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Autism Friendships

Anthony

I was chatting with my autism specialist today and she confirmed something I’ve suspected for a while... people on the spectrum tend to get on better with others on the spectrum! I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m a social disaster on all levels, but I guess it would be nice to chat with people who share similar issues. The problem I have is that my interests are pretty niche - for example wildlife, aviation and history... not exactly the stereotypical young adult male interests. I’m guessing others share this problem... or maybe not. I dunno :-/ 

Not sure what I’m getting at but sometimes it’s good to just air your thoughts. 

Parents

  • when i go to autism groups, i can't make no friends. i guess even in that community, i stand out. however, my few friends, a number are aspie-like, or definite aspie. NT's look down on me for my aspie traits (sloppy dress, strange interests, unique point of view, kind of distant personality). so i end up with aspie-like friends. basically, outsiders. 

  • in reply to raspberrypie
    raspberrypie said:
    i end up with aspie-like friends. basically, outsiders. 

    The older you get, the more you realise that the outsiders are the 'interesting' people and nice to talk to - the NTs just become more and more hollow as they get older.

    The problem with ASD being a spectrum is that just being labelled as the same, it doesn't mean you are even close.    I've been to a few ASD groups and I stick out as too-high functioning.     Some of the people there labelled as aspies seem to me to be quite 'low functioning' so I can see just how arbitrary the diagnosis really is - it's like the NT doctors don't know what they're dealing with.

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  • in reply to raspberrypie
    raspberrypie said:
    i end up with aspie-like friends. basically, outsiders. 

    The older you get, the more you realise that the outsiders are the 'interesting' people and nice to talk to - the NTs just become more and more hollow as they get older.

    The problem with ASD being a spectrum is that just being labelled as the same, it doesn't mean you are even close.    I've been to a few ASD groups and I stick out as too-high functioning.     Some of the people there labelled as aspies seem to me to be quite 'low functioning' so I can see just how arbitrary the diagnosis really is - it's like the NT doctors don't know what they're dealing with.

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