Highly specific question, I know.
When people compliment me, I genuinely don’t know what to do. It feels like they’ve given me a physical object, and I’m just standing there holding it awkwardly, but I don’t know what to do with it.
Complements and praise does nothing for me emotionally, so I just say “thank you”; in the same way you thank a kid that handed you a rock they found on the ground.
Like, I appreciate the sentiment — as in, I know they’re trying to be nice or something, so it doesn’t bother me. It’s just one of many small things that makes social stuff a bit harder. For example, I probably don’t give out any complements to other people, because it doesn’t occur to me as an important thing to do. I’m sure this has many effects in my life I’m not aware of.
If I learned anything on my (incomplete) journey to get diagnosed it’s that diagnostics (by NT) are still completely lacking and only seeing the obvious, being completely mislead by those of us who are atypical.
So I’d say those of us are (far) more knowledgeable than the current average knowledge about being Autist and the circumstances than the medical field/psychology. Also therapy of course.
So on the end I hope for the future at some point we will be far more included in this and hence the deeper issues can finally be included and being worked on.
In this field imo we’re still at the point like in the medical field when women were just handled as smaller men, with the man as reference. We have a different foundation. The less obviously ‘disabled’ we are, the more devious the damages of us simply adapting are.
Hm, maybe I should do a Ted talk.