Published on 12, July, 2020
All I did was walk up to people and chat to them in a friendly way. I thought that was the point of these places? But apparently some people only want to go to them to socialise with people they already know. Well, I have less sympathy than I used to for the struggles of pubs and bars.
I quite often go to my local on my own. Some people know I'm autistic, some don't. Generally, I sit in the same spot with my loops or headphones in on my phone, it gets me out of the house. Personally, I keep myself to myself most of the time, occasionally other people chat to me and I have been asked about my loops which has led to a couple of interesting conversations where those people had autistic people in their families. I'll very rarely chip in to someone else's conversation, possibly if they're struggling with a crossword clue or question where I know the answer along the lines of 'sorry, couldn't help overhearing the answer is XXX' a bit like Peter said.
Whilst, you might think you are being friendly and mostly harmless, it sounds like other people aren't taking it in that way. Certainly if you plonked yourself down on my table or started trying to talk to me about something I didn't want to talk about, I'd get a bit irritated/stressed and eventually ask you to leave me alone. So flip it round and consider if you were having a conversation with a friend or sat there contemplating the world and a random started chipping in, mithering, how you would feel.