Neurodivergence

It's all about delivery of the message and "reading the room".

In my own neurodivergent experiences, those two "tricks" I mentioned above are damn near impossible.

In all cases that I have had issues with helping someone, I usually failed at asking myself the following:

1. Did the person ask for assistance, or, did I ask if they needed assistance?
2. Did I pre-judge that person's intelligence level (or lack of intelligence..)?
3. Was the person already frustrated and I failed to notice?
4. Could I potentially make the overall situation worse if I interject?
5. Am I actually walking down the street of a large city where interacting with random strangers might not be healthy? (/s)

Over my years of failing at interaction, I have built mental flow chart of how to interact with others. It doesn't always work and that is OK!

TBH, I kind of loosely define this is an internalized derivative of "masking", but not unhealthy. I have my own little checklists that I can think about and tweak. Failure is always an option and an opportunity to learn how to interact with others better next time.