Embarrassing Autism Moment (Irreversible)

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At the University I teach 2 chem lab session to fund my grad program tuition. I LOVE chemistry and even might like teaching lab - lab is my home.

Anyway, the embarrassing moment. I had a TA meeting with the lab coordinator. I am familiar with this experiment but we do all do a quick rehearsal beforehand to collaborate. Lab coordinator asked me read the next step since she wasn't sure and wanted to clarify.
I did read. Then, Lab coordinator had to be more specific with me (I do take instruction literally) - I am to read ALOUD. Then she said, I guess to lighten the embarrassing moment around others, "I meant read aloud, I am not a mind-reader."

I read the passage aloud and tried to pretend that did not happen. But it did. I guess, in retrospect, this might be kind of funny but at the time I was embarrassed. Don't know what other TAs thought (I'm not a mind-reader)!

There's no 'undoing' my stupid 'Autistic Moments.' Disturbing.

I had something like that happen to me in class, I normally talk very quietly, and I was told be
the instructor to speak louder, well I only have 2 volume settings, whisper, and squeaky loud.

I am quiet too, but I was reading the manual in my mind, not speaking. I guess I missed the entire intent of the question....sigh.

The same thing happened to me in my Psychology class. It was one of those 'why can't the earth open up and swallow me on the spot moments'.

If someone tells me to read something, I would generally not assume they mean to read it aloud.

Do you really think non-autistic people would never make the same mistake?

yes the pain of awkward AS moments........used to happen to me all the time, in fact they still happen and pain me.

the difference between now and then is that i accept that i do this sometimes.

the pain is still there but it doesnt hurt anymore, and THAT is the difference for me.

I've felt that way. I still blush when I think about some of the gaffes I've made. But you could be overestimating the importance of the mistake. I tend to expect never to be forgiven (had a lot of that in childhood), but people often prove me wrong.

I managed to give a scientific talk in front of a large group of colleagues a few years ago. I think I made it OK, though it was scary - felt like I was talking into a black hole, I got a strange choking sensation that must have been purely psychological.

I'm lucky to have developed my voice through years of singing practice, though the spoken word is still much harder, and it's a big effort to put intonation into it rather than mumbling, at least for long periods of time or when I'm not sure whether I dare speak. I seem to do fairly well in that respect with people around, and can sound quite good rehearsing alone, but when recording alone into a dictaphone, I've never been able to do anything but mumble

Having a normally quiet talking voice does thin out the chances of being heard. It's as if the world is slightly deaf for much of the time. I sometimes toy with the idea of taking elocution lessons.

Well I don't get embarassed about moments like that anymore. I get angry instead - why the hell can't they be more specific and say what they mean? I think of it as being extremely ethnocentric, because if they were speaking to a person from another culture, that person would probably take them literally too.

I hate when I don't understand what somebody means, and it's something that they assume should have been obvious.

Yes I'm sure it's the same process.

I had a REALLY embarassing moment recently. I was talking about something with someone I know around the Uni. I say some mother joke or something, he says something along the lines of "thats a really touchy subject for me, just refrain from saying mother stuff like that" but I think he's kidding, and only after going on for a little bit do I realize he was serious and appologize .

It doesn't hurt anymore. That's something I have learned. Anyway I've been watching myself in order to not get caught anymore.

I'm NT and I would have thought two things in this situation:

1. I would have clarified and said, "You mean out loud?"

or

2. I would have read the instruction to myself first and then said to the group, "OK. The next step says to..."

*********************

I get myself into embarrassing situations as well, LabPet. I find that the best way is to laugh it off and make a joke. Most of the time, the people end up laughing with me.

LabPet, that happened to me in French class in high school. I can't remember if anyone laughed or not. There have been so many embarrassing moments like that over the years. That one wasn't one of the worst.

There was the time when four of us (in high school) were getting coffee/hot chocolate at a café, and the person next to me got a square of chocolate with his coffee. I thought "he's a guy, guys don't eat chocolate, he won't want it" and then found myself saying out loud "who gets the chocolate?" Oops! He said "yes, the person to the left of the person who gets the coffee always gets the chocolate", laughing it off. Someone else called me greedy, and after that I kept my mouth shut more.

I think it depends partly on how other people handle it when it happens.

I'm sure some of your collegues thought you did it on purpose or that it was cute and funny.

We all do something silly like that every once and awhile. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Thanks for that feedback, Esther. I too thought it wasn't a big Aspie deal, but wasn't sure.