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dtgreene: One thing that I've read is that, apparently, autism symptoms are different in boys than in girls, which leads to girls not being disgnosted as often as boys. (Apparently, autistic girls are better at pretending to be neurotypical than autistic boys, plus there's the fact that autism isn't as well studied in girls as it is in boys.)
While I must admit I've never come across anything that would focous on LGBT autistic people (and as a cis female I'm no reprisentative), there is a video by The Aspie World that explains very well how autism esepcialy AS is diffrent in females.
Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-bGIhCjGJU

I'd also recommed his videos in general as great research material.
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Tauto: I have no problems with people with autism or whether they are white,coloured,muslim's,but when the respect is abused then they will have problems with me.The whole key to my point of view is the word respect,as it is a forgotten trait.
So a "give me respect and I'll return it" attitude?
Seems reasonable.

I may react diffrently to diffrent people, but unless some has e.g. raped countless children and I'll consider them to be a monset, I'll grant everyone basic respect.

Obviously getting along with people and finding them likeable or not is another matter (we not all compatible after all).

Regardless of phisical and/oe mental charateristics, everyone is before anything else human (with unique mixes of quirks, streangths and weaknesses).

At the same time, I can't control a purely emotional response.

E.g. The chances of meeting someone whose skin tone is black is next to zero in such a small place where I live (Slovenia is a country with a bit over 2000000 inhabitants and 99.99% are white).
If I did meet someone black face to face, I'd be somewhat apprehensive if that's the right word, because such a meeting would be so unexpected and unusual.

Can my reaction be considered racist? Yes.
Would I actively, consciously do something to make the person uncomfortable, treat them badly or try to limit them in any way? No.

I'd need to take more time to get used to the possibility of such a scenario repeating and the person themselves.

Note to self: Bad furball, don't post off-topic in your own thread. XD
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TARFU: You have to meet someone in order to have an opinion about them? Is that a personal stance of yours or do you think others should be that way also? For instance, I've never met Alexander The Great, but I have an opinion about him.
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viperfdl: It simply means that I do not know enough about autism or people suffering it to form an opinion.
Glad we got that cleared up. The suspense was killing me.
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viperfdl: It simply means that I do not know enough about autism or people suffering it to form an opinion.
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TARFU: Glad we got that cleared up. The suspense was killing me.
Thanks for your interest. Luckily I satisfied your curiousity before you died.
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huan: I don't think I ever met autistic person in person - or at least not autistic enough to the point where I would notice.

But from what I read here, autistic people can at least admit it's them who are different.

I think that I would have no problem dealing with autists - as coworkers or friends. Especially if both I and them knew they have such condition. Me - to have some time to read up on what it means and how to behave. Them - to at least try and control it a bit, signal if they need me to clarify something, or stop doing something... or that they need some time alone in a closet. The really severe cases - I'm not sure. But probability to meet some of those is really low I guess.
I hope you don't mind that I took some liberties with editing your post so it's clearer to what parts of it I'm responding to.

Glad to hear you're open-minded. :D

If you'd like I can dig in the depths of my bookmarks and provide some good links for research. ;)
WARNING: There'd be quite a lot. :P


"Wouldn't notice" can be a very double-edged sword.

On one hand, it's a compliment. "Oh, I'm blending in enough to come across just a bit strange sometimes."

On the other, it's a reminder that we appear too much like others. Even enough so they don't even believe us that we have a condition.

I think it was in my final year of high school.
I told my Philosophy teacher that I got diagnosed as autistic.
Her response was: "I don't believe you're autistic."

She was an awesome teacher, helpful, kind even funny, but too her I too close to "normal", the expected or average, to believe me


Control, yup what every autist does on a daily basis - the extent and specifics depend on the individual case.


As for signaling and clarifying, the best advice I've ever come across in an article was "self-advocating".
Tell people what you need and how they should act to make it easier.

I've successfully followed it ever since.

If I'm really overwhelmed it'll be a small outburst, but if I'm not pushed to my limit (and getting to that stage is always unintentional by people in my experience), I'll do my best to be polite about it.

What I usually do is practice a cautious approach in social interaction - when in doubt ask what the other person wants and what they meant.

In some cases, it takes ages to get to the point when I know exactly what they want from me.
And I realize that can make me seem difficult or demanding sometimes, but I'll settle for nothing less than the exaclty.

And not because I want to be difficult, but the more information I have the better I can handle doing whatever task I've been given.

E.g. When my mom asks me to help her cook this can happen.

Mom: "Take the big knife and cut this."
- Me: There are several knives on the wall, multiple big ones. Exact match not found.
"Which knife?"
Mom: "The one with a jagged edge."
- Me: Multiple knives with such an edge, granted it's been narrowed down, but match still not found. ... A different direction might work.
"Which knife, the third on from the stove, the third one from the wall? Which one?"

I get it, I'm being incredibly neat-picking at this point and she might lose her patience and go get the knife herself or indulge me.

Another point I can illustrate with a similar example.

I can't multitask at all.
if I need to do a set of things they need to be broken down into smaller, doable steps.

Again a cooking situation with my mom.

Mom: "So you cut the meat, cut the veggies, mix them and ... [the rest of the instructions about what process to use and at what temperature]"
- Me: "Hold it!"
How do you want them cut? What shape? What size? You want me to WHAT with them?* What is this process? How's it done? Why's it done?
[Basically, my head's about to explode from so many questions.]
...
*after I've calmed down - could be a few seconds, could be minute or two*
Me: "Okay, can you give me a model of what kind of pieces you want? ... And tell me what to do next after I'm done with the cutting?"

And we can go on with it at a slower pace, but it can come to a conclusion.

*The first time I heard the expression that actually was my reaction. XD
I think the English equivalent is "to steam" food and it's a lot more transparent than the word my mom used in Slovene "dušenje" which means "to strangle" if taken literally, which I'm somewhat prone to do.

Situations like these can lead to arguments, but that's because we're not the most compatible pair personality-wise.
We think differently, we react differently, we've mostly opposite tastes in just about anything.

Does that make her a bad mom? Not at all, she's a great mother and she's prepared to help me and do a lot more for me than parents usually do for their kids.
Am I a bad daughter? No, I'm not difficult on purpose and I try to communicate my distress or confusion if either happens.

We've learned to adapt to each other and it will in all likelihood be a never-ending process to figure out how to best get along.

I could provide some more amusing examples, but it's best if I stop myself before I go into overdoing. ;)

My point, admittedly implied, is that no-one is perfect.
Everyone has their own quirks and needs, strengths and weaknesses and at the end of the day limits.
People are different and that's not a bad thing, it just means we all have a common denominator of being human.
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Tauto: I have no problems with people with autism or whether they are white,coloured,muslim's,but when the respect is abused then they will have problems with me.The whole key to my point of view is the word respect,as it is a forgotten trait.
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Wolfy777: So a "give me respect and I'll return it" attitude?
Seems reasonable.

I may react diffrently to diffrent people, but unless some has e.g. raped countless children and I'll consider them to be a monset, I'll grant everyone basic respect.

Obviously getting along with people and finding them likeable or not is another matter (we not all compatible after all).

Regardless of phisical and/oe mental charateristics, everyone is before anything else human (with unique mixes of quirks, streangths and weaknesses).

At the same time, I can't control a purely emotional response.

E.g. The chances of meeting someone whose skin tone is black is next to zero in such a small place where I live (Slovenia is a country with a bit over 2000000 inhabitants and 99.99% are white).
If I did meet someone black face to face, I'd be somewhat apprehensive if that's the right word, because such a meeting would be so unexpected and unusual.

Can my reaction be considered racist? Yes.
Would I actively, consciously do something to make the person uncomfortable, treat them badly or try to limit them in any way? No.

I'd need to take more time to get used to the possibility of such a scenario repeating and the person themselves.

Note to self: Bad furball, don't post off-topic in your own thread. XD
For some unknown reason,cannot shorten this post.But in response to post,yes that is the way my parents taught me,respect.
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firstpastthepost: Just a quick skim of the thread and I am pleasantly surprised to see that this hasn’t yet devolved into a crazy flame war about vaccines being bad for you like these conversations tend to become on most forums.
Most of those discussions are dishonest and caused by troublemakers.

There is a plausible case for it as autoimmune reactions and mercury products could have an effect on the brain and there are lots of different ways to make a vaccine so tracking any problems would be difficult.

Autism is a syndrome itself which means that it's finer details are unknown and could be a range of different problems and causes.
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firstpastthepost: Just a quick skim of the thread and I am pleasantly surprised to see that this hasn’t yet devolved into a crazy flame war about vaccines being bad for you like these conversations tend to become on most forums.
You had to open that window didn't you :)
(not blaming you, it was bound to happen)
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Sachys:
Without people on the autistic spectrum, nothing would have developed, been invented, painted, written, calculated, realised and so on.
Satire?
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Sachys:
Without people on the autistic spectrum, nothing would have developed, been invented, painted, written, calculated, realised and so on.
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Spectre: Satire?
Judging by other replys, they actually meant it.
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Wolfy777:
if it's your first time or getting used to the kitchen stuff/cooking/etc, it can be tough since u have no clue what to do, just like any other places, if the cooking is your parent doing and your helping, asking how to cut it shouldn't be odd, if your doing for yourself with parent help, u could randomly cut it

not every1 can multitask(multitask isn't a thing really, everything is in a process of thing)

i hear people who r teachers use the eye look at wall or something pass the person who they looking at sometimes since it might feel odd

understanding people what they said sometimes need to be broken down(even for me) to get it right, people understand it differently, surely can't be a bad thing, every1 can't always think the sameway

sometimes people need extra time to think before doing things, tho some people tend to rush
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dtgreene: This actually reminds me of when the term "gay" was used as an insult; that seems less common now, but terms like "autist" have become more common as insults.

(Note: If you see such words used as insults on the GOG forums, don't be afraid to report it to a moderator; at least one post of this sort I reported (not in this topic) was deleted, so it does appear that the forum rules disallow such use (and with good reason).)
It's still a word as in PC snitching is totally gay.

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dtgreene: One thing that I've read is that, apparently, autism symptoms are different in boys than in girls, which leads to girls not being disgnosted as often as boys. (Apparently, autistic girls are better at pretending to be neurotypical than autistic boys, plus there's the fact that autism isn't as well studied in girls as it is in boys.)
You could look for simon baron cohens work for that.
Post edited September 28, 2018 by Spectre
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Tistonic: sometimes people need extra time to think before doing things, tho some people tend to rush
And some fall into both categories. Needless to say, at times the result might not be pretty.

(This is most likely to happen if someone doesn't realize they need the extra time to think, or does realize but is having trouble acting on that knowledge.)
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firstpastthepost: Just a quick skim of the thread and I am pleasantly surprised to see that this hasn’t yet devolved into a crazy flame war about vaccines being bad for you like these conversations tend to become on most forums.
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wpegg: You had to open that window didn't you :)
(not blaming you, it was bound to happen)
I honestly wasn’t trying to poke the bear. I meant it as a compliment to the people in the thread. I hope it doesn’t open the flood gates as it were
About sensory overload: As a small child I sometimes shut my eyes and covered my ears and sometimes screamed too but from age eight and forwards it has been either a senseless lashing out, making me very unpleasant to be with, or me locking up/freezing. As a young teen I discovered walking away for a bit, often going on a walk, to clear my head works fine. Of course people think it is odd that I just disappear so I try to return as quickly as I can manage. When pushing too hard I got burnout and recovering from that takes a long time, a single day's rest will not suffice.

I find re-reading or re-playing games relaxing same as listening to the same old music albums over and over again.

An apology: Sorry but I tend to talk way too much about myself but this might not be related, not sure. At least I can listen and talk about others too unlike some who are truly full of themselves and only themselves.


Cause of autism spectrum disorder: When talking with psychiatrists and neurologs they have been fairly vague about reasons but stated things like birth damage, chemicals poisoning the foster, viral or bacterial diseases during gestation or even parasites being possible or probable. My addition is that I think some of those might have damaged the sperm of the father but not being into medicine I am not totally sure, just seems plausible as a possibility.

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Talk about paranoia does not really belong here as I do not find it connected except it also being a problem in the head. Just can agree from experience that having to handle a clinically paranoid person is VERY tiring.