Covering up your AS

Post Reply New Topic

What do people do to cover it up and how?

oh no..i posted in wrong section by accident.

What do they do to cover it up?

Refuse to reveal it in a romantic or work situation. (Possibly necessary in a work situation. not so good in a romantic one.)

Fake eye contact.

Learn lots of social rules like, "It's inappropriate to reveal the end of a movie to someone who hasn't seen it.:

Avoid stimming in public or around girls you're trying to impress. (Not always possible. Rocking, particularly, is hard to be aware of.)

Use alcohol to hide social awkwardness/anxiety. (This is a big one.)

Tell people you're "just shy".

Literally hide behind glasses, hair, hats and anything else that can hide eye contact.

You can't really ever cover it up - you can try til you're blue in the face, but no matter how well you think you're hiding it, people around you know you're not like them.

On the other hand, most of them have never heard of AS; even when they notice, they don't know it has a name, so they don't know we have a disorder, they just think we're weird.

I dressed up nicely on my birthday and went to a support group. I dyed my hair, wore sunglasses, a silk shirt and put gel in my hair. People said they didn't think I had asperger's after all.

I just had to say I love your custom rank

Make an effort to talk to people.
Pretend I'm interested in talking about something I despise.
Make eye contact(I normally do make eye contact because it doesn't bother me, but sometimes I turn and look in a different direction while talking.)

The best way to "cover up" Asperger's Syndrome is to learn new habits that aren't "Aspie Habits". Learn to make eye contact with people when you're speaking with them. Learn how to read body language. Learn what an appropriate amount of space between two people conversing is depending on the situation. Stop fidgeting with your hands. Work on your tone and enunciation. Figure out what odd habits you have that make you stand out and take steps to eliminate or disguise them in public. In some cases, it's pretty much impossible to completely replace current habits with new ones, but it's quite possible the vast majority of the time - it just takes practice.

It might almost be better that people know you have a disorder, rather than think you're weird by choice. And as for hiding it, you can't literally become a different person but if you're on higher end of the spectrum you do have a better chance of fitting in.

This.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to hide it. Simple as that.

I don't want to come across like a jerk, so I'll make it clear now that it is not at all my intent to offend or otherwise bother anyone with this post.

How is it that you're so sure that it's impossible to hide the fact that you have Asperger's Syndrome? You're 15. I seriously doubt that you've spent years working toward improving yourself and learning new habits to replace the ones you already have.

Yeah, it's not impossible to hide it.

I didn't know my boyfriend had it until 3 months in. And I'm *very* observant and perceptive about people. None of his other friends know either. Everyone just thinks he's a little odd.

As someone said before, people can tell when someone seems "different" but more often than not they don't know it's a kind of autism.

For me, personally...

I try to be well mannered and not do things that upset people - I would hate to come across as inconsiderate. I just try to stick to basic manners.
Other than that, life's too short to be making a constant effort to change all my mannerisms every time I leave the house. I'll make an effort if its for a job interview, but other than that - too much else to do.
What I prefer to do is just be confident and well dressed and act like I've decided to be this way.

Exactly, I'm 15. I've tried for years to fit in with other teenagers, which isn't at all easy. I once went to a camp thing for a week with just other teenagers, for a day or two it went alright, then after that they worked out I was weird and pretty much left me out of everything.

I've recently learnt to just appreciate myself for who I am and not change my personality for the benefit of others, so I no longer have any interest in hiding anything either - I even causally mention I have AS if it happens to come up in a conversation. It will make you a happier person in the end.

like guru willard said: you can't cover it up, but people might not label it correctly

I am 44 years old and could never conceal being odd however hard I tried. Better not try it at all, now flaunting it is another thing.... I think it is good to learn and improve social skill as there are 6 billion humanoids on the loose and you can't avoid them all.

It's easy enough to cover up in a short term relationship or brief social encounter. Eye contact, a few social niceties, nod a lot and look like you're listening when they talk (most NTs are happy to carry the conversation if they think that you're enjoying listening), and so forth.

I find that after about 30 minutes they realise that something's not quite right (this is the point at which I begin to get mentallly exhausted). Once they've known me a while, I can't really hide it. It's obvious that I'm avoiding social contact.

My nightmare scenario is a party where I'm obliged to stay for several hours. I usually wind up sitting in the most distant corner that I can find, thinking, 'How do they do that for so long?' or 'Can I escape yet?'