Autism Spectrum Disorder is a condition. That is quite different than a mental illness like bipolar or depression. It is a difference in the way the brain is wired, much like a pick up truck is different than a car. It is a dfferent operating system. And it is a minority of people who are wired this way, so nuerotypical people may not understand or recognize it.
It is very easy to see that a person in a wheelchair must function dfferently in life than a person with normative physcal function. It is harder to grasp how an ASD person has functional differences for a couple of reasons, the first being it is an invisible condition, and the second being that it is on a contiunuum (spectrum) and no two individuals present behaviorally in exactly the same way. So what you know about one individual may not closely translate to another individual. Added to that are varying capabilities to "mask" the condition short term by observing and imitating normative behavior, and this is a learned skillset.
ASD carries strengths that nuerotyipical people do not have. Again those strengths vary. My husband can code at an elite level in over a dozen languages. He can focus on that literally 24 hours straight, he can compute math or analytics in his head at near calculator speed. He is muscally gifted. There are other things he is awesome at besides those things.
But as more is learned about ASD it seems the brain sacrifices other things (like social axis things usually) as a trade off for the unusual competencies exhibited.
I don't have the abilities my husband has. Its pretty incredible. But I have the social competencies in spades and that benefits him in an indirect way.
Ok. I'm off my soabox. I think
@GoodMan32 exhibits unusual self awareness and he is making efforts to cope in a mostly nuerotypical mating environment.
So cut him some slack guys.