Adopting a fake personality?

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I wanted to ask you guys if you ever felt compelled to socialise with people with the personality of someone else. The main reason I identify with AS is because I always had a "copying problem" in that I would always take my favorite person that I know of, or even a tv star and try to dress and act like them in every way that I can. I have copied the way people dress and speak for years. And after a while of realising that it wasnt "working" or helping me make freinds I decided to find out why I was so personalityless in the first place. In highschool I tried to copy my football coach, my dad for a few years and then Dean Winchester from the TV show supernatural. I find that I am coppying them because I want to have the personality of someone that others would like in a way that no one would like me if I were to be myself. I just wanted to know if this is an aspie thing or perhaps a type of personality fault that I myself have.

Nope. Never have I done that. I can become obsessed with people, actors usually and I randomly mimic them. It's all automatic though. Like I can start speaking in an english accent to someone in the exact dialect of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) or Tony from Skins or Frankie Muniz or some other actor I'm obsessed with. For some reason it's more likely an english actor.

^^^ I never wanted to call it an obsession but I suppose it's the same thing. I thought of it more as having different role models. Is it possible to just become content being antisocial and no longer having to obsess over people like that? Mabye by getting obsessed with work?

Yes, I've done it to an extent--I don't try to be a specific person, but I steal bits of conversation, styles of talking, etc from all sorts of people.

I was pretty severe as a child and didn't absorb much from school so this exactly is how I learned to socialize. In-fact I didn't even really notice precisely what it was I was doing till I was in my late teens (at which point I figured I was pretty strange), but didn't make a big deal out of it. If I don't copy to a degree I sound completely monotone and come off as incredibly awkward; my OT says its a great coping skill. But, yeah.. I can completely relate.

It is. It's not easy though. There's many times where you long to be as social as other people. I gave myself a choice: force myself to be social and worsen my social anxiety or simply just not care? I chose the latter. There are times when I do feel a bit anxious, so I sort of detach myself from the conversation. Or I stick to what I'm good at, which is just talking to one person rather than a group.
And then when I'm on my own, at home, I feel fine. I don't desire any communication with anyone.

I feel that im better talking in groups. Because I dont react to emotions. In groups I can watch the conversation from a POV and then jump in whenever I have something influencial or factual to say.

Im going to an asperger support gorup. I hope there I can meet others like me. But im not a very severe aspy. For a few moments i can appear like a nuerotypical, it's just that I cant relate with people and tend to live in my own fantasy world. And I know generally support groups have mostlly severe aspies who consider themselves to be highfunctioning.

I wish I couldn't react to emotions. I overreact to emotions.
Good luck at the support group.
I never wanted to go to one, but I don't see why I would think that. I come here at every possible hour of the day.

I don't put on anyone specific, but I am often - maybe most of the time when in company - putting up a non-me persona to hide behind. Some more folksy, some more professional. That is how I could socialize and teach - it wasn't me, it was that other guy who can smile and even shake hands.

My wife could always tell if X or Y or Z was on the phone - I sounded like a different person; more energetic, more British, whatever.

The other day one of my brothers in law and his decidedly Aspie wife were visiting. I mentioned my alter ego shtick and he said, "Yes, like another persona." Successful in business - you can bet he does it.

Oh yeah I did this up until two years ago. Imitation has always been one of my biggest coping mechanisms. It's one of the coping mechanisms listed in "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome" by Tony Attwood. The other ones are: denial and arrogance, reactive depression (socially withdrawn), and escape into imagination. I imitated people in middle school, high school, even into my twenties. In my experience though it actually works, I just feel really empty while doing. Like the socializing means nothing because it's not really me. Other things I did were becoming socially withdrawn and escape into imagination which kind of went hand in hand for me. I did them at the same time, I would become socially withdrawn into my imagination.

When I would imitate someone, I would pick one person and literally analyze them. Every detail of them, the way they use voice inflection, the way they laugh, the way they walk. Sometimes, it was pre-meditated and sometimes it just happened naturally.

'Pretending to be normal is more common than
not amungst many of us with AS.

Many people in the spectrum of my age and
above, the need to conceal our complexities
was an essential act of survival. This is why
the Dx can be a time of great enlightenment
where by we can realize that our '2nd nature'
like a 2nd skin can be transended if we so
desire.

Below is a little section of my latest book,
It is written in the 2nd person, and the
you I refer to throughout the book is my
deeper self in communication with my less
intigrated expressions of self.

Wishing you well

3 Persona

"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin" -
Andre Berthiaume

"Don't you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?" - Søren Kierkegaard

"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another." - Homer

"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves." -
François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." - Oscar Wilde

"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another." - William Shakespeare

"You feel exposed. Your cover is blown. You feel like an alcoholic who has had to give up drinking. But instead of having to give up alcohol, you have given up your over-attachment to your adapted self. Your persona. Your NT mask.

You now do not have to play 'out of your skin' in order to survive in this world. Yet no longer insulated by your 2nd skin, you now feel life with an intensity that you have always been somewhat insulated from. That's ok, the intensity of stress associated with such an enormous change will pass, and soon give way to a greater sense of purpose and well being.

Persona is an Italian word that derives from the Latin for "mask" or "character". Your persona became your 2nd self. That is not to say that now you have to walk into social situations totally disarmed. No, you have like everybody a social self, but no longer are you living a double life, and having to cope with that most painful of human compromises. A self divided.

When I was a child, I would pick up traits of other people in order to help them feel comfortable enough around me so that they would behave normally and I could conduct my "research." After realizing some of the problems with my behavior and giving up my "research" (for the most part) I stopped picking up traits because I did not think I needed them.
After some unusual experiences and having people attempt to catagorize me with imaginary characters ranging from Hannibal Lecter to Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory (I like him enough to quote him in my signature but not quite enough to be entirely proud of being nicknamed after him) in order to cope with my behavior, I quickly found it really is too difficult for me to function socially without copying traits of others to some degree.
Now I tend to mirror people to a point, which usually works fairly well for my purposes.

The quote in your sig kinda makes aspies sound like intentional hermets who want to be left alone and enjoy it. Im not a diagnosed aspie, but I am very lonely and extremely socially awkward. Always questioning things like making good eye contact and how my facial expresions should look like when talking to someone. Even though i dont "get" socialising, I would still like to have relationships.

You don't have to dislike social contact to have AS. It is a disorder of poor social skills, not necessarily lack of desire for social contact.
I don't take on the persona of other people, but I've read of people with autism spectrum disorders that do. What I do is to copy the mannerisms and vocal characteristics of people in social situations, so that my nonverbal social communication is a conglomerate of people who I've known and observed to be socially successful.

yes.

alot. I still don't feel I have an integrated personality. Other people always seemed so animated, and I was very flatline as a child, and it was made clear to me that the larger personalities were desirable. The distinct mannerisms, amusing behavior, flirtatiousness, silliness, flippant comments, etc. I realize now it was the 'flat effect' people talk about. I had the looks but my personality was very 'lacking'. I garnered interest based on the physical but I couldn't figure out what to do past that. It was upsetting to me how people had 'personalities' and were rewarded for it. I picked up alot of behaviors based on what I thought people wanted (the implicit assumption being if people didn't want you then you would spontaneously combust or waste away and die). I wish I hadn't absorbed any of that. I was fine I was just quiet and cerebral. It was worthless energy I devoted. I am empathic too so I do it alot without even knowing even still. I'm not sure it's fixable.

You may no longer desire social contact because you still don't understand how and after years of trying and failing you may discover that the social contact you do have is exhausting. That's why I no longer try. I'm happier too.