Published on 12, July, 2020
I am new to the Autism Forum I am 64 years old and was diagnosed 10 years ago with Higher Functioning Autism (it used to be named Aspergers Syndrome but the name has been changed after recent news came to light about Dr Hans Aspergers) I would like to know if anyone else is like this. I have a close circle of friends who accept me as I am, but I lost one friend some time ago because she could not take me speaking about the Spectrum, a lot of the time or Emailing her information which was just to help her understand about the Spectrum,and why I did or said things the way I did. I was never rude or nasty though. Welll she sent me an Email,, that said I would grow old and be very lonely and have no friends. I took that to mean cause I spoke about Autism, a lot. And someone else told me that was true.I just wonder does anyone else relate to this? Sorry to have gone on a lot please forgive me.
Helena
Helena, I'm sorry that this has happened and if you're anything like me you probably take your friendships very seriously and value them highly as you worked so hard to get them. I only have really close friends, I can't commit energy to maintaining superficial connections, as I've got older I realise some people do this. (Maybe it's about quantity of connections rather than quality for some people). Anyway, what your friend said was downright nasty. She will have no friends if she carries on like that. Theres a way to go about things and this wasnt the right way. It must have been a shock to you but you don't need people like that in your life. Friends appreciate you for who you are. If there is something so important in your life of course you want to share it, your friends would want to hear sbout it. At the end of the day you can't get inside her head or know what's going on in there, so you can't change how she reacted. It's her problem. She might have been having a bad day or her own problems going on (although I'm not making excuses). People change. Are you worried about losing other friends unexpectedly like this? It sounds like your close circle of friends appreciate you for who you are so focus on these.
My Forum Friends
I think each one of you is fantastic my group of Forum Friends, if ever you have a problem on me you can depend. I might not have all the answers but I have a listening ear and I would make the time to listen as you kindly have done to me here.
God Bless you
Lovely poem