Can you suppress AS behaviours and "act NT"?

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If you had to - if there was a real and significant potential payoff to doing so, let's say: "bonding" with a potential client who would make a lot of money for your employer and get you the job you always wanted, or perhaps to escape a potentially threatening social situation unscathed - could you suppress your AS behaviours and act NT temporarily? Could you do it for a few hours every day if you needed to? Have you ever had to? Have you ever tried, and failed?

Yes, far better now than when I was younger.

It's a pain, but sometimes it's worthwhile.

I occasionally have moments when I'm in social situations where I go into some kind of NT mode without trying. Perhaps it's because I'm more self-aware. I think I could learn to act NT more & do it more regularly if I was in an environment where I had to & had someone to help teach me

an do it but it kills a little bit of me each time I do it. I feel so tired I have to sit down for several hours after I get home and be quiet ortherwise I get pissed off.

Hi. I suppressed AS behavior and, seemingly, 'passed' as NT for quite awhile before I realized I 'have' Asperger's/got my diagnosis. I feel pretty certain suppressing myself like I did caused some kind of 'damage'. -It definitely made it very difficult for me to determine how I, as an Aspie (once I did receive diagnosis), was to 'act', how I was to 'behave', how I was to 'be'. How does one be the Aspie they really are when they've been 'training' to 'be' an NT for so long? It's been around a year-and-a-half now and I've gotten some of those answers. But...since the diagnosis, I haven't put myself in the position of posing as NT...I'm not real sure how well I'd do. I wonder if I'm still kinda 'burnt out' on what it feels like when I do the 'cutting-off' of the pieces of me that'd signal others I'm not really NT - I remember it as being pretty disorienting. Now that I know, I really don't ever want to 'go back'.

I did just have a quick telephone (speakerphone! which is worse) interview for a job the other day...Doing poorly in phone conversations is one of my AS 'manifestations'...I tried, pretty hard, but really couldn't seem to revert back to 'giving good voice' or sounding smooth/in control/ordered during the 'conversation', though I think I had really accomplished that in the past. Some of the changes I've made in the past 18 months maybe have included no longer investing as much effort into 'pre-scripting' and investing more effort into accepting how I am, when I am. I answered the interview questions as well as I could under the circumstances (more like, under duress!), knowing that I couldn't get arrangements made for a face-to-face interview (in which I actually usually do better in than via phone) but...understood pretty quickly that my voice (with its flat effect enhanced over the phone) and my pauses (to gather my thoughts) just were not going to be accepted. The main interviewer could hardly wait to hang up...barely getting out the good-bye before disconnecting.

I'm not sure how I'll feel/decide about NT posing in the future. Maybe after the knowledge of my AS becomes more 'commonplace' in my mind, I'll become more open again to putting on 'performances' again for others. But, for now, my focus really seems to be carving out space, being insistent that I AM acceptable in my Aspie skin, that others WILL make efforts at implementing inclusionary devices (rather than exclusionary tactics), and that the world is made up of more than just NT and (NT-defined) 'minorities'.

The whole 'putting on a mask' thing is what gets me the most. I can read off a "I'm fine, how are you?" script if I'm prepared for it, and I can make eye contact when I need to (the problem is that when I do it it's too intense), but I can't ever seem to put on the right face at the right time. I always either look like I'm on drugs with the way I stare at things, or else I'm supposedly smiling too much (like, when somebody makes a funny joke). And my body language is just weird, I don't know how to describe it. But sensory issues and things like that don't really bother me that much.

One things for sure, I've either taken a huge step backward since March when I discovered AS, or I have simply become more aware of my failures.

I can do it. It's really overrated though, because when you slip up NTs make an even bigger deal about it. If you act like AS from the start they get used to it, but if you try and act NT and then the AS slips out it freaks them out a little.

Years of retail jobs have been informative for me when it comes to social interaction. I've learned many of the cues--verbal and physical--for what to say, when to say it. It's exhausting, and I often feel like a fourth-rate con man when I'm doing it. But I need a paycheck, so I manage to get by with it. As long as the customer I'm dealing with doesn't want to "chat" for too long, I think I do all right.

Thankfully, the job I have now entails a lot of time working in the stock room, shipping and receiving, and doing paperwork.

I don't really know. I thought I was, but in retrospect, as I've learned more, I find I haven't put a lot of effort into appearing that NT (I have always stimmed around people, I tend toward minimal vocal inflection and muted or even flat effect - I have tried to consciously improve my inflection over the years, but it doesn't really stick). Whenever I try to suppress stimming it lasts about as long as it takes for me to shift to something else, at which point some part of my brain forgets to hold it in check and I start doing it again.

I've also done a lot like Dae, where I've let go of most of the things I actually was doing and I haven't really picked most of them back up. I am not sure I want to pick them back up, but I don't really know.

I do know that trying to do as much as I did sucked up a lot of my energy, and I felt much better after letting go.

well, i dont have a full NT mask, but i am able to surpress the telltale signs of AS and become a 'slightly quirky NT' for a few hours every day.
the biggest things for that is that i actually have a normal posture an way of walking; and i'm able to surpress my stims if need be.
it's still far from perfect though, last year, i put on a full act for some workshop; yet i was seen as a little weird by the others around (they were mosty female, that might be part of it) and the one giving the workshop singled me out after half an hour orso subtly telling me to get tested for ADD; so that's a cover broken right there.

although; when i responded by telling that guy that i was actually diagnosed AS and told him my symptoms, i knocked him off his feet; he didn't see that one coming

I can suppress stimming, sarcastic comments, obsessive behavior and monologues, I can make eye contact and shake hands but I can do nothing about being awkward and clueless.
If I have to go through a job interview, a meeting or something similar I "play the part" as long as everything goes according to a plan. I usually go through several scenarios in my head in advance and try to prepare myself for the situation. That usually helps. But I can't act NT in unexpected situations. I hate those.

When it comes to suppressing unpleasant AS behaviors, I can do, as long as I can still act like the "cold fish" I come off as. I stop myself from saying anything unpleasant, try to make conversation, and keep myself from monologuing, and make consistent eye contact. But when it comes to turning on a different persona, I tend to start choking on my words because I'm trying so hard smile, make my eyes wider and inflect my voice.

Not very well.