> Will they melt down or get violent at slightest provocation? Autistic meltdown can be made a lot worse if someone hasn't the theory of mind to understand whe

> Will they melt down or get violent at slightest provocation? Autistic meltdown can be made a lot worse if someone hasn't the theory of mind to understand when someone is experiencing it (i.e., the double empathy problem). This can lead to situations, especially where law enforcement is involved, where people get killed. Physical abuse from parents towards autistic children—once again due to lack of empathy—can cause outbursts to be excessively violent. If you have difficulty reading autistic people, there's training for that, but on the other side, asking autistic people to not meltdown is akin to asking an epileptic person trying not to have a fit. If someone gets particularly violent during meltdowns, they essentially need to be kept away from other people. This can't be trained out with therapy. > Are they telling the truth? If they're autistic, likely answer is: To a fault. A higher IQ autist (archaically 'aspies') can learn social mechanisms, rarely even over and above a neurotypical, but with greater conscious effort and delay. > or with not randomly swerving their car into a crowd because fuck knows why Sounds like a conflation with psychosis. I'm not sure how it's relevant. Many autistic people do struggle with driving and may have dyspraxia, which may require more lesson time, or not qualifying a driving test. I wouldn't class that as exceptional 'conformance' for autists though. But truth be told, autistic people are coached all the time by caregivers on proper behavior, because as you say they have to live in the world.