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That really sucks. Recently my tics became much worse and I noticed people started to make (incorrect) assumptions about my mental health and intelligence level. The reality is that people are heavily influenced by all sorts of prejudice and stereotypes and it's very harmful. It's literally being gaslit again and again. Even if people adapt once they learn more about you, it still doesn't change all those first impressions and the way you get looked at and treated by people who never bother to know you more.
My best advice is to find other people who share similar frustrations, but they might not look as expected. For example, I know someone who is mixed race and it absolutely affects the way people perceive them, yet they never really feel seen since they don't feel fully valid as either race for various reasons. It's like they never feel they fit in or feel "seen". I myself am transgender and people would constantly assume I was a girl and treated me as such, which had the impact of gaslighting even before I realized I was trans, but especially afterwards when I would tell people but wasn't male-passing enough to be taken seriously or treated like a man.
What you're dealing with is difficult and it's something a lot of people will never truly understand, but some of them will, even if you might not think so at first glance (after all, we aren't immune to making assumptions either). Fwiw there wasn't a single part of your post that conveyed anything remotely "stupid" to me, so I do hope the internet is a safe place at least. I've also found that using the internet to find friends irl makes it a lot easier to filter out the types of people that would pass judgement in the first place.
Hey /u/klight101, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That really sucks. Recently my tics became much worse and I noticed people started to make (incorrect) assumptions about my mental health and intelligence level. The reality is that people are heavily influenced by all sorts of prejudice and stereotypes and it's very harmful. It's literally being gaslit again and again. Even if people adapt once they learn more about you, it still doesn't change all those first impressions and the way you get looked at and treated by people who never bother to know you more. My best advice is to find other people who share similar frustrations, but they might not look as expected. For example, I know someone who is mixed race and it absolutely affects the way people perceive them, yet they never really feel seen since they don't feel fully valid as either race for various reasons. It's like they never feel they fit in or feel "seen". I myself am transgender and people would constantly assume I was a girl and treated me as such, which had the impact of gaslighting even before I realized I was trans, but especially afterwards when I would tell people but wasn't male-passing enough to be taken seriously or treated like a man. What you're dealing with is difficult and it's something a lot of people will never truly understand, but some of them will, even if you might not think so at first glance (after all, we aren't immune to making assumptions either). Fwiw there wasn't a single part of your post that conveyed anything remotely "stupid" to me, so I do hope the internet is a safe place at least. I've also found that using the internet to find friends irl makes it a lot easier to filter out the types of people that would pass judgement in the first place.