GhostsInTheWallpaper wrote:
1) Depends on the context, but I probably would hardly notice or just think "hmm, odd." Even we NTs fidget, although autistic fidgets tend to be different due to the sensory stuff. People do odd stuff all the time. I usually guess it's drunkenness, though there was one case I suspected of schizophrenia. (Some young apparently homeless guy who always seemed to be talking to himself, or someone.)
2) Depends on the social rule or cue. Some of them I don't notice/care about. For others, well, I might get upset, but usually when someone behaves a bit off (for example, being rude to customers, driving badly) I give them the benefit of the doubt - they had a bad day, or they're tired, or they have a bad job, or they're inexperienced. I don't think this is common practice, though...people often only give the benefit of the doubt to themselves or their loved ones. I might suspect they're autistic, or attribute it to their known autism, if their social rule-breaking involves taking things too literally, not responding to body language or facial expressions, or talking incessantly about a single subject.
In short, everything depends on the context for us NTs. It depends on what we expect in that situation, and our relationship to the person, and so on. A parent or close relative of an autist might get more upset about autistic fidgets (stims) because they see it as a sign that their kid/relative "isn't getting better."
This is off-topic but is your username a reference to "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman?
To answer the OP: I don't believe I am NT (although I could be), though not necessarily autistic either, but I would likely wonder if that person was autistic, knowing what I do about the condition.
07 Jun 2016, 8:18 pm
