It seems to be that AS = extreme introversion?

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It's hard to wrap my head arround it. I think that we agree that at least behaviouraly we are introverts.

All brain conditions can cause introverted behavior.

Even Depression, if someone has a war going on in their mind the last thing they are going to be is confident and outgoing

I'm not. I'm more of an ambivert.

No, there’s a lot of variation.

I’d say that, perhaps, most of us are introverts, though.

I’m more an “awkward extrovert” than an introvert.

Though I could be shy at times.

Sometimes, autistic people are prone to “giving out too much information,” which is more an extroverted manifestation than an introverted one. I was a classic case of that in my childhood.

I’ve met both extroverted and introverted autistic people.

I'm a socially anxious extrovert...or a highly social introvert.

I think I'm an ambivert (people who have both introvert and extrovert traits, it's a real word but strangely a lot of people here haven't heard of it).

I'd take sitting in on a Saturday night over going out to a bar any day. But I'd still want to do something social, like invite family/friends over for dinner, phone a friend or relative for a long chat, or play card games with my boyfriend or whatever.

The other day I had a social day at work, because there wasn't much work to do that day but everybody was in, so I found myself chatting and joking and laughing with my colleagues, and I enjoyed it. Then when I got home I didn't feel any differently to how I do after a normal work day where I'm working on my own. I didn't feel exhausted or anxious or anything. In fact I felt full of beans and was chatting away to my boyfriend about my day and his day, like usual.

I don't really understand what "social exhaustion" is. What is it and how does it affect you?

Social exhaustion is when you get tired of hanging out with people—without necessarily disliking them.

Imagine sensory overwhelm except in socializing.
And, running out of things to say in the process, shutting down or melting down into dysregulation.

That people became triggers to a particular overwhelm, though not the same as social anxiety does.
But more like a clutter of a chore that you'd hate to touch or look without feeling at least frustrated or tired looking at it.

But do so more often and carelessly, it'll be like a part of you deep down feels like really, really raw -- the same rawness one would feel if one had been scratching a particular part of their skin for hours kind of raw turned sensitive and painful to touch.


Maybe yours would take several hours a day to run out like mine does.
Try 15-20 hours straight going out with people all day -- see how if that can take you out. It's sort of like getting drunk and the outcome is literally named as 'social hungover'.

But be cautious -- it can lead to a short term burnout that strips the person's inner selective filters and defences honed for years along with other skills.
One that would take days or even months to recover.


The most common accounts here are introverts masking for no more than 2-8 hours a day. Kinda how or even why many couldn't do full time jobs.
Some can go as far as less than an hour a day and would take them days to recover.

I can see a lot of overlap in terms of life challenges.

Introverts tend to have a more interior locus of attention and guidance and aren't naturally belligerent. The current world runs on belligerence, lack of it = weakness, so yeah introverts would have a fair share of the same problems.

I've known people who are shy in person, yet belligerent in print

I'd get emotional exhaustion if I worked full-time but not because of masking. I just get bored easily with routine and doing the same thing each day and getting up at the same time.

I think that can be true for a lot of people though. At work last week they were sorting out new timetable rotas for some of the other workers and I heard them say that they had to have at least one day off every 6 days to prevent emotional burn-out.

My NT aunt (rather extroverted) often settles with a glass of wine in front of the TV on her own every evening after work because she feels emotionally exhausted from dealing with customers all day long.

I would say that the hypothesis presented in the OP----does not hold up under scrutiny.

Now I can remember meeting a girl who was definitely autistic because I remember being very surprised about how much similar to me she was. She was though, what you could call a social butterfly. A wacky social butterfly. Now I get what some of you say, yes an autistic person can be an extrovert after all. How weird.

It does seem ironic that some people with aut-ism (selfism) are naturally social butterflies. Even as a child I was socially driven. OK I may have been shy in class but that's because I was afraid of being the center of attention in front of too many people (which isn't uncommon for some children). Like I'd always be given the smallest lines, or none at all, in the nativity plays, because I felt really nervous of speaking in front of lots of people. I probably would have been able to do it but it would have been extremely nerve-wracking.
But I was always playing imaginary games in the playground with other children. During the weekends and school holidays I always demanded my mum to have a child over so I can play with, and I hated it when they had to leave. I just hated being alone. I was also very chatty and would get really excited when we had surprise company come round.

To me, autism is an inborn tendency towards "going within yourself." I was totally "autistic" in that sense until about the age of 5. But other facets of my personality started to reveal themselves at age 5.

However, there are other facets of your personality that go against "going within yourself." These facets reveal themselves as you go through life, perhaps to the point where the "going within yourself" facet is almost totally "taken over" by the "social butterfly" aspect.

What determines whether you are an introvert or an extrovert is not whether or not you enjoy socializing. It is how you are recharged. Extroverts are recharged and replenish their energy by socializing and being around other people. Introverts replenish their energy and recharge by being in solitude. And you have to know the difference between a rush of adrenaline and actual recharging of energy. I am a true introvert. I require solitude to recharge but I can often get rushes of adrenaline by being around people and socializing in situations that I enjoy being in. So I have to be very careful because those rushes of adrenaline are very deceptive and can really injure me if I am not super careful.