Published on 12, July, 2020
I've realised that people prefer it if I start with pleasantries, not just going straight to the point of what I want to say.
e.g. just now I went to get my recycling bin after it had been emptied. At least I thought it was my bin. I saw my neighbour getting into his car so I called 'is this my bin?' He looked blankly at me and said, 'hello, how are you? Haven't seen you for a while.' I was confused, I needed to know if that bin was mine or his. He was confused because he hadn't seen me for a while and wanted to say hello, not talk about bins.
Then it dawned on me, ta dahhhhhhhhhh! I should have said 'hello how are you?' Before launching into the questions about the bin.
I like to get straight to the point, never mind chit chat. Most humans prefer the chit chat first.
I hope this has been helpful
The thing is, all that is happened is you've realised a little more about how neuotypical people interact.
Knowing they want pleasantries doesn't mean we can engage in them in the same way they do.
Try and do it for a while and see what happens. Often when Autistic people try to be more neurotypical it leads to burnout and not being able to do tasks we want to.
Well I think I've done well to realise this. I'm not going to put myself down just because you don't see it as a big achievement for my brain.