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Is secrecy an autistic thing?

Acquiesce

I'm relatively new to this, and keep finding things about me that directly link to autism... I wonder: is secrecy an autism thing? 

I can be _really_ private - I could give loads of examples (but they're secret!), though a simple one would be that while I'd happily ask this question here, I wouldn't talk to my partner about it, or I deed want them to know I was typing this here, now, on the internet... I don't want them to know what I'm doing in that space at all come to think of it!

So is this also (another) trait? I've seen it in my work context with young autistics which is partly why I ask... it's funny what you pick up from younger, less filtered/masking autistics - I hadn't realised that I stim in certain situations until very recently, and that was something I' seen in much younger autistics. 

Parents

  • I'm definitely a private person. I don't know whether it's an autistic thing as such but I think it's defence mechanism. Some autistic people are over sharers so quite the opposite. I wonder whether many of us are private/secretive because we have been rejected, judged, told we share too much etc in early life so we learn it's better/easier to keep things to ourselves. So maybe not exactly an autistic thing but a result of being autistic?

Reply

  • I'm definitely a private person. I don't know whether it's an autistic thing as such but I think it's defence mechanism. Some autistic people are over sharers so quite the opposite. I wonder whether many of us are private/secretive because we have been rejected, judged, told we share too much etc in early life so we learn it's better/easier to keep things to ourselves. So maybe not exactly an autistic thing but a result of being autistic?

Children
  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    I'd agree it's a defence thing - my refusal to socialise is the same; I'm just keeping myself away from situations that I find stressful as much is practically possible. That's a for better or worse thing too I suspect.

    I also worry that I sometimes, particularly when really stressed, become a negative train of thought speaker. Hate when I've done that around people I don't trust, which is pretty much people with the exception of my partner, bless them.