing it anymore.



Kiseki
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11 Oct 2010, 10:53 am

I can't do it. I don't like hypocrisy or lying or pretending. Instead I get to suffer with people telling me how weird I am.



leeloodallas
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11 Oct 2010, 4:09 pm

It causes a lot of exhaustion for me. That's why I specially schedule my classes so that I don't spend most of my week in a classroom and I can't work full time. Even working part time is tiring; I could never work back to back days at my last job (dept store, womens area). If I was scheduled too much I would call out or come late/leave early. I usually need time alone after public endeavors.

What sucks about living at school is that you have to put up a front in your own "home", for roommates. I can only do it for a few weeks before giving up and being myself again. Unfortunately being myself (quiet, reserved, roombound, to the point, weird, etc) offends the people I live with.



Aspiezone
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11 Oct 2010, 6:27 pm

leeloodallas wrote:
It causes a lot of exhaustion for me. That's why I specially schedule my classes so that I don't spend most of my week in a classroom and I can't work full time. Even working part time is tiring; I could never work back to back days at my last job (dept store, womens area). If I was scheduled too much I would call out or come late/leave early. I usually need time alone after public endeavors.

What sucks about living at school is that you have to put up a front in your own "home", for roommates. I can only do it for a few weeks before giving up and being myself again. Unfortunately being myself (quiet, reserved, roombound, to the point, weird, etc) offends the people I live with.


Think of it this way, the more being yourself offends them, the less they'll try to socialize with you. Then you can be happy, peaceful, less exhausted, and have more alone time.



Nurylon
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11 Oct 2010, 7:03 pm

Aspiezone is right! If they mind they don't matter and if they matter they don't mind! You are better off with people like yourself... you can still impress them, just in other ways! YOUR ways.



leeloodallas
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11 Oct 2010, 9:45 pm

Aspiezone wrote:
leeloodallas wrote:
It causes a lot of exhaustion for me. That's why I specially schedule my classes so that I don't spend most of my week in a classroom and I can't work full time. Even working part time is tiring; I could never work back to back days at my last job (dept store, womens area). If I was scheduled too much I would call out or come late/leave early. I usually need time alone after public endeavors.

What sucks about living at school is that you have to put up a front in your own "home", for roommates. I can only do it for a few weeks before giving up and being myself again. Unfortunately being myself (quiet, reserved, roombound, to the point, weird, etc) offends the people I live with.


Think of it this way, the more being yourself offends them, the less they'll try to socialize with you. Then you can be happy, peaceful, less exhausted, and have more alone time.


This is true and that first part is already happening. At least I know that I tried to be social and if they don't like me for being unlike them then se la vie (or however you spell that!).

Quote:
Aspiezone is right! If they mind they don't matter and if they matter they don't mind! You are better off with people like yourself... you can still impress them, just in other ways! YOUR ways.


Awesome saying! (If they mind they don't matter...) I'll have to use that one day. This is also true, but not only am I better off with others like me, but with people who don't expect everyone they meet to be just like them.



ArtlyBookly
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11 Oct 2010, 10:07 pm

I get really stressed out after doing a lot of things out in the world that I may not want to do. It's not like a panic attack or agoraphobia or anything, just a sudden strong onslaught of pressure and a feeling that I just "can't take it anymore." When I get like that, I don't like people walking too slowly in front of me (I always walk fast anyway), I don't like them walking behind me, and I just need to go somewhere quieter, if I can find it, until the stressed-out feeling dies down some. Of course, many times I end up grabbing some junk food to help calm me down. Good thing I get so much walking exercise!



nthach
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11 Oct 2010, 10:51 pm

I actually live like an NT most of the time - but some of my Aspergian tendencies still show when I'm subconsciously not aware of it.



SteamPowerDev
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11 Oct 2010, 11:34 pm

Sometimes when I am pretending to be extravert at my old school, only because it dawned on people that to be popular with the teachers is with knowledge and I was the only student with knowledge... I have no idea how that system works but I was on top.

Let's start again. Sometimes when I am pretending to be an extravert at my old school, I would sit in my car after school for several minutes and just "collapse" mentally. I would let out a deep and heavy sigh, listen to the radio and turn off. Then I would go home and watch hours of DVDs or Netflix or Hulu. Anything to decompress. I would just curl up and let my brain cool off.

During school was the only time I was ever, ever considered popular, and was only because the teachers valued students who knew what they were doing, or at the very least eager to learn, and most of the students weren't capable of that. So to get in good with the teachers, they would hang around me and ask me questions, ask me how to do things. I realized that for the first time ever my life was turning out to be like a TV show. A social reject all his life finally finding acceptance and popularity in an unlikely place. It was touching. That is till I realized I hated the vast majority of the other students. Although it was kind of fun having everyone know my name and I standing there wondering if I had ever seen the person before.