> To be blunt, I don't want to mask or pretend to be neurotypical. I want to be authentic self. Unfortunately, this often leads to people thinking I dislike the

> To be blunt, I don't want to mask or pretend to be neurotypical. I want to be authentic self. Unfortunately, this often leads to people thinking I dislike them or that I'd prefer to be left alone, even when I make an effort to be outgoing and enthusiastic, ask open-ended questions about them, and so on. Spergs who think like this eventually learn it's unworkable and tend to revert back to simulating* neurotypical behaviour again. If they don't they'll become bitter and claim the world refuses to understand them – which while true at the end of the day only hurts them. No one who would naturally dislike you for who you are is going to be okay with you just because you tell them your a sperg. Not even my family will give me this liberty. If I'm sperging out and refusing to talk they don't say, "oh that's fine, you're a sperg". No, they'll get mad at me and demand I stop being rude – as they should. You live in a neurotypical world. If you want to get on with people you have to learn how to simulate. Even in the unlikely scenario these people accept you for who you are it won't help you. You'll just find it harder to function in the real world because now you're not being forced to practice your simulation since everyone around you has been accepting your anti-social behaviours. If you need to be yourself you should find other autists. But again, just having autist friends isn't a good idea because you'll stop putting effort into simulation. That said, these things depend a lot on how autistic you are. If it's mild autism and you just have a few quirks then perhaps it's fine to be honest with those around you and be yourself. For myself this would be out of the question. --- * I use the word simulating instead of masking. I don't like the idea that I'm "masking" anything about myself, and that's also not what it feels like I'm doing. Masking makes it sound like I'm being deceptive in some way when I'm not. My simulated neurotypical personality is still 100% me I just have a translation layer on top. I always try to be true with how I'm feeling, but present it in a way that's socially acceptable. Eg, instead of pretending you want to be around people, you could just say, "hey, it's a bit loud in here, I think I'm going to sit over there for a while so I can concentrate". One is "masking" how you truly feel, the other is just stimulating a neurotypical response to how you're actually feeling instead of behaving in a way that's perceived as rude. The fact you feel you're being inauthentic might suggest you're trying to be someone you're which might be part of the problem here.