4 reasons you might be surprised when someone who doesn't "look" autistic tells you they are...

4 reasons you might be surprised when someone who doesn't "look" autistic tells you they are... #autismawareness #autismadvocate

[@opie2736]

I'm 26 and just got diagnosed with autism. No one has told me I don't "look autistic," but I think that's because I haven't told many people I am

[@yarnpenguin]

Because of bullying, I learned quickly how to observe other people and trying to do what they did. Because of bullying, Ilearned to keep my most obvious stims (rocking, hand flapping) to the absolute bare minimum in public, instead sticking to the smaller less-obvious, but more physically harmful, ones like picking and chewing the skin around my fingernails, and also chewing my lips and the insides of my cheeks when I was able to be observed by others. Then it came down to suppressing the urge to talk about my special interests as much as possible... to avoid the bullying. The only clear sign, that everyone missed of course, was my very, very frequent echolalia. So of course everyone was shocked when I was diagnosed at 40, though for some of the more observant people in my life (who weren't steeped in stereotype and misinformation about autistic people) would then settle into the "yeah, it's obvious now in hindsight".