Sry, what were you saying? Could you repeat that while facing me and almost yelling. Your words were completely indistinguishable from general background sound, ADHD side kicks in and i zoned out.
Or just nod and pretend i heard.
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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Meanwhile, I dont look at what I'm paying attention to and can keep a full conversation by just not looking.
I'm more than likely unable to listen if I'm looking directly at you.
Sorry I can't hear anything you're saying with how loud and distracting this eye contact is right now.
You don't have to be autistic to do that, I do it every day.
But are you on the autism scale? This is the real question.
It's a spectrum, and we're ALL on it somewhere. None of us are normal, there's no such thing.
I appreciate what your trying to say here. I think you're trying to say everyone is weird in their own way.
I hope I can impress upon you that saying 'everyone is on the spectrum to some degree' is not that. It's trivializing to people who live with a qualified disability and a fundamentally different experience of living as a person under difficult contraints..
I doubt you mean to communicate that, but the best way to go forward is to find some different words.
I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I have so many people in my life like family members, friends, friends of friends, etc. who have various versions of autism, ADHD, add, aspergers, etc.that it has truly started to feel like EVERYBODY has some sort of issue, especially when you consider all those other people who haven't been diagnosed with anything, but clearly have something going on.
Like me. I've come to realize that I'm not normal, and have never been normal. I think there are many, many more that never questioned it, and haven't realized that they simply aren't right, but they have no other frame of reference, so that's their normal.
Lately I've been thinking that our society is so dysfunctional that it warps EVERYBODY who lives through it. To acknowledge the mental damage that modern society inflicts isn't disrespectful to its victims, its recognizing that we should be changing our society so it doesn't develop so many people with dysfunctional mentalities.
Yeah its a valid perspective, broadening the matter quite a lot beyond the scope of autism to include pretty much anything that might be unusual in someone’s way of being.
I kind of thought this was where you were coming from. So to bring it back to the original point. “The spectrum” is specific to autism, and refers to a specific-subset of, as you say, warped dysfunctionality.
I do believe you mean well. Plenty of people out there misrepresent their thoughts in ways they dont mean. Fundamentally, you’re addressing a group fraught with communication challenges so in that way I can sympathize with your situation.
You may want to think about this a little more, or not. Idk.
I understand, thanks.
Rich world within demanded my attention. Or perhaps I was attempting to solve a riddle someone presented to me fifteen years ago.