What is something you've realised in hindsight were probably caused by Autism?

I know all the words to lots and lots of songs even if I can't stand them or didn't realise I knew the words, including tv show theme songs and adverts from way back. I must just absorb them. I can only remember phone numbers by melodies I assign to them, the same for security codes sent to phone or email. I'll sing it to myself a few times, then its retained.

Good for her. That's a really good service to be part of.

That's brilliant. My wife volunteers for the street guardians in our town (for the uninitiated, women who go round in hi-viz outfits looking after drunk young girls and making sure they get home safely). Obviously they have a car that they use for this purpose so I said to her earlier: "If I have a few pints after the match, walk into town and lie down in the middle of the road for a bit will your lot drive me home? Will be a lot cheaper than a taxi." She didn't see the funny side.

I tend to keep on mentioning them and watch the fun of people trying to pretend I'm not talking, or steer the conversation somewhere else.

I do like to get involved with group discussions on here, but I do get frustrated at all the things I'm not allowed to say. I'd like to be able to talk about garden birds, but I can't talk about one othe most common ones, because the spam filter think it's rude, because they just see the word and not it's context.

I can't stand invisible elephants and it frustrates me that people ignore them. I rarely get involved in group discussions these days because of stupid rules like this.

Thank you

Such a good way of putting it, CatWoman

On the plus side - it did probably reduce the numbers of visits by the in-laws

Another thing I thought of is how I got so overwhelmed by the fire alarm at school. The noise was immense and threw me in to a panic attack and meltdown. Afterwards I was in a weird trance where I couldn't talk and just stared in to space for a while - I now know this is a shutdown. At school my teacher said I was over-dramatic and being silly. 

I really wish she could have been me during those fire alarms and then she would have seen how much they affected me.

It's nice now looking back and realising that though it was really difficult to experience this at least now I know why I reacted the way I did.

I prefer the taste of coke when it's flat. You've just reminded me of when I used to put my finger in a drink to flatten it 

A random light-hearted one.

Whenever I got a fizzy drink in the days that I went out drinking, would be that I would de-fizz fizzy drinks by rapidly walking my fingers in the drink. All my friends took the micky and it was often a talking point, but I never ever considered not doing it.

I had all sorts of things like this that my NT friends would consider quirky and endearing.

So many things spring to mind…

Some of the most prominent:

• Incapable of making friends
• Can't do small talk
• Why I never realise when I’m thirsty and hungry
• Why I hate touching people and being touched
• Clapping my hands, rocking, tapping my feet, biting my lip (Now know this is Stimming)

Looking back, so much of my childhood, the things I said and how I reacted can be explained by ASD. Fascinating really but made life harder not knowing then.

Another for me is chit-chat, I just find it pointless and hard work. This is the definition in The Cambridge Dictionary,

CHIT-CHAT definition: 1. informal conversation about matters that are not important:

Every job interview I fluffed, every job I lost. A career wrecked by my inability to get on with NT people.

Yes, I'll start a thread about this!

It's not always easy, but kindness helps a lot.

Agreed. I think I'm still trying to find that cosy middle ground.

I prefer to explain my autism as a reason for my behaviour and not an excuse. I know it's seems to be the way for NT people to expect us to adapt to their standards no matter how disregulating they might be, whereas we try to encourage NT people to understand how we feel and accommodate our needs and that's isn't always possible either.

I try to find a middle ground that isn't too much for both parties because we've got to live in the same world and it helps if we can understand each other.

I can empathise there.

I don't like using autism as some kind of excuse for my behaviour, but it often feels like a catalyst that sparks the problem off.

Also think a big one I figured out recently is agreeing and saying "whatever you want" as an answer to everything.

I think it's part of masking, ensuring that my view matches those around me and avoiding being seen as different...