can culture or upbringing masks aspenger symptoms?

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hi guys, not sure if I am on the spectrum or not.but I would just like to know if culture or upbringing would affect a person with aspengers coping mechanisms to the point where he believe he is actually NT.because I only noticed I'm different after college. I grew up in the Philippines where bullying in the traditional western sense does not exsist. a kid might bully you today and be your friend the next day at least during my time..and I have always had some kind of special interests first it was drawing...then collecting marvel cards then making my own transformer characters but at an early age I've learned to hide it because my parents (my father especially) :.. would give me hell if he found out I was doing them..that's why I would never talked about my interest and if I did. i'dd always downplay it like saying I've happened to read it in a book somewhere..when in reality I've spent hours, days, weeks and sometimes months on that specific topic..any input would be nice guys..sorry for the long story..I have no idea how long a person's thought could go on paper so to speak

Very possible. One can be a genius in a certain demographic, and an idiot to another.


When I was young, people mistook me for being a native who was grew in an English speaking country because I spoke English too often.
If not weird, people mistook me for an Ilocana (When I'm a Tagalog who happened to be a half-Ilongga by blood XD).

No one minds my obsessions because they are too conventional to be labelled as 'weird'. If not odd or childish, people thought I'm a studious student who is curious with advanced subjects.
Overall, I don't talk about my special interests or obsessions, because I prefer doing them than talking about them...


But I KNOW and DO have social shortcomings, it's just not my priority right now... Or at least, not anymore.


You never got diagnosed? I think diagnosticians in THIS country is just as recent as 2010 or 2011 according to my SPED teacher.


At saan ka sa po Pinas?

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hiya NTET and welcome to our club I have noticed that there are some nominal aspies who pass very well for NT, you have to get really close to them for a long time in fact, to tell them apart. obviously i'm not one of that elect group. examples in the media [of ultra-high-functioning aspies who could pass for NT] would be actress Darryl Hannah and actor/comedian/musician Dan Ackroyd.

It does make sense now that I think about it. Maybe not culture so much, but I can see how upbringing would affect whether one appears as a NT to others or not. My own parents were always relatively open about my AS, and I think I "took the note" in the sense that I'm pretty open about my own AS. But as far as specific traits go, I don't recall anything in my upbringing that would have masked them.

Onset of problems after college suggests some sort of mental disorder, rather than Aspergers. Most clinicians would jump to that first. While they are equally likely once you get to your 30s, most people do notice that they are different while in school.

Even though I have a professional diagnosis and friends and acquaintances familiar with autism know right away, I still question it sometimes. I grew up in the theatre, so I had the opportunity to develop scripts and characters that allowed me to blend in. There are still stark contrasts between my life and my neurotypical peers, but I've learned social scripts well enough that some people are like "You're not autistic." But again, people familiar with autism recognize it. And I don't have anyone close enough to me to really see into my life. I think in my case, even though I can switch on the proper responses due to rote learning and give the appearance of the proper emotional response due to theatre training, it's extremely exhausting and not natural for me. I'm currently working 3 days a week, and since I've had that job I've let go of every other social contact. So almost everyone I talk to right now only sees my work self.

As for not realizing who you are until college, this isn't autism but I didn't know I was transgender until I got to college. That doesn't mean I wasn't transgender all along.

The concepts of Aspergers or Neurotypical were not known until I was middle age. So there was no reason for me or anybody else not to think my issues were anything but charactor flaws that needed correcting.

thanks for the reply guys..by the way I wouldn't actually call it late onset rather than late realization.. I would like to tell you what I was like in grade school or high school..college...I was always drunk or high so to me any craziness during those times would be considered normal... but this would make this topic longer than it needs to be...so thank you again guys..it means alot to me..by the way I don't need to be on the spectrum to benifit from your furoms...I just hope I'm not going crazy but either way..I already have plans for a partial solitary life if indeed I go loco..that way I wouldn't cause harm to anyone....

^^^just remember that we are your friends and you can bounce stuff off of us when you feel the need.

In the USA, it is very common to have problem finding friends after college. School facilitates making friends. You leave school and it becomes very hard, unless you are a pretty girl.

Some people have a knack for adapting. That doesn't change who and what they truly are.

I do think that the chances to stand out from the crowd vary depending on the culture where you grow up. For me, growing up in Spain, I always knew I was different (even though I think I passed as NT to most people) - I'd much rather prefer to either be around adults quietly playing bingo (one of my favourite summer activities), or reading / listening to music, than being around kids. I had a single birthday party with kids when I was 11 and I hated it so much that I never tried again. This was at times weird because in south Spain, where I come from, people are very gregarious and children go outside to play in big groups all the time; yet, since I was a small, quiet girl, most people just thought I was shy and left it at that. It gets way worse as a grown up in there, because people meet to dine out or to have coffee / drinks in big groups all the time, and people will treat you as if you were their long-term friend even if they barely know you. Now that I live in a Nordic country, it's way different; here people don't approach you in that way if they don't know you (which I really appreciate), and pleasantries (which I really dislike) are by no means a norm. So yes, I do think that the way in which a culture stigmatises certain behaviours can have an impact in self-identifying as weird, and in turn seeking help for it. However, things like over-stimulation, shutdowns, etc. would still be potentially present, yet easily mistaken for generalised anxiety (for instance, my case).

I wouldn't necessarily say it would 'mask' it but I imagine it would lead to a better result then growing up with a poor upbringing with no values.