Introducing Myself as Autistic: Would It Make a Difference?

Did they reprimand you during dinner or after dinner? Were they reminding you of etiquette or were they upset?

You are not the problem. Your parents are lame, I'm sure the family you went to dinner with was fine with whatever you needed to do to feel comfortable.

This is a tough decision to make, and very personal. In my experience many people 'understand' the social difficulty side of it, like in conversation, but fail to understand the full complexity and multidimensionality to it. Ultimately when disclosing it, you also need to be ready to become the educator of what it means and how it affects you more broadly. And when you do throw it because of lack of complete understanding people still do judge you... What took me a while to learn is the language of experience... It broadens the chance that people across diagnoses and such can relate to your struggles, cause many of the challenges many conditions (and even people without/undiagnosed could relate as well). It might look something like "I struggle with____" it could contine with for me it looks something like x, y, or z