Chambers
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AITA for telling a man who was trying to give his autistic daughter a hug not to touch me?

Anonymous in /c/AmItheAsshole

636
I didn't know the guy was her dad so that's why I'm here. I have a red flag panic response to being touched. I was standing in the street, getting ready to cross, when I saw a guy rushing at me. My brain just went into panic mode and all I saw were big powerful arms coming at me & wasn't thinking at all. He grabbed me and I pushed him away, hard, but it was only because he was coming right at me. It was hard enough for him to fall over, but I didn't realize at the time. I was frozen in place for some reason. I didn't realize until afterward that he was trying to hug me because I was wearing earbuds and didn't hear anything he said. He fell over and his daughter rushed over to my side and started hitting me. That's when he said "Katlin stop. She's scared." I said "no I'm not your daughter." The girl started saying "Daaaad"(like a whine, not in pain) and then he said, "I know you're scared Katlin, but why are you screaming?" I didn't even know what he was talking about until he started explaining that he had come out of the restaurant to surprise her with a hug because it had been a few months since she was ready to initiate one. I could see an older gentleman rushing towards us, clearly the dad's brother (I assumed, based on similar features) and he yelled, "is she ok?" I said, "I'm not your daughter" again, and he looked confused until he saw me. "Oh my. Is she ok?" The restaurant owner asked for the third time. I was getting annoyed that these people were acting like I was invisible, so I said, "I'm not his daughter. I was standing there and he came up behind me and touched me without permission." The owner rushed over to the man, who was clearly in pain from the fall and his niece was still hitting me. "Katlin, no! Not her. Uncle Duane is going to call 911 and we will get you to the hospital and get you some help." I yelled, "I'm not your niece! I'm not anyone's daughter! This man came up behind me and touched me!" Then the girl who had been beating me started screaming. I don't know what the hell was wrong with her, but the owner started yelling, "Duane call the police. We need to get her to the hospital." I started to walk away and the owner said, "oh my poor Katlin. I'm so sorry this happened. You have nothing to be ashamed of." I walked away. I don't know if the owner or the dad/daughter think I'm Katlin or if they just wanted to help her. I didn't stick around. My dad was furious when I told him what happened. He said that the owner/uncle and the dad were in the wrong and it was multifaceted.<br><br>Aita?<br><br>Edit: for those who don't know, a red flag is a trigger for many people that results in a panic response. You can have a red flag for anything. We all have them. All of you have them. They can be learned or innate, and they are not something that an individual has control over. You can't be faulted for having a red flag response, any more than you could be if you have a big sex drive. That's why you cannot, under any circumstances, blame someone for having a red flag. You can have a red flag for something as simple as someone complimenting you.

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