Relationship Maintenance / Advice?

Hi All,

Autistic Dad and husband here, having some relationship struggles with my partner.

I was only diagnosed with autism around 6 months ago.

It's become clear to me recently that my autistic traits have caused my wife to feel progressively more unhappy over the course of our marriage (now 10 years).  

She will cite many frustrations, my lack of attentiveness, pre-disposition to giving too much to work, or special interests etc.

I feel our relationship is deteriorating, and at times, we will have blazing arguments when the kids aren't around, and she will explain her frustrations about me, after feeling initially defensive, I will always realize that she is "right" and that by neurotypical standards, I have not been a great partner to her over the years.
 
When she holds me to task on these things (i.e. never spending an evening with her, always heading off to draw / game etc), I can only describe myself as having real mental clarity for a few days where I am more present, more mindful of my condition and its impact, and overall, we are happier for a week or two.

The issue is, give it a few weeks, and I slip into my normal routines, neglect spending time with her again etc, and the need for maintaining our relationship slips my mind until the next arguement / wake up call.  We've been undergoing relationship counselling for 3-4 weeks now.

It pains me to think that I am making her unhappy and that I feel unable at times to maintain a relationship and happy family unit which is all I've ever wanted.

I was wondering if there anyone has experienced similar and has any advice on managing autistic > neuro typical relationships?  Am I the only one who finds it hard?

Or tips in general on how to be better at relationship management as a whole - I'm pretty bad at this - I also rarely contact my broader family, rarely instigate anything with the handful of friends I've maintained.

A|so any tips or advice on how to manage challenging conversations relating to complex emotional situations would be great.  I'm not totally unskilled in this, but I feel some of the topics which come up overwhelm me with their complexity and I struggle to formulate coherent responses which express how I feel.

Parents
  • Ask her what it was about you that first attracted her to you. Ask for the positives and go from there. Were you masking at first? Now under the fatigue of holding it in place? Did you ever talk about this before your diagnosis? How have you changed since then? What do you want to see happen?

Reply
  • Ask her what it was about you that first attracted her to you. Ask for the positives and go from there. Were you masking at first? Now under the fatigue of holding it in place? Did you ever talk about this before your diagnosis? How have you changed since then? What do you want to see happen?

Children
No Data