That's a good point - that even if the AS label really had fit you, that it still would've been wrong for people to patronize you.
Even though I'm pretty obviously autistic, there is one thing I've always felt odd about - that I have no difficulty whatever in reading facial expression and tone of voice and such, and have had this ability from a very young age, so it's not like I used intellect to self-teach myself as many aspies have; it's instinctual for me.
However, I very rarely produce typical body language (difficulty controlling tone and volume of voice, as well as facial expressions) even when ignoring the rocking and odd posture, and have difficulty understanding some of the more complex social rules. And everyone talks about how we can't read body language, and yet here I can read body language and have several close friends? I thought "how could I be autistic?" But everything taken together it's pretty clear I am.
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"There are things you need not know of, though you live and die in vain,
There are souls more sick of pleasure than you are sick of pain"
--G. K. Chesterton, The Aristocrat