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?

Parents
  • 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.

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

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

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