How long can you pass for "normal"?

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Got me, haven't really tried in years.

More or less the same here. I could 'fake' being normal (for the most part) for many years until this past 3 years, where I clearly lost my ability to function like a 'normal' person at work. Stress, both at home and at work is taking a toll on my physical and mental health. I've been swearing out loud at work (I NEVER did that in the past) and my temper has gotten very short with people. I don't even bother to try to hide the hand flapping and other stuff I do. The embarrassing crying jag I had during the employee meeting (about us being outsourced) basically 'outed' me as the company nut-case, so it's been pointless to try fake normality ever since.

firstly i never been good on the matter and secondly if there was more aspies than NTs they wud be the ones who wud have to act "normal" otherwise normal cannot be defined

Oh good question. I'm exactly the same, I'm excellent in job interviews and can make a great first impression. But yes...there does come a point where I notice people start to look at me funny....like they're thinking "She's not playing with the full deck, is she?" If I have to spend a full day with someone, I think they start to notice I'm not quite right but I don't think they'd immediately think Aspergers. I was talking to a lady I work for today and talking about autism. I mentioned it ran in my family, and she said I'd be fine because it affects men more than women. So she didn't "suspect" me

But a friend did say to me this week "You don't get attached, do you." I was quite stunned because I haven't known her long, but she's already got me figured. So people do notice my "not quite rightness"....

Well, I can stand or sit there and look just the same as the next human; when people talk to me one will notice that something is "amiss" in short order, either I don't answer, or I respond in a mechanical way whilst lacking in the usual nonverbal cues.

I've been both of those above throughout my life (aloof to passive).

I can pass for normal for a few hours or so if I make an effort - I pass for quirky, absent-minded or shy. I can pass for normal for quite a while if I only see people in very structured settings (but fool no one in the end). Frankly, I'm often tempted to embrace being abnormal, after all in Nazi Germany it was normal to be a Nazi. What stops me is that I've known enough people of the artsy-sheep variety (you know, the pseudo-rebel type who would start smoking for no reason other than seeing a No Smoking sign; there are probably more true free spirits among accountants than among artists), and that's not what I want to be.

I think this quote sums it up. :D

I've always wondered why they say artists are free spirits. I never met an artist who wasn't as big a herd type as they come.

OMG, yes.

Thankfully, my job is cataloguing books. I spend my days with fairly eccentric women who are mostly old enough to be my mother... Having an entire encyclopedia jammed into my head is useful for a job like that.

Yes...! I didn't even know that what I was doing *wasn't* normal, and I thought that everyone else being 'normal' was just because they could figure out the social cues better than I could. It never dawned on me until quite recently that how I related to the world wasn't 'normal'. Everyone else said I was 'weird' (from when I was a little, little kid- my mom's best friend said I was 4 going on 45), and I was sure that everyone else was completely crazy. I'm not weird. I'm a kind, considerate, honest, friendly person. I deal straight with the world. They're the ones with the hangups.

I can pass for normal as long as the booze is plentiful. Beyond that? Ehhh...a few seconds to a couple minutes?

Depends on the artist. The 'garden variety' who depend on everyone else thinking they're cool to prop up their own egos are definitely herd beasts. The ones who don't give a fig about other people's opinions and just create are the 'free spirits'. Unfortunately, the sheep have the field.

I went for a job interview once for a software developer role and got on great with the person who would have been my boss. I got called for second interview and this went great too, I was positive I was going to get the job. I was fully qualified and experienced for the particular role and the boss indicated I'd got the job short of a minor formality - the personnel department had just introduced personality profiling testing and wanted me to answer a number of questions which I did - I found the questions very confusing and impossible to second guess what was a good or bad answer so I answered truthfully. I didn't get the job. No explanation but I could tell from the look on the face of the interviewer that the profiling had gone very badly.

I can pass for normal about until someone says something like "wow, I'm out of it today" :S I stupidly ask "out of what?" and they look at me like I'm from Mars :D

I still need to keep a very close 'eye' on my mouth... I have to filter everything I say that isn't a 'standard response' to make sure it isn't going to offend someone. Sometimes it still doesn't work, especially if the person is very hyper-sensitive. One co-worker is completely off-limits for any conversation beyond 'how was your weekend'? If I don't ask her she gets mad at me, and if I ask her she acts like she's not wanting to talk to me. She's completely off her nut.

After work I sometimes spend about an hour in the basement, just sitting at the computer and ignoring people. And if I don't get my 'Sunday off alone time' where my husband takes my daughter to church and I get about 4 hours of peace... the next week is hellish.

I can last a very long time at being normal but if I get stressed out it goes immediatly.