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’m very lucky in the fact my partner is autistic. However, because not two autistic people are the same we still have trouble understanding each other which can be frustrating. However, even though we both have strong feelings about certain things that differ from the other person’s I think because we’re autistic we have more empathy and kindness for each other and don’t let those differences get to us.

    Outside of my partner I don’t really have anyone who fully understands and accepts my autism. My family and friends both know I’m autistic and try to be understanding. However, if any of my autistic traits become too inconvenient it’s hard for them to not get frustrated at me as they think I’m over reacting. This can be very difficult and make me feel like a bad person.

    With colleagues I have never disclosed my autism apart from with HR. I find it’s harder for me to connect with people at work and I’m quite reserved as I feel like I can’t let my true personality shine and I’ll be seen as weird. I think I come across weird despite this anyway as I stay too quiet. This makes me feel lonely.

    I struggle a lot with loneliness which I’m sure you and many others here can relate to. It’s hard not having everyone in your life understand you and accept you. Just wanted to say I relate to you and you’re not alone in these feelings

Reply
  • I’m very lucky in the fact my partner is autistic. However, because not two autistic people are the same we still have trouble understanding each other which can be frustrating. However, even though we both have strong feelings about certain things that differ from the other person’s I think because we’re autistic we have more empathy and kindness for each other and don’t let those differences get to us.

    Outside of my partner I don’t really have anyone who fully understands and accepts my autism. My family and friends both know I’m autistic and try to be understanding. However, if any of my autistic traits become too inconvenient it’s hard for them to not get frustrated at me as they think I’m over reacting. This can be very difficult and make me feel like a bad person.

    With colleagues I have never disclosed my autism apart from with HR. I find it’s harder for me to connect with people at work and I’m quite reserved as I feel like I can’t let my true personality shine and I’ll be seen as weird. I think I come across weird despite this anyway as I stay too quiet. This makes me feel lonely.

    I struggle a lot with loneliness which I’m sure you and many others here can relate to. It’s hard not having everyone in your life understand you and accept you. Just wanted to say I relate to you and you’re not alone in these feelings

Children
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