Day 4 of #AutismAcceptanceWeek
Masking
Not physically in this case, but please keep wearing your masks until there is no trace of this pandemic left.
Masking is what most autistic people do in social situations. It's sometimes known as chameleoning too! The idea is to blend into a group by guessing what reaction the person they're talking to is after.
Understanding social cues is quite difficult and may require observing a group in real life or even in media to figure out the right responses to certain situations. This can lead to the auty using awkward phrases that might not fit a mood they can't pick up on.
Whether successful or not, masking can be exhausting on any autistic individual and once they are some place safe, they may experience a meltdown or shutdown. They may even over-analyse their conversations of the day to see what they did right or wrong.
Essentially, if your auty friend has said something in response to you, that may sound gimmicky or offensive; please give them the benefit of the doubt, as there's a chance they watched someone who used that response and it went down positively. :)
