Autism you witnessed IRL - share your stories

[Niggergante]

In college, I was going to the student center to pick up some lunch and as I make my way through the atrium, or whatever you call that area between two sets of doors going outside (kinda like an airlock if that helps you picture it), this guy charges the door from the inside and very abruptly stopped before hitting it and walked away like nothing happened.

 

[John Andrews Stan]

In college, I was going to the student center to pick up some lunch and as I make my way through the atrium, or whatever you call that area between two sets of doors going outside (kinda like an airlock if that helps you picture it), this guy charges the door from the inside and very abruptly stopped before hitting it and walked away like nothing happened.

Breezeway.

 

[Niggergante]

Breezeway.

Thanks friend I couldn't remember the term for the life of me.

Actually breezeway isn't right. It was closed and was a buffer for the outside air coming in. After some googling it appears that vestibule is the better word.

 

[John Andrews Stan]

It was closed

Ah, okay. I’m tempted to sperg out about architectural nomenclature and interior versus exterior transitory spaces, just to make this more on-topic.

Thread tax: Someone from my college friend group, let’s call him Tom, was obsessed with capeshit comics and talked about them nonstop. Any topic of conversation that ever came up, he would redirect as quickly as possible to comics.

His second most passionate love was libertarian politics, so at one point one of our friends told him “I don’t care about comics. Even if Ayn Rand comes back from the dead to head up the Justice League, I still won’t care about comics. If you ever bring up comics again, I’m punching you in your fucking face.”

TOM: “Ooh, this is just like issue 374 of the Marvel comic—“

Left hook. Man down.

TOM: “In the words of [some capeshit character none of us had heard of]…”

To this day, now in his 50s, Tom is still sperging about comics. We stopped inviting him to shit about 15 years ago due to this and other annoying behavior. (Believe it or not, he never got married — form an orderly queue, ladies.)

Moral of the story: When you think someone should have been bullied harder as a kid, don’t underestimate how hard someone may have tried.

 

[seri0us]

In college, I was going to the student center to pick up some lunch and as I make my way through the atrium, or whatever you call that area between two sets of doors going outside (kinda like an airlock if that helps you picture it), this guy charges the door from the inside and very abruptly stopped before hitting it and walked away like nothing happened.

I wonder how many small strange things I've done that people still remember years later

 

[glass_houses]

I wonder how many small strange things I've done that people still remember years later

I can't think of how many times I've had to abruptly stop, turn around, and go back the way I came when my adhd riddled brain suddenly randomly spat out shit that I'd forgotten to do or whatever.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

I can't think of how many times I've had to abruptly stop, turn around, and go back the way I came when my adhd riddled brain suddenly randomly spat out shit that I'd forgotten to do or whatever.

I think that is fairly normal.
When I have 20 things to do, brain wants to do all 20 at once.

 

[Broseph]

So this past weekend at work I saw this... ugly androgynous thing shopping for groceries while I was out on the floor. I honestly couldn't tell if it was a very ugly dude attempting to pass as a woman (and clearly failing) or if it was just a very ugly woman who happened to look like an ugly man, but since this thing was shopping with two zoomer-age people I'm guessing it was the former.

Just goes to show:

 

[Meat Target]

There's an old couple at my place of work who come in and, instead of conducting business, rant about politics and religion to my co-workers. They're QAnon/Alex Jones-type kooks, so if it's making me cringe, you know they're crazy.

Like, keep that shit to yourself. Don't you have grandkids or medical issues or something else you could bore us to death with?

I wanna tell them about adrenochrome, just to fuck with them.

 

[The Decimator]

My old therapist invited me to “Camp Spectacular” many years ago. For five whole days, I was surrounded by hundreds of extremely disabled people. I could go on all day about the horrors I saw there, but the one that immediately comes to my mind is this one kid who thought that saying “buffalo chicken” over and over again was somehow funny.

I take an art class every Tuesday and Friday. One of my classmates is a dude with Down’s syndrome who laughs like Frank Burns and belches every five minutes. Really nice guy, though, and he draws the coolest monsters.

 

[glass_houses]

I was at a shopping centre I only visit once or twice a month today. The centre is smallish but is in a major location, so it's something of an unnecessary drama to visit unless I have something specific in mind. As I entered I noticed an adult man who was well dressed but... off. I did all the things I needed to, and kept seeing the man. Very quickly it became apparent that while he was friendly and smiling, and behaving in an appropriate manner, he had some form of intellectual impairment.

I'm not sure he belongs in this thread because he was never (that I saw) acting out in any way, but the more I saw him the more worried I was that he didn't have a minder with him, even though he probably needed one. Discreet investigations with centre staff revealed that he visits frequently and just wanders back and forth for hours.

I suspect that his carers get him dressed, give him a couple dollars, and then bugger off until they absolutely have to come and pick him up some hours later. The centre is small, as I said, so the staff would know him and keep an eye on him. Still, it was clear that he was very lonely and wanted to be around people. It was sad and a little concerning. He wasn't impaired enough to be eligible for a day program for adults, but he was obviously too low functioning to be left on his own at home. If one of the stores had given him a vest and set him out front as a greeter for a few hours a day he probably would have been thrilled.

Where there's a crack, there's someone to fall through it.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

I'm not sure he belongs in this thread because he was never (that I saw) acting out in any way, but the more I saw him the more worried I was that he didn't have a minder with him, even though he probably needed one. Discreet investigations with centre staff revealed that he visits frequently and just wanders back and forth for hours.

I don't think it's off-topic to mention him if you suspect he was autistic from his mannerisms even if he didn't behave inappropriately. It wouldn't surprise me if the government bureaucracy deems him too functional to need a long-term wrangler even if he's not functional enough to be independent. Thankfully, he seems harmless enough and simply likes going from place to place to interact with whomever is willing to do so.

Where there's a crack, there's someone to fall through it.

My worry would be that someone with bad intentions would see him unsupervised and somehow take advantage of him or put him in a bad situation.

 

[Molesting the Decapitated]

Once while I was walking home late at night a dude came up to me in a pickup truck and asked me directions, then I said "i'm not sure where that is I mostly just use maps to get around" then he instantly changed the subject and says "Theres this girl Im on my way over to right now, shes kind of freaky. You want to double-team her?". He was pretty elderly and had a fairly raspy voice.

I wish I could make this shit up, it was so insane I even asked to repeat himself even though I clearly knew what he said the first time.

 

[Broseph]

Once while I was walking home late at night a dude came up to me in a pickup truck and asked me directions, then I said "i'm not sure where that is I mostly just use maps to get around" then he instantly changed the subject and says "Theres this girl Im on my way over to right now, shes kind of freaky. You want to double-team her?".

And you didn't take him up on his offer?

 

[seri0us]

My ex from 20 years ago:

• Goes apeshit over aspect ratios and “pan and scan” visual formatting
• Is even more anal about audio quality, to the point where he won’t listen to music on ANY headphones ever, or on any speakers that don’t meet his ideal specs
• Still spergs out about how laser disc players were far superior to DVD players and the sheer INJUSTICE of DVDs eclipsing laser disc players
• Was a literal trainspotter; I once found a cache of ~100 little notebooks in his childhood bedroom (we were prepping the family homestead for sale), all full of train numbers, locations, etc.
• Hated Windows NT (remember that?) so much that he referred to it as Windows NW (“not working”)
• Was once at an ATM when the cash point software crashed and he saw it reboot. The operating system? Windows NT. Cue massive fucking meltdown that culminated in him hand-delivering a letter to his bank’s HQ in London, addressed to the CEO, informing him that he was taking his business (all £3,000/month of it ) elsewhere until they replaced Windows NT with a respectable OS.

I have so many more stories about him but that’ll do for now. (The one time his sister tried to broach the topic of his possible autism with him, by sending him a link to an article about Asperger’s Syndrome, he flew into a rage and would forever after speak angrily about how he didn’t have “Ass Burgers.”)

Do you have any more stories about him?

 

[Buttercream]

I have a neighbor who is weird as all hell. He lives by himself and turns down every invitation to everything. The other day I steong armed him into getting a coffee with me so he wouldn't be alone all the time (I really feel bad for the guy, he's nice and has been through a lot).

I'm like "yo we're getting coffee, get in the car."

And he's like oh no no I can't.

So I tell him "bro get in the damn car."

As we're cruising through the turns, he suddenly starts talking.

"You know coffee is cool. It's like there but often times one doesn't want to drink it. But it's GOOD for them. It's like a little kid having to brush his teeth, I mean who likes brushing their teeth, but it's necessary and good for your health. So getting this coffee is like brushing my teeth. Some days I just wouldn't want a coffee but it might be good for my health."

Or something like that.

I turned down the radio and looked at him for a second and said, "I agree."


Holy fuck.

I know a few middle-aged to older folks like this who have either served or been victims of crime and become somewhat reclusive as a result. Sounds like agoraphobia and nerves more than tism. Good on you trying to reach out to him.
How's he doing now?

 

[Unfiltered Sunshine]

I know a few middle-aged to older folks like this who have either served or been victims of crime and become somewhat reclusive as a result. Sounds like agoraphobia and nerves more than tism. Good on you trying to reach out to him.
How's he doing now?

Same. Tried to get him to go get some fast food earlier and he said hell no and wanted to watch a TV show.

 

[glass_houses]

Same. Tried to get him to go get some fast food earlier and he said hell no and wanted to watch a TV show.

It's great that you've made a few more attempts. It's perfectly understandable if you're going to leave it at that and not get further involved, but the small kindnesses you've given him already will be very helpful if he decides to try and rejoin the world later on. It really helps traumatised people to realise that not everyone has sharp edges. I know a lot of people who've been in emergency services or served in the military or just had random shittiness happen, and it's pretty common for them to isolate for years afterwards until their head clears.

 

[Unfiltered Sunshine]

It's great that you've made a few more attempts. It's perfectly understandable if you're going to leave it at that and not get further involved, but the small kindnesses you've given him already will be very helpful if he decides to try and rejoin the world later on. It really helps traumatised people to realise that not everyone has sharp edges. I know a lot of people who've been in emergency services or served in the military or just had random shittiness happen, and it's pretty common for them to isolate for years afterwards until their head clears.

Yesterday I walked by a autistic teenage girl and she complimented my cat themed t shirt. She told me she had a ginger cat, so I showed her my family of cats, and she seemed very excited and happy, her fingers were twitching all fast. She called her mom over and asked me to show her mom my cats. After all our convo, as we parted ways, her mom thanked me for some odd reason. I'm glad I made some kids day just by talking to them.

 

[Bollywood Bulk Bogan]

Chink schizo faggot I no longer work with who had a lot of based takes but wouldn't shut up about how much he hated japs, lebs, and women and how much jap and lebo pussy he was supposedly slaying. Started bragging about all the crazy sex he was having with his "jap" girlfriend a year back. Showed me a picture of them together and she turned out to be some redhead from Adelaide with tweaker eyes.