fellow ASDer: took me awhile to learn how to read subtext. Lots of practice and weird ideas. Now it's almost automatic and I've forgotten what ideas I've used (remembered one, a " mental workbench"). Except now masking is my obsession and it feels like 60-70% of my brain is dedicated just to "decoding" everything I hear (i.e. figuring out unspoken intent) ...

Yeah ... I'd rather have just never learned this to begin with, haha ... too exhausting ...