Trouble with 2 or more interlocuters

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I can do great with 1 interlocuter. "Hey, you're not autistic!" is a common refrain. I do seem to have problems with 2 or more, however. Shortly after graduating college back in 2008, at a time when I thought my autism/Aspeger's was something I had completely left behind, I went to a job interview which had 2 interviewers! At the end, one of the interviewers said that I stared too much when I spoke. I had no idea.

At work, when in a conversation with multiple people, I do notice that I have difficulty getting my point in. I wait for the other person to stop, and then I hear the person stop, but then when I begin to speak someone else has already begun.

Thanks for this. I get this too. With one person I can be fine, but a group is hard to process. Tony Attwood writes about this precise topic, suggesting that it is very typical of people with Asperger's.

I get this on a near-daily basis. Sometimes, I tell people that if their children behave in a way they see as "not natural" for them, it could be a sign that they have Aspergers. However, most people I have spoken with have said that Aspergers "isn't real" and that I'm just trying to get attention for myself.

Oh, absolutely, yes. I can do very well with one-on-one conversations, but above that number it gets too complicated. I've experienced that problem of being unable to get a word in edgeways. Sadly, people in general seem like they either don't know or don't care when members of a group are getting left out. I've complained about it but have been told that it's up to me to speak up, and I feel that's just too competitive.

Of course with something like an interview, the focus would naturally be on me - I wouldn't expect two interviewers to go into dialogue with each other and forget I was there I've been interviewed by 2 or 3 people at a time, and apart from feeling more intimidated, it's not really been a problem, so I guess my main trouble with multiple people is the exclusion thing and the complication of so many possible combinations of speaker and target(s). In an interview, it's always been one or other of them talking to me or me talking to the whole pack of them.

This is definitely a very common (if not possibly universal) experience for people with Aspergers. I most certainly have this issue and for me it is one of the major causes of frustration, anxiety and anger in the workplace.