Do people look at you as though they know you're odd

I did. Multiple times a day. It was years later that I asked a former senior pupil 'You really hated me, didn't you?'. She said: 'Well you no not really. You were okay. X was the stupid one, she was so boring we called her X-bla.'

That's when I stopped trying to understand people I guess. It just didn't nake any sense to me.

In some ways, I think that's the best way to be.  I still get caught out, though.  It feels like gullibility on my part.  Instead, it's betrayal on theirs.  Betrayal of the trust I put in them.

I don't have trauma from the bullying , but even decades on from it I'm wary of people to the point of paranoia . I always expect the worst unless people prove otherwise. 

I think my school days are what has caused the paranoia about groups. As I couldn't really pass a group at school without horrible comments being shouted at me. It really did have a very negative impact on me. I don't envy you having to cross a bridge. I'd have dreaded that every day.

I get the odd bloke look most days.

Unfortunately yes, I think a lot of that is why I was bullied at school so much. My brother was like that when he was at school and he turned out to be really insecure and has a lot of problems now.

My experience is just as bad, when people who know me look thru me as if I don't exist.

Sounds so much like me, Pirate Santa.  I'm very tall, too - it's usually the first thing people remark on when they meet me.  Maybe I seem intimidating.  Once I tell them I have ASC, too, that probably throws lots of switches!

My recent problem at work is related to school-time experiences 50 years ago.  It is PTSD.  I had a few problems trying to convince even our behaviour support team to understand that.  If someone shouts at me, it's traumatic.  It re-opens old wounds.  And it's going to make me ill.

I don't know if you saw this short article.  It says it all, I think:

At the Intersection of Autism and Trauma

People quite often appear to look at me strangely, but I am very tall & tend to walk quite quickly, so I usually just assume they feel intimidated.

I suppose it depends on whether you look back. I think a lot of the time people are just lost in their own thoughts & staring into space rather than looking directly at me (or even where they are going), but if I look back at them & they notice, then they really do start looking at me, presumably thinking why am I staring at them!

Even though it was over forty years ago, I also still have issues with PTSD from horrible experiences at school, which tends to make me scan most people I pass on the street, usually I can do this without them noticing though, so it doesn't necessarily trigger the "What are you staring at" response.

All just part of the ridiculous game of body language signals, with practice I have learned to be reasonably OK at playing that game myself, but try not to worry about other random people's strange behaviour too much.

Mine, too.  I had to cross it to go from one part of the school to the other.  It was always a horrifying journey.  Always the chance of being set upon.  Same on the bus to and from school.  Many's the time I'd stand all the way, enduring jibes, laughter, pellets and rubber bands flicked at me.

Groups of people are the worst. My secondary school had a bridge where people would sit and hang out. To go to or from the school you had to pass those groups

Emma said:

We all have problems and being mean isn't going to help anybody.

Yes.  I wish everyone would understand that.  Unfortunately, some people get their kicks out of being mean.  In a warped way, it bolsters their fragile egos.  Because insecurity is usually at the root of it.

I like to be positive and kind to others because being negative in turn makes others negative. We all have problems and being mean isn't going to help anybody.

I always try to give a pleasant word.  It doesn't always work.

To be honest, I don't really notice much because I never look at other people's faces for long enough to gauge an expression (something I'm not good at, anyway).  I get a strange vibe off of some people, though.  I used to conclude that it was because there was something odd about them - but it could well be because they're thinking the same about me...

Yes. I had this recently when I was sat in a waiting room. But if I go shopping, I move round as fast as I can so I wouldn't notice in that situation. I also get paranoid that it will happen if I walk past groups of people.

"You laugh at me because I am different. I laugh at you because you're all the same."

I find that works for me.

Everyday. I notice it most of you speak nicely  to someone. 

*sighs* yes People give me curious and sometimes horrible looks, like I have the plague or something! I'll either get weird looks and then people will leave me alone or it's weird looks and then they start whispering, laugh or smirk. It can be anywhere as well, in shops or town and even outside my home. Not only is it rude but it also puts a real downer on me, it's hard enough being a self conscious girl so you don't need people making you feel even worse.

Yes! However, often adolescents. Had it the other day. I was at the front door about to go inside, two adolescent girls walk past, look at me and instantly atart giggling and whispering.

Man... That actually really got to me. I thought 'doesn't that EVER stop?'... It brought back memories of secondary school where I always felt I was off in some way and seen as different.