I can never pass as NT, because the more I succeed in passing as NT, the more doors open to me in more complex social scenarios, and at some level I inevitably fail. Eg I'll be hired for more politically-demanding job environments, I'll have friends who are "more NT" and have more NT expectations. The more I find myself in more complex relating environments, the bigger the challenge and the faster the "fall".
This, coupled with the fact that the more we pass as NTs the more expectations of NT-ness from us, and there's a point, if you've been really successful at passing for NT, where you can't, just can't disclose autism as the reason for your failure to meet expectations, so your fall is accompanied by hard accusations of doing whatever you did "on purpose", and you can't even defend yourself. You not only lose that one environment, but your reputation goes down the drain also outside of it (eg the job market). Eg if you happily accepted a prestigious job representing a government, in diplomacy say, you can't just after a couple years on the job say "But I'm autistic!"
I do my best to pass as NT at work so I can keep a job for as long as possible, but outside that, I'm careful not to pass as NT, to avoid the escalation of expectations and the ensuing hard fall.
I think the answer to "Do you manage to pass as NT?" is always NO for an aspie, and if anyone answers differently, it means they never reached an environment with a higher level of relating complexity where they crashed. Eg: how many of those who answer YES have thrived or at least endured, in a cut-throat, man-eat-man workplace or social circle?
So I believe at some level we all fail relations wise. Otherwise, we're not aspies.
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There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats - Albert Schweitzer
Last edited by Moondust on 13 Jul 2014, 1:03 am, edited 1 time in total.