Published on 12, July, 2020
When I was a child I had formed a strong emotional attachment to my grandmother. If she left me to go to the store I would have a fit the entire time until she came back and when she died when I was 10 it was the end of the world for me. I can’t go to her grave because I lose my mind and every fiber of my being just wants to lay there and die just to be with her again. Since then I have had only one attachment to someone that is just as strong and because there’s not a lot about it and it’s only a “stereotype” of Autistic children, it’s hard for the neurotypical who I have the bond with to see how much trust that means that I have for them and understand it, even now I fear saying more about it because I don’t want it to get misunderstood and I just don’t know why these emotional attachment bonds aren’t discussed and only Autistic children are seen with these bonds and no one has an issue with it but if it’s an adult who’s Autistic that has the same thing it’s like no one wants to be understanding about it at all. I just don’t understand why Autistic adults having this isn’t discussed much?
This thread is very interesting and I just got to thinking about another angle of this - being a big fan of the soaps like Dynasty and the Colbys, Dallas and Falcon Crest, as someone who was diagnosed later in life, I often wonder if a diagnosis of autism, even being pushed towards a diagnosis by people around you, however well meaning, could be used as a means of manipulation and control and that diagnosis could be weaponised by some family members, a classic storyline from one of those soaps - some family members can be very manipulative and controlling and they cannot handle the fact that their children are slipping out of their control, think Alexis from Dynasty for example - they would have a valid excuse (or so they think) to both discredit and undermine everything a person says given their diagnosis and would further use a diagnosis to manipulate a person with autism, however unconsciously?
Yeah, my mother was always using my diagnosis against me and to invalidate my feelings. Freaking disliked it so much.