Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

They may show an interest in me, but their questions feel pointed, or like a test.

One way to probe the difference, though, is to look at people who have stuck around when you haven’t been perfect.

It can be beneficial to get an outsider’s perspective to see if someone really is being “too nice” to you, as Samuel put it, or if you’re just so accustomed to mistreatment that niceness strikes you as suspect.

protectiveness and self-doubt

The strawberry people even became friends with one another—Samuel writes that they all talk in a single group chat.

He centered them in his life.

Find Your “Strawberry People”

“For people-pleasers, we’re so used to working endlessly hard in relationships—it’s disorienting when we aren’t asked to.”

Autism is not something I need to apologize for. Other people don’t need to understand me, or understand everything about Autism, in order to treat me with respect. I am [coming out/asking for accommodations] for me, not for anyone else.