It is a learnable skill, not easy, but doable with a healthy dash of hyperfixation. Expressions, micro-expressions, posture, tone etc. You can even end up better at it than a normie. Doesn't make it fun though.
this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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I read this the other way. I can immediately read the room when I walk in, that's why I don't want to go anywhere.
It's just extra exhausting.
I'm sure there are bomb squad technicians who are happy on the job, but even they would hasten to agree it is work.
If you see me running, try to keep up...
"you can't be autistic, you're so emotionally intelligent!"
I can but I don't know how to respond to a lot of it and that's what makes it stressful.
Yes and no. I don’t “read the room” in a way I can rationally understand why I don’t like a place or a group’s “vibes”.
But I feel physically ill in some places, around some people. Like I get a low-level anxiety attack and feel nauseous and weird.
Cousin with a spectrum said to me he quits a place as soon as he detects bigotry by the way how other people respond to him. Or why he loves his friends more than his family.
It really depends on the other person. Some people are just more intentional about showing their hostility than others. When I'm around people who are really well practiced in being kind to weirdos, I can believe they actually like me even though they hate me.
I'm good at picking up on a person's general trustworthiness almost immediately after I watch them talk to someone they're comfortable talking to. That's about the only skill I have in that area of things, so if it's a room of people who aren't strangers conversing, then yeah, usually I can pick up on the people to avoid as well as if everyone is to be avoided, lol.
I generally can't.... Which I why I avoid doing places
Wisdom is my dump stat, so no. I just get overwhelmed in the trying.
I think I do this, but only because I didn't know I was autistic, and just had to. Mostly, I find someone I know and stick with them.
'I won't be attending this meeting you are about to have because it could have been an email sent by me summarising the whole meeting before it happens.'
Yes, along with the Cassandre Effect it brings up when you can read a room/situation so well you can predict its outcome while being believed by nobody. I also have absolute pitch and can know from micro-tonal variations in a person's voice if they are lying to me.
This particular trait has made being in a couple particularly hard.
Now I'm hikikomori and my social life is less stressful.