Untypical: How the world isn’t built for autistic people and what we should all do about it

by Pete Wharmby

If we swing back to the Monday-morning scenario we started with when my colleague asks me how my weekend was while I stand at the photocopier, the expectation is clear. My colleague, with all the goodwill in the world, expects me to respond with something approximating ‘Fine, thanks’. If I do this, the interaction will cease, with him being satisfied by its perceived success while I’m left dissatisfied by the lack of honesty and sincerity I was forced into. Thinking about all the times this kind of interaction has left me feeling stressed and unhappy, it’s the dishonesty that hurts the most. By responding with a ‘Fine, thanks’, I will have lied twice. Once with the ‘fine’ – my weekend was awful and I’m still feeling terrible about it (hence the huge coffee) – and second with the ‘thanks’ – I’ve nothing to be thankful for here: they’ve just forced me to lie about my feelings when I would rather have said nothing at all.