NT phrases or questions that drive you nuts!

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I have really been struggling when people ask me "How are you doing today?"

I don't want to lie to them, but I don't want to tell them the truth or even really to talk to them.


When I know them socially or at work, I am trapped!

I am left saying "I don't know how to answer that question right now."

Which is suitably ambiguous that they don't know how to respond and they leave me alone, so I guess it is a win for me.

Maybe that is the key, just develop a large pool of incredibly ambiguous responses for all the incredibly stupid questions that people ask.

I will start working on this and report back.

"That is unacceptable"

I notice that people tend to say that after I do something inadvertently shocking, like shimmy up a tree in a pants suit. What, are you rejecting me from some group of people in your mind? or maybe you can't "accept" that it happened? Either way, it makes it sound like a problem with the person who said it more than with my behavior imo.

"~aspect."

I notice this became a really popular $10 word a couple of years ago for NTs to stick at the end of sentences. So far as I can tell, it gets used when people want to sound smart, but has no meaning other than that when they use it in that manner. For instance:
"The economy would have been crushed by the oil spill if not for the tourism aspect."
... should really just be:
"The economy would have been crushed by the oil spill if not for tourism."

I'm glad to know that it's not just me who really struggles to not actually answer the question when asked how they are.

I've been asked why I'm so miserable by friends and family members for years and the answer I always wanted to give was "Because I was born on the wrong planet." As I've only just realised that I almost certainly have Aspergers, I could never justify that answer in the past.

Living through childhood, adolescence and almost a decade of adulthood being considered to be NT means I could write a book on the amount of sh***y questions that have been directed at me. There's still a lot of residual bitterness that I'm trying to let go of however so I'm going to abstain from listing them -- for the time being at least!

People say

"You look tired"
"Hows your day going"
"Did you get any sleep last night"?
"How's business?"

When people say "how are you" i just say "good thanks" and return the question.

I hate any variation of "X [number of people] can't be wrong" as an advertising tactic to get the reader/listener/me to do/buy/read something. Of course large groups of people can be wrong. Have you read a page of history? Millions of people can be wrong about the product you are trying to advertise, and even if they weren't, that alone would be no reason for me to buy in!

And I'll join the crowd this time and agree that any variation of "how are you" when used as a greeting and not a serious question drives me bonkers.

"We're just worried about you!" - a prelude to forcing me to do something I don't want to do