Anyone else paranoid about looking autistic?

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I've been paranoid about looking autistic since I found out about my diagnosis. Mainly because people treated me differently.

Whenever I talk about my special interests I always get scared that I'll talk too much about them. I often make up "fake interests" to avoid talking about my special interests. I end up talking about my fake interests too much, so I end up losing anyways.

I also get paranoid that people think I'm weird when I get uncontrollably hyper. I try to control myself, but most of the time I can't. When people acknowledge that I'm hyper I always get mad or annoyed at them. I also act more hyper when I think I'm alone. If I discover I'm not alone I often freak out. Luckily I'm getting healthier again so I don't have to worry as much about being too hyper.

I'm also paranoid about being socially awkward in general. If people ignore what I say I often get paranoid about saying the wrong things and end up leaving.

I would be fine with being open as an autistic if there was no pity party around it. However, as soon as you mention anything about it they start to see you less as a human and it sickens me. Thus, I do everything to hide it as I rather then been seen as a weirdo than someone that needs pity.

No. I don't think many people know enough about autism to associate it with me. They just think I'm a serial killer.

No point in my being paranoid really. No matter how hard I try people always notice something or other. So, I've just gotten to the point where I simply don't care anymore. It's one of the good things about being old I guess....not to care and just be who I am.

You won't believe how many times I've been told that I would grow up to be a serial killer.

People can usually, unless I try really hard to act NT, tell there's something "off" with me, like I'm not crazy, but odd. I try to cover it up, especially after I told someone and they began to treat me like a child or less than human

It depends. Sometimes, I like appearing autistic, but other times... I keep to myself. The only time I show it off is during one of my meltdowns though, which I have no control of. Even then, people still don't see me as autistic, but they see me as this bratty child.

Yeah...maybe.....a little. I´m used to people wondering a bit about me, - finding me a little odd.
How do people "look autistic"?

Yeah, no point in being paranoid about it, I know I behave and move oddly. Often people look at me like I'm a curious specimen. I stare at things, I don't walk so much as lope awkwardly. I make the wrong amount of eye contact. People often shake their heads away from me.

Yes, I do. My eye sight is getting worse and worse by the year so I'm looking into getting contacts because I do not want to wear glasses. Right, before I frustrate people by saying that, let me explain, yes I do know that lots of NTs wear glasses, and obviously glasses are extremely common in older people (but I'm talking about young people around my age). So yes I know that there are young NTs who wear glasses, but because I have an ASD and often look nervous and sensitive and shy anyway, I'm afraid that glasses might make me look more Aspie. I would say that 9 out of 10 people with ASDs and Down's Syndrome that I have seen on the telly or have met in real life or on these forums seem to wear glasses, so as an Aspie me being in glasses people who know I have Asperger's be like ''oh yeah, she wears glasses, that figures''. I'm trying to be as far away from a stereotypical Aspie as possible. So that is why I get annoyed when people go ''your eyesight is terrible!'' But I do know I should get something sorted because I find myself squinting when reading, and I can't see people's faces very well until they come right up to me, which makes me feel stupid. So I guess I will have to sort out contacts, although some people have said that contacts are a hassle to take in and out.

That's the story of my childhood.

Wearing glasses doesn't make somebody look Aspie. In actuality, it could actually make someone look cool!

In the 1970's, it was definitely not hip for people to wear glasses. People who wore glasses were called "four-eyes."

I had the triple whammy: Braces, Glasses, and Fatness.

As far as "looking autistic" is concerned: I don't really care. I just look like me. I have a bit of a "comical" look, which people laugh at. This has helped me hide my communications difficulties.

I used to wonder if I "looked ret*d." I didn't get over this until I got out of high school.

Not really, I mean I know I already seem a bit unusual to people, and doesn't always get the best reactions...not so sure people immediately associate it with autism, but no use being paranoid about it.

I have been tormented as a child because the majority of the people I know treat autistics like they are some sort of tragedy.

That being said, I don't mind revealing it, but it entirely depends on a who.

Am I paranoid about looking autistic? Should I be?

No.

I am not paranoid about looking autistic.

Autism is a big part of who I am. To me, that is like asking, "Am I paranoid about looking like me?" Do I appear different to the people around me in my life (for example: family and fellow workers)? Yes. But not physically. It is in my personality and in the ways I handle myself. It is in my autistic traits. Those are who I am. And I am not paranoid about how I appear to others.

I'm certainly paranoid about it.
Sometimes my eyes are like all the people say "lost". I stare to nothing, not much eye contact. I hate when I do it, looking "dumb" to people

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When you can make sence of this ridiculous technical jargon, you can get back to me. I say phooey!