Does anyone have someone who fully understands and accepts them as autistic?

It’s just something I have been personally struggling with, I’m starting to realise how alone I am. It’s great to have you lot to ask questions and chat to, but in my everyday life I’ve stopped even mentioning autism, this is mainly with family. 
Being autistic I can cope with, after all I coped for 54 years before I new there was a name for how I function. Now I sound like them.

I may act ‘robotic’ a lot of the time but I do feel hurt, I feel guilt for being fussy about food, not really trying hard enough with people or work.  It’s hard to explain that I don’t need masses of friends or want to go out socialising. 
I find even with my wife and I know I’m lucky to have a partner that I’m generally not believed or am behaving badly. I could never share how much energy I use in just holding back shutdowns when I’m overwhelmed or show on the outside that I am overwhelmed.

I then think it’s my fault for masking so heavily for so long, my non stop internal voice then rightly tells me that it’s not my fault, I had to mask heavily to survive, it then tells me I should go back to masking more. I now feel I’m oversharing, this could be an autistic thing so I will leave it there.

So back to my original question, does anyone have someone who fully tries to understand and accept them without question?

Parents
  • I have one singular person in my life with ADHD and mental health struggles. She is the one person that just gets it. She sat through meltdowns with me, left a bar with me when it became too much, when people make fun of me and I don’t get it, she explains to me and all of that she does without making me feel inferior or dumb. The best thing about our relationship is that we don’t try to understand each other without question but rather through lots of them.

    Most of the time it’s difficult for me because I can’t be sure about being autistic since I wasn’t able to seek out any kind of assessment even though several friends and teachers suggested it throughout the years, so I usually don’t mention anything about my suspicion. But if I do (because I have to explain a meltdown or something to a friend) it’s usually met by acceptance. However, this acceptance only lasts until I actually display unpleasant traits, so I go back to hiding every little thing about myself.

    I hear you on the guilt tripping yourself. Sorry you don’t feel like you’ve got anyone who really accepts you. Everyone deserves someone they can relax around.

  • The best thing about our relationship is that we don’t try to understand each other without question but rather through lots of them.

    That struck a good chord with me. 

    Years ago, for some years, I had a dyslexic work colleague and friend.  I didn't try to second-guess what would support them best - I would ask and we would experiment with adjusting our engagement to match.

    One time, during their MBA course; they were finding one required reading textbook to be an extra challenge.  I bought a used paperback copy of the same book for me to read too (and they bought a large quantity of different pastel-coloured post-it notes - ready to make a wall of bullet points notes and organising questions and ideas).

    The combination of their creativity and my detail recall. was combined through the vehicle of that post-it wall construction (to re-boot their assignment preparation).

    They did all the essay structure, critical thinking and actual content / further research / written work - I was just available (in support) as the human interface to the textbook, or like a live eBook-style navigation sounding board. 

    Once the essence of the required material was absorbed, (and they were back on track with their assignment planning), we made the best homemade pizza and called the experiment successful.

    Some months later, through their own learning, development and hard work, they were awarded their MBA with Distinction. 

    I was so pleased for them - that they were able to boldly experiment with and then deploy - a raft of various techniques: to both harness the positives of their dyslexia and also to support their dyslexia needs / reasonable adjustments - as they achieved that accomplishment.

Reply
  • The best thing about our relationship is that we don’t try to understand each other without question but rather through lots of them.

    That struck a good chord with me. 

    Years ago, for some years, I had a dyslexic work colleague and friend.  I didn't try to second-guess what would support them best - I would ask and we would experiment with adjusting our engagement to match.

    One time, during their MBA course; they were finding one required reading textbook to be an extra challenge.  I bought a used paperback copy of the same book for me to read too (and they bought a large quantity of different pastel-coloured post-it notes - ready to make a wall of bullet points notes and organising questions and ideas).

    The combination of their creativity and my detail recall. was combined through the vehicle of that post-it wall construction (to re-boot their assignment preparation).

    They did all the essay structure, critical thinking and actual content / further research / written work - I was just available (in support) as the human interface to the textbook, or like a live eBook-style navigation sounding board. 

    Once the essence of the required material was absorbed, (and they were back on track with their assignment planning), we made the best homemade pizza and called the experiment successful.

    Some months later, through their own learning, development and hard work, they were awarded their MBA with Distinction. 

    I was so pleased for them - that they were able to boldly experiment with and then deploy - a raft of various techniques: to both harness the positives of their dyslexia and also to support their dyslexia needs / reasonable adjustments - as they achieved that accomplishment.

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