Do people think your ret*d before they get to know you?

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I've been told a good few times that people think I'm mildly ret*d when they first meet me and they're usually surprised when they get to know me and see that I'm clearly not mentally ret*d at all I just have a tendency to act that way. Ironically I fall under a lot of peoples definition of smart because I happen to have a knack for physics and find it dead simple. Can any of you relate? Are you often initially viewed as mentally challenged due to your style of speech and motor coordination? I'm aware that this is a common trait among people on the spectrum. Me being this way made absolutely no sense to me or anyone else until I got the diagnosis haha.

I get the "your stupid," vibe from a lot of people. People can sometimes be cutthroat, especially if they're young and trendy.

Nope, people think I'm weird, but no one's ever accused me of being ret*d...well, someone did call me 'emotionally ret*d' once, but I don't think that counts...

No, stuck up and mean is what I get.

I get all sorts of vibes depending on the person I'm encountering. Most of them are negative after the first few moments give way to open hostility.

"you're" or "you are"

No, I don't get that. I get the opposite. On first sight people think I'm a dumbass athlete jock because I look and dress like one. Thirty seconds into talking to me they get the impression I'm an arrogant weirdo genius. It takes several weeks or even months to meet the real me.

The funny thing s is that we really are not all that different.

Yes, it's mostly because if eye contact/facial expression issues and being bad at guessing ages. Then there's the issue of delays in response in conversation.

No. I am hyper-verbal.
People think I am weird, and too clever. That is what I have been told.

I come off as insane. Completely out-of-my-mind nut job. If I don't get enough sleep and too much caffeine after my routine has just been altered, I can be seen attempting to run up walls. I have yet to succeed. Many people fear me.

My guess is they don't know what to think, hence the tilted gaze.

Happens to me all the time, but this is due mostly to the compound effect of my CP (speech problem) and social awkwardness and inability to read people's body language and look them in the eye (presumably my AS-side). I find it extremely annoying if people treat me like a 5-year old, assuming that I'm a ret*d, despite (often) extensive evidence to the contrary. Do they do this to save themselves the embarrassment of owning up to me that they've made a mistake? I don't know. I always speak politely, coherently, with the vocabulary of the average well-educated person. It makes me sick!

Haha. I'm prescribed dexedrine for ADHD which the psychiatrist says is a symptom of my autism. When I don't get enough sleep as a result of my occasional dexedrine abuse I tend to wander a bit on the paranoid side. My cleaning lady is scared s**tless of me due to the axes and knives I have conveniently placed within reach of my bed.


Sounds like your in a similar situation to me. I have trouble with verbal speech (pronunciation as well as voice tone) so I can't really blame anyone for initially assuming I'm mildly ret*d. I'm also spoken to like people talk to 5 year olds. Do you think entirely without words? I think this plays a role in the speed at which one formulates sentences and how one physically sounds out the sentences. If you never think in words then its you have to translate everything your thinking into words before you speak. I think mainly in pictures with the other 4 sense representations as well as emotions attached to them so have to translate everything I'm thinking into words before I formulate a sentence. That may explain why I have such a strange style of speech. BTW what is CP?

Thats an interesting question (why people continue to speak to you like a 5 year old despite an extensive range of evidence of your intelligence) I've noticed the same thing too.

Sorry, should've explained CP. It stands for Cerebral Palsy, a non-progressive motor disorder due to brain damage. My speech problem is entirely physical in nature, with me not being able to control my vocal cords very well. I'm an intensely verbal person, so delay in thinking up my response isn't part of the problem. It just takes some time to get my vocal cords under control. I basically sound like I'm dead-drunk. Hope this explains it to your satisfaction. I wish you the best, my friend. It's a tough world out there...

Probably.


My ex's parents and grandparents thought I was.

At first, people tend to think I'm either aloof and highly critical or shy and rather anxious. They're right about the second set of assumptions.