Autism is a 'trend'...?!

I don’t tell people I’m autistic…just my husband knows and he’s very supportive. Other people I simply don’t trust to be open or vulnerable with. You hear people saying that autistic people use ASD as an ‘excuse’ for ‘bad behaviour’. I try to interact with other people as little as possible, because I tend to misspeak and can never correct myself because people don’t accept that I used the wrong words and won’t accept any amount of explanation nor apology. If I say I have ASD, then I get the ‘just an excuse’ accusation…It’s painful because some of these people are family. I get exhausted from masking when not at home but I don’t know how to live in the outside world in a safe way without putting on a mask. It’s like a piece of armour to protect myself, but if it goes on for too long, then it leads to burnout and my tolerance level for socialisation of any kind (other than my husband who I never have to mask with) is next to zero. 

I don’t tell people I’m autistic…just my husband knows and he’s very supportive. Other people I simply don’t trust to be open or vulnerable with. You hear people saying that autistic people use ASD as an ‘excuse’ for ‘bad behaviour’. I try to interact with other people as little as possible, because I tend to misspeak and can never correct myself because people don’t accept that I used the wrong words and won’t accept any amount of explanation nor apology. If I say I have ASD, then I get the ‘just an excuse’ accusation…It’s painful because some of these people are family. I get exhausted from masking when not at home but I don’t know how to live in the outside world in a safe way without putting on a mask. It’s like a piece of armour to protect myself, but if it goes on for too long, then it leads to burnout and my tolerance level for socialisation of any kind (other than my husband who I never have to mask with) is next to zero.