An ironic thing....

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I am only generalizing here....

An NT can block out the crowds of people in busy public places, but at the same time can still spot people they know.

An Autistic is sometimes known to be ''in a world of their own'' but still gets overanxious in crowded places full of people, and fails to block out all the people.


How does that work out?

Too much sensory input?

Maybe I'm "NT" afterall. I can do both.

In a crowd, as bad as this sounds, I don't see the people as like, "real people" if that makes sense. Because in a crowd, you're not really "connected" to the people as you would be if you were in a small group or one on one. So there's a differentiation between "crowd" and "person." I guess humanity works like this. Under the same as "One death is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic."

If I block people out, I fail to see someone I know. I shut everyone out.

Hey thats how i got over my fear of walking around in the daytime - by not viewin them as ppl - mines more like loud, dumb clumsy animals. Makes it so much easier. Plus with headphones on you cant hear them either - double bonus!

In my experience, when people refer to autistic people as being "in a world of their own", what they mean is "they aren't paying as much attention to the social world as I think they should be".
If I'm anxious in a crowd, it's not because the people are people, it's because they're very loud. and they keep milling around getting in my way. I'd have the same problem in a crowd of talking furniture that had been programmed to move in certain patterns.
Well, maybe a little less, because furniture won't get upset if you climb over it because it won't stop standing in front of where you need to go.

Does that make sense?

I don't mind crowds if they are silent. IT is more the noise. I can speak in front of a lecture hall but a classroom of 20-30 people in it with half of them talking is a lot harder for me.

me too, I usually stare, but don't see people. People recognise me and greet me, and then I feel so guilty that I didn't recognise them. Usually a deer in headlights thing for me when somebody out of the crowd speaks to me.