Published on 12, July, 2020
I hope for your advice on the following situation. Sorry if it looks like a long story, but it is all relevant ;-)
I have a group of friends, we are 5 couples, who have known each other since high school. Now we're in our early fifties. We have had many parties, holidays, outings, etc. throughout all these years. On New Year's Eve we celebrated together and had another (last) wonderful night. On New Year's Day, during breakfast, one of my friends (call her C) decides to take a look at a website to see if the mother of the dog she wants, is already pregnant, while her husband (call him P) goes for his shower. She clicks on Facebook and Messenger is on. There she reads his correspondence with one of the other friends (call her B) in our group. They arrange to meet up without their spouses knowing. When P comes back from his shower C asks him what is going on. To make a long story short : first he denies everything, but in the end she learns that P and B have been seeing each other for 15 years!!!! Nobody had a clue, including V, B's husband.
C, understandably, is completely confused, sad, angry, ... They have been together for 34 years, they were each other's first boy-/girlfriend. So she comes over to me and tells me this story. Se says she wants confidentiality, because their three daughters don't know yet and she does not want them to find out through some stranger. So, of course, I keep my mouth shut. I even pretend not to know when B's son refers to it. This already does not feel right to me, but I really like my friend C and promised her confidentiality. As time goes on, C tells her story to other people (people I know, people I don't know ...), but she does not tell me I no longer need to keep silent. She kind of pretends to P that nobody knows, but, of course, he's not stupid and can guess why she's meeting up with me, and all the other people she told in the meantime.
So, the other day, we arrange to go for a walk together and I go pick her up. She asks me in and in the hall, just before entering the living room, she whispers : "Pretend everything is normal!" I enter and P is sitting at the table, right in front of the entrance. I say hi and feel extremely uncomfortable, so I avoid looking at him. As soon as we're outside, I realise I usually kiss him to say hi and this time of course I didn't, because I couldnt think straight.
I really want to do as C asks me, because she's a good friend, but this is getting ridiculous. Now I am so confused, even if I don't try to act the way C wants me to, I don't know how I want to act myself. On the one hand, I think he's a lying pig and he hurt her so, so much. She's a real housewife, her family is everything to her ... But on the other hand, he did nothing to hurt me. He used to be the friend you could count on, even though he has a difficult character.
The same with B. I haven't seen her since New Year's Eve, but I do go on walks with her husband, V. I try not to talk about C and P to V and not to talk about B and V to C. That is the easy part. Everytime we part, V tells me to say hi to my husband and I know the thing to do is also to say : "say hi to B.", but I just can't!! I told V I did not know how to act (he knows I'm autistic, but minimises it all the time) and I think he understands, or doesn't mind too much.
He does tell me that B is scared to leave the house, because she's so ashamed (bit late, according to me ...) and he asked me what I would do if I ran into her. I told him I'd probably say hi and leave it there. I never really liked B too much. She is very introverted and I know nothing about her private life (she has a son and I don't know who is the father e.g.), but I respect that she does not want others to know her stuff. And again, she did nothing to harm me, but she did hurt my good friend C and my friend V (her husband), so how can she be a friend of mine??
Please, anyone who has good advice to cope with this situation, let me know!
I think I understand this issue differently to BlueRay. I see the issue more as a technical communication issue arising from other people communicating in a dishonest and unclear way and the problem of taking instructions from friends in a literal way out of complete loyalty.I have bumped into this same kind of situation often. I hate it when people share secrets with me and then swear me to secrecy. Unlike Blue Ray I feel this isn't because of our own ethical standards on the contents of the issue - but our ethical standards on our own communicative behaviour - and the discomfort due to our inability to understand properly how other people think and what they expect.
Someone swears you to secrecy - and so forces you to be dishonest and act a certain way (in this situation: behaving as if you do not know, but you DO know). And at a certain point it becomes horribly complicated when other parties are in the know but you aren't sure and you have to keep up the pretence because the first person who swore you to secrecy hasn't lifted your promise to secrecy.
I think it is a beautiful example of how very intelligent people on the spectrum can get caught out in the intricate web of social communication. I think NT's kind of figure out where to let things slip and that kind of thing. Or don't worry too much, thinking well it is their issue.
I think there also are autistic people who don't worry too much about what others think. But there are autistics who stick to communication rules faithfully and are very aware that they do not want to disappoint others. Autistics who want to avoid that others get mad with them, invest a great deal of scarce energy into this and tip toe around trying not to hurt others. And I think it is this subtype who will suffer most from this kind of situation.
We actually suffer and start worrying and can't oversee the communication web that is suffocating us. Just because one thing isn't right in the communication all the rest stops being alright (not being able to act normal, because you feel the other can see that you know that you aren't speaking freely because you are wondering if they might know that you know kind of bullshit that can really cause anxiety :(
Hi Procrastinator
I think you and BlueRay both are right!
To be honest, I expect NT's to let slip the confidentiality much sooner than me (or autistics in general) and that's what I am scared of. Then their daughters might find out through a stranger, or C's mother or sister ... And me, not until I'm sure EVERYBODY knows will I ever talk about it to anybody. Though, I must admit we have some other friends who know P, C, B and V and would love this bit of gossip ...
Thank you so much!
I was with you when you said it’s a straight forward communication issue, i.e. sworn to secrecy ~ takes this literally ~ then don’t know how to act around others/ this doesn’t feel good .... so are you saying, lovesdogs simply needs to realise that she took the command literally and now she can drop it and everything will be ok?