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 think it's two different questions. Do people accept your autism diagnosis, and do they accept you just as a person.

    For me many people don't accept my diagnosis, they think I'm playing the mental health card. They don't seem to have any idea how much work I'm putting in to being with people. I use endless excuses for avoiding social situations, and also the fact that despite many relationships I've never managed to live with anyone. When I spend a lot of time with people I start having a shut down so need to go off and be alone to recharge. People seem to have decided that I enjoy being a bachelor and that I just don't like socialising with them. That's the curse of being able to mask well, people don't believe you.

    Generally I find that people don't accept me for who I really am, because I think the real me is very irritable, impatient and intense. The only way I can manage it is to see people in small chunks and mask appropriately, and then have alot of time on my own. I upset friends and family because I don't see them too much, but it's better that than to be bad company with them I think. My friends and family do sort of accept me but that doesn't mean they don't get upset with me for either being very inconsiderate or selfish. I can't blame them though as humans need emotional support and considerate behaviour, and if I'm not providing it then it's understandable.

  • Sorry to hear this but I can also relate. I was diagnosed ten years ago, so they wouldn't accept it because I didn't fit their idea of what autism looked like. Now I'm told I'm jumping on the bandwagon - can't win! My parents only want the masked side of me, which is superficial, so I don't see them very often.

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  • Sorry to hear this but I can also relate. I was diagnosed ten years ago, so they wouldn't accept it because I didn't fit their idea of what autism looked like. Now I'm told I'm jumping on the bandwagon - can't win! My parents only want the masked side of me, which is superficial, so I don't see them very often.

Children
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