Autism

Yes, but not immediately. I am seen as obviously odd, but friendly, like a very big dog. I frequently have people stop me in shops to get help getting something off a shelf or finding something in the store, though I don't mind at all, I enjoy helping people. I also get asked for directions all the time in public, a couple of times a week on average, and according to other people I know that is far more than they have. I guess I just have that "open face" people talk about, and I also make more eye contact than NTs because of masking, so I think people take that as an invitation.

Also, once people talk to me for a while, and I mean like 15-20 minutes, they tend to clock that something is up. I know a lot of things in many areas thanks to the ADHD interest in just about anything, so I can speak from a relatively informed position on many more topics than people expect. They think I am just like them because I know a comparable amount about their favourite topics as they do, so obviously it must be equally important to me as it is to them. Given a fairly short time they will watch me interact with someone else and see the same thing happen and have that moment of confusion because I am interested in too many things.

After a little while of knowing me people refer to me as a wikipedia on wheels or google with a face. If I don't know something I am always prompt to say so, but if you ask me again later that day I have likely gone and fixed that hole and have something useful to say about it, and sometimes people do exactly that. I feel like a very odd LLM in a body running on 40 watts and being surprisingly efficient.

It was, apparently, really obvious to anyone who saw me or twin interacting with one another lol

Except mother. She's going to deny it until she's dead.

People really like me when they first meet me, but I always struggled making actual friends. I dont know how to be friends with women, like, at all. Ive clicked with a couple over the years, but its very obvious theyre ND too.

for the longest time growing up, I wished badly I could see myself from a third person veiw to figure out what I was doing wrong. These days im certain its just the ND bit.

Im not autistic or ADHD (that I know of) but im 100% people do. One is I like to wear what I want to and I don't like to groom and only do it for work and when my wife insists. I also tend to say what im thinking and value honesty and truth above all. Then there is a lady in my complex who is just driven nuts by how slowly I learn names and faces or names to faces really.

From sight alone? No.

As soon as I open my mouth and either fumble over a normal conversation or go on an hour long infodump about the latest science rabbit hole I fell into? Yes.

I think so. Anyone who's talked with me at length knows I'm autistic, and I think they think I'm weird.

I've found that the quickest people to clock me as such are (thankfully) neruodivergent as well.

Every now and again, I notice how odd I really am, and I can see their perspective. Like "wow, I really am a little weirdo."

Yes. I've been aware of that I was different pretty much my entire life.

Yep, always was the "outsider", the "weird one", though nowadays people are usually more polite and just go "I don't think A. would be interested", etc.

Mostly not, masking is a bitch.

However I've always had inherent disadvantages due to this.

I'm very eccentric and slightly flamboyant I think. I once had someone tell me something to the effect of "When I first met you I thought "oh, who's this flamboyantly gay autistic guy" Then I realized that was just daggermoon being daggermoon". Ultimately, I am different and i'm proud of that fact because most people are conformist and lame.

One time I was telling a friend a story about My partner, who's a living airplane, and it didn't even register as strange to My friend because "oh well if it's Vi-, anything goes." My weirdness makes all of My weird stories sound normal. I mean, I do My grocery shopping dressed as a wizard, so...

I assume yeah, but as i cant see myself from the outside perspective so it's just a guess.

I do know i avoid eye contact and generally wear pretty much the same clothes for years. Of course i wash those, i just have multiple pairs of the exact same clothes. So that might stand out on repeated occasions.

There's a constant fidgeting as well which might stand out.

On a positive note, over the years I've managed to implement a solid training and dieting routine so by now i stand out that way as well.

I think most people think I'm autistic and/or ADHD.

I'm at the super annoying "something ain't quite right but it's easily brushed off until someone decides you are being two faced as an act of cruelty towards them" part of the spectrum.

I mask very well, up until the point where I open my mouth

Yeah. It may take a little bit for people to try to understand what it is about me that's different, but they are aware of it. The lack of eye contact an the rather constant exhaustion and inconsistent social niceties are tells even if I can mask it for short periods of time. The fact is my mask slips all the time but people may not always have the context to put together why. But they know something is off.