Has anyone ever been approached like this?

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I live at the University Campus, and therefore can get my breakfast for free at the cantine. Since most people tend to sleep past 'breakfast time' its not that crowdy around 8-ish am. Anyway, I often (a.k.a. always) order thesame dish (why do you want to change something that's good?) and since I come in every day the people behind the desk start preparing my plate when they see me approach, which even saves me time if there is a long line. (Sometimes they even reserve the last piece of fried bread for me )

To come to the point of this story, months ago, when I just read about asperger and had the WOW-that's-me-feeling, I walked into the cantine as usual and took my plate from the guy behind the counter. I said thanks, and he just said "You know, it's national autism day today." That's it and he looked really funny to me and I just stared at him. I had no idea how to react to that, shout I don't have autism, or just thank him again for the food... This encounter still puzzles me and I was wondering if anyone else had encountered such a ting.

I think he meant to be nice.

Sometimes we're idiots.

I sincerely doubt that he would have said that unless he knew someone who was autistic, or unless he himself was, so I think it was probably just a way to acknowledge something shared. If he were trying to insult you with those words, the only way he could have done so effectively, I think, is to mimic a madly-stimming autistic person as he said it. My guess is that he knows what autism is and recognized it in you.

I don't think he said it to insult me, but I just had no idea to deal with that. Also, it was kind of a stressfull morning, since it was a bank holliday, or easter monday or something, and they only had 'weeken food' which means no scrambled eggs. This kind of threw me of. (People think I'm kind of weird because I can be cranky all day when this happens)

That's interesting, never had that happen

File it and him under the heading.

"possibly friendly/sympathetic people".

get on with your day ^^

File it under: 'he meant well'. And get tested for or talk to people about aspergers. I was getting and dismissing comments like that for years before I went and got tested.

Smile, nod, say thanks. Get that reaction on auto. Saves a lot of worry.

I agree he probably meant well, but I find it weird that he concluded you have autism solely because you order the same food though.

Somebody at You've Gotta Have Friends, handed me the book, "All Cats Have Asperger's Syndrome" and told me to take a look at it. I looked at the book and told her my story.

Aside from the "diagnosis by your repetitive food habits": Maby he was an aspie too and wanted to raise awareness of it...

Does he seem to have any AS traits himself from your observations?

Everyone and almost everything about people has "tells", little give aways (infact dozens), its how some fraudulent psychics discover amazing things about people, the trick is called 'cold reading'. its usually used alongside other tricks like ambiguous phrases, but the trick 'cold reading' itself is very valid, 1 in 100 people in the UK (approx) have autism spectrum related disorders, maybe he has a close friend on the spectrum and learned to 'read' the tells, maybe he IS on the spectrum and learned to read the tells himself.

Sadly till you ask him (yay for AS bluntness XD) you wont now for sure, you may find he just suspected.

Might seem strange but why are you not comfortable with the idea of him being able to pick it up?

This might sound stupid, but I have never liked it if the attention was on me if I drawn it on myself. External things are fine, like breaking my leg or someting, just not when its drawn to me by me. And I have this feeling that since I've not been diagnosed that when I mention it, Í'm attention seeking or something. It's just my gut-feeling.

When one first reads about AS and has that "Wow - that's me!" feeling (rather than say, a "Hmm...a couple of those traits seem similar to me, I might have a bit of that"), I think there's a good reason for that. I mean, when you read the DSM and it feels like someone has been reading your diary or studying you by hidden camera your entire life, then diagnosis is probably a mere formality, and chances are, anyone with more than a passing familiarity with Autism would be able to recognize it in you after only a little observation. This guy has had the opportunity to observe you and your rituals and behaviors daily over an extended period, during a time of day when you're wrapped up in your own head and fairly oblivious to anything outside your routine itself and whatever you're thinking about that morning. If he has an ASD or knows someone who does, it probably seems like a no-brainer to him and he just assumed you were probably diagnosed years ago (do you have an obvious stim?). As I've said repeatedly: No matter how highly we think we're functioning, the Non-Autistic can always tell that we're not one of them. Probably he just saw the purple AS birthmark on the back of your neck...we all have that, and its a dead giveaway...

Or maybe he had just heard about Autism Awareness Day on the radio that morning and was only trying to make friendly conversation and spread the awareness.