Do a lot of people..

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diagnosed with autism feel Neurotypical to you?

Yep, this is why long time ago I stopped being interested in autism, because autistic people felt very, hmm, normal...

Nowadays I suspect that autism might still be actually useful label for me, I just have some other additional quirks that make me an alien even among autistic people... Although haven't found labels for those quirks yet, and it makes it hard to communicate...

How about you though? I'm always curious about those who are different :3

as different people vary in levels of developmental severity .. you will find they might appear "normal" or lean to a more obvious outwardly projection of symptoms.

for example they say its harder to diagnose girls than boys , closely related to social exposure . in most cases girls talk and gossip more so an Autistic girl under the radar might appear more normal than an Autistic boy of the same age .

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said diagnosed persons might be able to mask very well . or even conditioned away from their core self and their behavioural quirks in order to fit in .

Yes. I never understand how some Aspies out there manage to make friends with their NT peers and be accepted and get invited out to bars and even on vacation with them. Having an autism spectrum disorder, no matter how mild, is supposed to hinder your chances of making friends past the acquaintance stage, no matter how brilliant one is at masking. I am excellent at masking, in fact I am so good that now it's just become natural, but I don't have a group of NT peers that accept me and invite me out on 'girly nights' with them or whatever female NTs my age do. Even when I try to make friends it always ends up fizzling out on their part. But if other Aspies can have normal NT social lives then why can't I?

Higher functioning autistics who complain about low functioning people, and constantly compare their successes (getting married, having a very high paying job, etc.) to low functioning people's limitations always feel to me as if they're attempting to somehow suck up to NTs. It comes off as more insecure than secure if you need to show off and one-up other people on the spectrum.

Why not ask them? My guess is that popularity contests are not easy. NTs can struggle with it too. But aspies can win it by analyzing target group they want to enter and optimizing their mask for popularity? You could try to do that too.


Isn't it main part of being an adult? Adults seem to live for social status, and this is one of the basic strategies of gaining it, although quite primitive one.