If I had a nickel for every time someone says "this person's being a huge jerk to me but I think they might be neurodivergent"
If I had a nickel for every time someone says "this person's being a huge jerk to me but I think they might be neurodivergent"
Regular reminder that being an asshole is not a symptom of any form of neurodivergence. (You can replace “neurodivergent” with depressed, anxious, bipolar, etc. and the diagram works equally well)
ETA: social faux pas, awkwardness, and genuine symptoms of neurodivergence don’t make you an asshole. I shouldn’t have to say this? An “asshole” is someone who enacts a pattern of abusive, controlling, harassing, and/or harmful behavior with no remorse or concern for how other people are affected.
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I was in a coffee shop a few years ago and a guy in line was wearing an O.G.R.E. shirt, a way old computer game from 1986.
I said "Nice shirt! Never played that game, though."
Completely delighted, he ranted about his love for the game until my order was ready. And it was a bit hard to get away from him afterward.
This is definitely someone who could've fallen into that category.
But I don't see it that way because I'm also neurodivergent and know people never engage with us like that. Might have made his day.
Just a little story from that borderline in the Venn diagram.
Sounds like you touched on their special interest. You almost certainly made their day, even if you felt a little awkward. I have autism and my special interest has changed several times, but that passion usually remains (especially if it lasted for a year or longer). It's taken my entire adult life to figure out when people no longer care
I didn't think anyone would have considered that asshole behavior. Annoying, maybe, but that doesn't come across as mean.
I think a better example would be something like a coworker saying "You said you'd send me that information yesterday" which can be interpreted as "hey can you send me that information you mentioned?" OR "hey fucko, you lied to me"
That's not asshole behavior. That's called autistic infodumping.
Basically autistic people get dopamine from talking about there special interests. It is like riding a roller coaster and sometimes it is hard to stop.