What defines your autism?

Social exclusion.  

I can go days and weeks without speaking with another person.

Well, that will not be the case for you on here, while I'm around......if you don't find me too odious?

I am quite social - and I don't want you to feel excluded - you are a big chunk of this place Robert - you have contributed a lot to this place - I prefer to see you around here.

Do you think that writing on here is the same as speaking with another person?

Writing on here is different from speaking with people face to face.

I am quite good with non verbal and unorthodox communication.  I can communicate with animals (cats).  Also emails, web chats, texts hold no fear for me.  But talking to actual people I mumble, avoid eye contact, I freeze, say the wrong things, I have a monotone voice. 

Writing on here is different from speaking with people face to face - for me too.

I, too, am quite good with non verbal and unorthodox communication.

I always communicate with animals (all and any) in preference to humans.

Emails and written form can be tricky for me.  I have the capability to convey the same message in a multiplicity of different ways.......I can obsess about the best way.....write way too much......in my attempts to keep it simple for the reader....I can confuse the reader to distraction.

Face to face can be tricky for me too.  I have the capability to convey the same message in a multiplicity of different ways.......I can obsess about the best way.....talk way too much......in my attempts to find the best "tuning" with the person I am speaking with....I can confuse (and scare) the listener to distraction because I will "flip" from one mask to the other with a degree of precision and competency that causes alarm.

People seem to spend their time concentrating on me and "what the hell I am" rather than the message I am trying to convey in the conversation we are trying to conduct.  I have been shunned and banished from many "groups" on the basis that I cannot be categorised and therefore cannot be trusted.  I am unable to "assign" normal social hierarchical status on people whom I meet - I quite literally "take as I find."  I have been told that I am frighteningly intense, frighteningly confident (which is true at the surface I suppose) and confusingly varied in my presentation.

I like it on here Robert.....with folk like you......we are far more alike than you might imagine.

Number.

Writing on here is different from speaking with people face to face - for me too.

I, too, am quite good with non verbal and unorthodox communication.

I always communicate with animals (all and any) in preference to humans.

Emails and written form can be tricky for me.  I have the capability to convey the same message in a multiplicity of different ways.......I can obsess about the best way.....write way too much......in my attempts to keep it simple for the reader....I can confuse the reader to distraction.

Face to face can be tricky for me too.  I have the capability to convey the same message in a multiplicity of different ways.......I can obsess about the best way.....talk way too much......in my attempts to find the best "tuning" with the person I am speaking with....I can confuse (and scare) the listener to distraction because I will "flip" from one mask to the other with a degree of precision and competency that causes alarm.

People seem to spend their time concentrating on me and "what the hell I am" rather than the message I am trying to convey in the conversation we are trying to conduct.  I have been shunned and banished from many "groups" on the basis that I cannot be categorised and therefore cannot be trusted.  I am unable to "assign" normal social hierarchical status on people whom I meet - I quite literally "take as I find."  I have been told that I am frighteningly intense, frighteningly confident (which is true at the surface I suppose) and confusingly varied in my presentation.

I like it on here Robert.....with folk like you......we are far more alike than you might imagine.

Number.