How would I be characterized? Neurodivergent, but how? See my History for what I experienced. Several different conditions were discussed or considered – they all had some overlap.

Autism

This was the first condition suggested but I discovered my condition is Not Autism. For lack of a better term I did describe my ND as “autism adjacent” for several months before I found the mechanism – it described many of the outward effects.

Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder

This is pretty close on one point:

Difficulties understanding what is not explicitly stated (e.g., making inferences) and non literal or ambiguous meanings of language

but the rest of the points (all required) don’t match, it is Not SCD. I don’t have problems communicating, especially technical information – at least I don’t think so!

Schizoid Personality Disorder

I read about this in an article and it seemed like it had some overlap:

tendency toward a solitary or sheltered lifestyle, reservedness, emotional coldness, detachment, and apathy

I discarded this idea as I didn’t:

Affected individuals may be unable to form intimate attachments to others and simultaneously possess a rich and elaborate but exclusively internal fantasy world.

In fact I had Hypophantasia (which I discovered later). I had friends and I enjoyed talking to them. I wasn’t socially active, but it didn’t repel me.

Alexithymia

I considered that my Flat Affect might be Alexithymia but I could describe my emotions, some better than others.

ASPD

Antisocial Personality Disorder: this classification covers a whole range of behaviors. There are two that are often mentioned – in both cases these authors describe having ASPD with prosocial behavior:

• sociopathy – see Patric Gagne - Sociopath
  • individual is haunted by social signals they cannot feel, leading to internal pressure and a “mask” used for survival. (Saliency: High. Resonance: Low)
• psychopathy – see James Fallon - Psychopath
  • individual is stimulated by social signals as chess pieces, feeling no fear or remorse. (Saliency: High. Resonance: Zero)

These are not clinical terms but the authors of those books find them useful to describe the cluster of behaviors and mechanisms.

Some more overlap in the social behaviors, but not me.

So What Is It?

No Social Salience.

Does it sound like your own experience? I think these are discriminating questions: Checklist.