Published on 12, July, 2020
For anyone who used to struggle with this and managed to find it easier, how did you distinguish between a compliment seemingly not feeling genuine and one that does?
I'm well aware that my low self-esteem is the reason why I've struggled to respond to compliments and really take them in, and it's something I'm really working on. Sometimes I'd make a joke in response and it kills it somewhat.
There's probably an argument that adults tend to not pay people compliments unless they genuinely mean it - at that point in time anyway.
Compliments are tough, because there are a lot of unwritten social rules that surround them, if there is anything I know about autistic people, it’s that unwritten rules are a problem. I just try to avoid it, if it comes naturally then fine, but yeah, I avoid it like I avoid the ‘birthday song’..
It's hard to know if someone's just buttering me up or if they actually mean it, but then even if they did go out of their way to compliment me I'd tend to dismiss it.