Not to mention several or none of those things, combined with some type of neurodivergence. Like, I know I’m supposed to engage socially here and if it’s not a situation I have much experience with I might just accidentally tell the truth in some way that NT’s think is weird.

I had a lifetime movie type experience with an ex several years ago, that was an incredibly close call. Shortly after it happened, I got a haircut and told the hairdresser about it, because it’s a good story. She got pretty quiet and afterwards my sister scolded me for trauma dumping. It probably was that at the time, because I was pretty traumatized, but I didn’t realize that that would make a stranger feel weird.

I was in my early twenties and had not yet learned that I was autistic, but I do tend to pick up on those signals. Just, the stress of the situation made it feel like a thing that should be shared (for real everyone, google peoples full names before you start dating them).