How do I tell my family

Hi all, (those who can be bothered to read anyways)

ive very recently been diagnosed as autistic, my parents, who i dont live with and havent for years, seem to not accept the diagnosis 

my parents and wider family dont understand or seem to want to acknowledge that im autistic.

it answers a lot of the questions i have had regarding how i care about people or understand why people seem to care about other peoples problems, to put it bluntly

has anyone had any experience with this  or has any advice to “politely” tell your family that there are some things that just dont bother you, or things about people like there problems that you just dont really care about or understand?

thanks

Parents
  • Instinct tells me that you may be quite passionate about your family acknowledging and validating your diagnosis and therefore acknowledging and validating you.  With that sort of passion and perhaps, I imagine that if your ASD is like mine, your determination to make your point about the truth as you see it will be strong enough to get the message across eventually.  For what it may be worth my experience has shown me that going about it as calmly and as gently as possible is wise - otherwise strength of conviction can seem too forceful for others to deal with.

    As  indicates your family will also be dealing with their emotional reaction to what is taking place and if your ASD is like mine then you might miss the emotional impact that your family is experiencing in response to the news.  Taking things slowly and watching out more consciously for clues to how they are feeling and factoring that into the strategic approach used might help - I suspect they may be feeling a bit of grief themselves on your behalf and for themselves in coming to terms with it.

    I understand that the evidence is that the predisposition to autism is 80% genetic - so with that in mind you may also be trying to communicate the knowledge to another autistic person who has been "masking" all their life and not realising it.  As  has had experience of too.  That may be an explanation for some of the difficulty they have in seeing the (unmasked) truth you present.

    Maybe you could explore using the different levels of the social structure that is your family to help.  That is to say analyse "who is who" and what they're like and who might be most likely to be more amenable to understanding to start with and use that knowledge to your advantage with how you go about achieving your aim.

    Overall it might be worth explaining that you're not trying to overturn the organisation of your family but instead want to shore up the existing infrastructure with what to you is exciting new knowledge and the possibilities that it brings.

    I think that it is worth the effort because it has the potential of bringing a stronger sense of union, community and alliance.

    Whatever happens there are people who understand and "get you" for who you are and hanging out with your other family will give a chance to recharge for taking on the challenge.  I'm please you asked so that I have had the chance to be included in that group :-)

    All the best!

Reply
  • Instinct tells me that you may be quite passionate about your family acknowledging and validating your diagnosis and therefore acknowledging and validating you.  With that sort of passion and perhaps, I imagine that if your ASD is like mine, your determination to make your point about the truth as you see it will be strong enough to get the message across eventually.  For what it may be worth my experience has shown me that going about it as calmly and as gently as possible is wise - otherwise strength of conviction can seem too forceful for others to deal with.

    As  indicates your family will also be dealing with their emotional reaction to what is taking place and if your ASD is like mine then you might miss the emotional impact that your family is experiencing in response to the news.  Taking things slowly and watching out more consciously for clues to how they are feeling and factoring that into the strategic approach used might help - I suspect they may be feeling a bit of grief themselves on your behalf and for themselves in coming to terms with it.

    I understand that the evidence is that the predisposition to autism is 80% genetic - so with that in mind you may also be trying to communicate the knowledge to another autistic person who has been "masking" all their life and not realising it.  As  has had experience of too.  That may be an explanation for some of the difficulty they have in seeing the (unmasked) truth you present.

    Maybe you could explore using the different levels of the social structure that is your family to help.  That is to say analyse "who is who" and what they're like and who might be most likely to be more amenable to understanding to start with and use that knowledge to your advantage with how you go about achieving your aim.

    Overall it might be worth explaining that you're not trying to overturn the organisation of your family but instead want to shore up the existing infrastructure with what to you is exciting new knowledge and the possibilities that it brings.

    I think that it is worth the effort because it has the potential of bringing a stronger sense of union, community and alliance.

    Whatever happens there are people who understand and "get you" for who you are and hanging out with your other family will give a chance to recharge for taking on the challenge.  I'm please you asked so that I have had the chance to be included in that group :-)

    All the best!

Children
  • I’ve removed myself from the family group chat, My wife filters it out and just tells me what i need to know.

    however they have started to message me directly (lots) and its finding a way of saying - this was the reason i left the group because i just cant be arsed with it all. I just dont care about your next door neighbours, third cousins uncle has had a haircut bo***cks. 

    thanks for your reply, im truly amazed that likeminded people are looking out for one another, 

  • Thanks, 

    in all honesty, i think my dad shows some signs, but both of them were bought up to put up and shut up. The whole family never talks about how they “feel” and are all very opinionated which in itself causes issues, im sure there are others that could be.

    I also spend so little time with them that i don't really need there validation or acknowledgment, it was purely a how can i go around being in their eyes polite whilst being true to myself.

    i was talking to my sister who is sympathetic but just doesnt really know a lot about it, i was explaining to her that there are some things i just dont care about like she does, the reply was you must be depressed etc, i was saying im not, im quite happy, im just more aware that these feelings or lack there of are my normal, just not yours, and that doesnt make me sad or wrong in any way.

    my parents are a lost cause, i get that, i cant really be bothered to get them to understand, its not my loss at the end of the day, i just need to find a way of dealing with them,