A lot of the time I think I'm a soulless machine. I try my best of treat other people fairly and kindly (sometimes to the point of not sticking up for myself), but in a machine-like kind of way (without true emotional connection or true "compassion"). It's like I try to act artificially compassionate because I believe in treating others with compassion. But I am kind of a robot so it doesn't come off at all the way a normal person who truly wants the best for others would.

OP:

You don't have to feel bad about it. I'm very distant from everybody that I know and everybody who cares about me. You don't need to feel that you have to reveal your diagnosis to anyone unless you want to for your own reasons. The people who really know you and are close to you can already tell that you care about them in your own way. They know you aren't trying to hurt them with your offbeat/distant/whatever ways. Everybody is different regardless of diagnoses and you have every right to be who you are regardless of being ASD. But if you feel comfortable with telling some of them or feel like you want to then maybe it will help them understand you more or whatever. But even if you didn't know you were ASD you still would have the right to be emotionally distant in my opinion (and they should understand it regardless of whether you're ASD or not)... like I said I am emotionally distant to the max but I think the people I really care about know that I would take a bullet for them even if I'm kind of reclusive and weird.