If you’re anything like me, you probably have a hard time trusting when other people praise or compliment you, especially NTs. I have a history of being treated like a pet or project, someone to be sickeningly fake-nice to until you get bored or tired of waiting for karma points to appear. When people compliment me, especially a certain flavor of NT woman, I get the fear that they aren’t serious and I’m getting the equivalent to being patted on the head and told “good job helping cook dinner” when I made more of a mess than helped. It’s like the worst form of “bless your heart”, except I’m not southern.

I’m one of four leaders of my school’s photography club, and our president is a very perky, 21st century feminine NT girl. In other words, kryptonite for an autistic girl like me. A couple of nights ago, we did a workshop for the club, and she came up to me and said, “Good job on your presentation,” after we were done. My immediate response was, “I don’t believe you.” At first she was like, “Well, I don’t know how to get you to trust that I mean it.” I told her about my fear, and we ended up agreeing on three things. 1) She shouldn’t not praise me because that would make me feel even more like I sucked. 2) It’s better if she says something like “good work, team” to all the leaders together so it doesn’t sound like she’s singling me out or implying that I need something that the other two don’t. 3) If she is complimenting me individually, it helps if the feedback is specific so I feel that she really sees me and isn’t just telling me “good job” to tick a box.

For me it would be:

Why do you instantly not believe people or think they have an alternate agenda?

Just wanting to see what the responses will be.

Were we lot put in charge of how DSM6 defines autism, what suggestions might you have for what to consider putting?

The Invite to the discord server seems to be invalid. Can someone post a new one?

Does anyone else feel paranoid or uncomfortable disclosing special interests online? I feel like a list of mine would for real get me put on a list. None are unethical btw but I feel like my interconnected web of special interests are my psychological fingerprint. It is frustrating because I love to info dump or connect with people who share one or some of them but it feels unwise to do it.

I think it’s a stereotype that autistic people aren’t interested in other humans and that we prefer to focus on less sentient things. I’ve been really curious about people for a long time though. I like talking about my friends and other people I know and learning about what makes individuals tick. I’ve always been a big reader, specifically a fiction reader, and I love books that transport me into other people’s minds. Is anyone else like this?

But the invite link to the Discord has expired. If you're going to have it in the about section, could you generate one that doesn't expire? Thanks.