I have recieved bullying in the past for allegedly having autism, and because i am going to a new school i would like to see what to hide in order to avoid bullying
One common symptom of autism is extreme intense focus on one thing. I once read about an autistic boy who would play rewind on one scene of the Disney 101 Dalmatians movie hundreds or thousands of times just to watch the scene of Cruella de Vil screeching up the streets in her purple coupe car. The boy didn’t care about the rest of the movie, he just wanted to watch that ten-second scene over and over again.
Now you are probably, of course, past that phase, but sadly, even if you’re in high school, you may need to try to mask showing too much of an interest in any one particular subject.
First let me say, I am so sorry this happened to you. It really is incredibly unfair, and nobody has the right to make you feel unsafe in your school.
That said, I applaud your wish to figure out what you need to do differently. It’s just hard for people who don’t know you to guess what particular signs you might have given off - if any. It’s perfectly possible that this is just a label your peers learned and decided to throw at you randomly.
My best advice would be to google “social skills for neurodivergents” and read what you find. See if the shoe fits, or if you learn anything that feels valuable.
What you are proposing to do is called “masking” and it can take up a lot of your energy. So choose carefully the things that feel important enough to do, and the people who feel important enough to do it for.
Don’t just give up your whole personality, or how can you find your people? And that really is the strongest approach to this problem; look around for the people you like. Get involved in activities that appeal to you. Introduce yourself to people who seem to like the same things you do. That’s how you find your tribe.
I hope some of this is helpful. Good luck!
Autism as presently defined is a very large and wooly diagnosis. There are many many different behaviors, blessings, and limitations that fall within that broad category. There is in fact some controversy among experts that they’ve widened the definition of autism past the point where it’s useful.
Point being that autism presents as many different thought patterns and behaviors, many of which are quite ordinary, but just turned up to 11. e.g. If there’s a 20 item questionnaire of “Do you do X?”, damn near everyone does one or two of those things some. OTOH if you do a couple of them severely or a lot of them most of the time, you more likely fit the diagnosis.
Anyhow, if more quality reading on autism gets you to believing you probably have some autistic traits, you probably ought to approach your parent(s) and the health people, counselors, etc., at your school about your concerns and try to get them to arrange a professional evaluation.
The only thing less helpful than diagnosed autism is undiagnosed autism.