Taking things literally

Has you ever been in a situation where somebody has given you an instruction or told some kind of joke or been sarcastic but you didn’t pick up on it or understand that you've ended up thinking in a literal sense thus landing yourself in an awkward situation and left feeling confusedor even embarrassed?

For me, yes this has happened so many times in my life so far that I've almost lost count... and honestly it the most humiliating feeling ever. In a previous post I had talked about how I have insecurities about my intelligence and it's moments like these which leave me with that horrible feeling as if I'm stupid because I struggle to read when someone's being serious or being sarcastic. It leaves me feeling so embarrassed, like I want the ground to swallow me up. It's also a distressing situation to be in as when I'm asked to do a certain task but I've not been given clear and specific instructions not only am I left stuck on what to do but it leaves me feeling stupid and upset. Some have acknowledged that it's just one of my autistic traits but honestly it doesn't really make feel better.

Has anyone else found themselves in situations like that?

  • Being a bit of a wind-up merchant myself I'm often quite hard to wind-up.

  • I’m with you on this one, deeply suspicious of most people. Why is probably one of my favourite words….

  • Oh yes, especially when someone uses dialect words and phrases, it's not always intentional on the part of the other person. A schoolfriends Mum told us about when she was a young woman, newly come south from the north, she got a job as a cleaner and was having a problem cleaning something and her boss told her to use some gumption, she thought she was being told she wasn't working hard enough, gumption in northern dialect meaning gusto, effort, working harder, not knowing that what her boss actually meant was to use some scouring cleaner called gumption. 

  • I'm known in my family for my literal thinking and understanding, and this is one of the main reasons they consider me funny. For me it was always sad. But instead of crying or getting angry or embarrassed,  I always laugh although it's not funny for me st all. It's very common among autistic people. Recently my therapist said few times something sarcastically and I didn't get it. From my side I can say, if I know in advance,  that it's about to be a joke, I'm prepared, then there is a chance that I will get it correctly. But unexpected- very high chance, that I will get it wrong. And of course embaras myself. But the knowledge that its a symptom of autism, I'm less harsh on myself. It helps me accept, thst I'm just this way.

  • Mostly I avoid it either by being suspicious of things and querying them which doesn't lose too much face, or by applying logic and thinking about it.

    Sometimes I get caught out. Happens rarely enough now that I don't really worry about it. Advantage of being older, you have more life experience from which to draw, although it can be more problematic.

    Perhaps this is why I don't trust other people. Maybe it was driven by misunderstandings in the past.