How do I help my son feel love

We have established that my son can  feel loved by  me  saying it in words but  he doesn't feel anything if you try to give him a hug. He says he feels like that if he can't even feel that emotion with his own mother then he is doubtful he will feel it with anyone else ie why should he bother to make friends when he doesn't feel anything. I noticed him stroking  his dog and saw what looked to me like a exchange of affection and I thought how maybe it's easier for him to feel that love with an animal as opposed to a person..I say this as I'd watched a true film about a boy with aspergers who could not connect with the mother but made a connection bond with a whale and this was because to do with the fact they emit some kind of frequency in noise. At this point I would do anything to be able to share that love with my son which I have always felt for him but he has never been able to have that common ability to feel it back and it breaks my heart because realy that's all that realy is and above all else the most wonderfull thing to feel as a human being is loved. I'd like to say to him let's go swimming with dolphins or horse riding in the hopes this could be the same for my son what it was for the boy in the film ..but he would like turn round to me and say no i won't do that why would I go and do that etc..ie its very difficult to get him to be open to these things. He says he does not feel any kind of emotion when he's hugged etc it sounds like nothing but it realy isn't nothing as its actually heartbreaking that he can't have the most common thing in this world which is love. I'm annoyed at system as he was diagnosed late and whole thing was a sh#! show he never got help he needed and if I'd have known this in his infancy I would have been able to introduce ideas to him as he'd have been more open to it whereas now its too late he is 22.

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  • 22 is young for autistics. Many of us are so shut down or withdrawn at 22 and have a mountain to climb out of. 

    Psychoanalysis has theorised that most individuals can't identify their authentic feelings and have trouble being vulnerable due to how non-autistics are wired to be conditioned into society. A lot of emotion can be a misdirection or misrepresentation of things. If I look right now at the media, there is a LOT of forced emotional content, curating 'Sentimentality' as if it were a commodity or advertising all kinds of ways one can 'be' authentic. 

    But this is authenticity: when I can openly and genuinely say I don't know what I feel or if I feel.  This would never be said in the media as it's not 'sexy' - for lack of a better term. To be contemplative about one's own state and have the ability to do so is actually a truer form of authenticity and vulnerability. 

    The problem with feelings can be identifying them: They're like colours and when there's an overwhelming amount, they just turn into a muddy pool of dark greyish. Have a look at Alexithymia. It's not that we can't feel - but it can be separating all these feelings like a puddle of cables. 

    As a parent, if we can curate or facilitate our children's ability to be just raw and honest, we've done them a great service. We've created a safe place for a Real Connexion. 22 is young! Especially for an Autistic. I was a ghost of a shell of a human through my 20s. By 30 I had melted a little... I had peeled off all the psychology which didn't apply (though I didn't know why), I found some self-help books and grounded theologians and read philosophy. 

    The Autistic Neural-wiring is such that once we have a bit of breathing space, and maybe a library and a few years of uninterrupted time to master a craft, our analytic thinking is unstoppable. We can be capable of continual growth. 

    Children should not be running the world. The time it takes to become a reliable solicitor or surgeon is the appropriate amount of time one should reckon adulthood actually begins. Personally, I have goals for each decade and particular things I want to learn as I grow older. The sad reality is I will not be able to accomplish what I hope to in a lifetime.

    At 22 my son got off anti-depressants, tried CDB, his father had passed and to some degree - a weight lifted (that's its own story). I gave him a multi daily and in 3 years he's completely different and one day came home with Peterson's 12 Rules for Life. I'm not the biggest fan, but there's some valid stuff in it and to be honest? That's a huge sign of growth.

  • Would you be a bigger fan of "Desiderata" ?

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