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Friends and Autism

JoshF

This is me Venting a little so sorry about that. 
My name is Josh I’m a 22 year old adult who has autism who has struggled with friends and groups at times. I was diagnosed with autism when I was around 10. I feel like people notice things about me and a notice that I’m different in some way or another. I’ve found since coming back to university that some people don’t accept the fact that I’m different or are willing to put in more effort for others who aren’t different. I’ve found it hard to find prolonged friendships due to not liking the same environment as others as I don’t enjoy clubbing and so on. I was wondering if others have advice? 

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  • Hi Josh

    I had no idea I was autistic when at uni but like you I was different, I wasn’t particularly liked by my peers on our course and I found it hard to make and impossible to sustain friendships. However I knew with certainty that I was there to study and achieve success, that the friendship of others with what was to me alien lifestyles and that was my focus. I felt vindicated when getting the highest grade in my year abd by the admiration of my tutor, lecturers and the professor of our department. I look back on those years with pride, for a top grade obviously, but especially for not caving in to peer pressure to get drunk, waste time on irrelevancies and go to places I did not wish to go. My advice is to use university to learn, not to make friends 

    Alice

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  • Hi Josh

    I had no idea I was autistic when at uni but like you I was different, I wasn’t particularly liked by my peers on our course and I found it hard to make and impossible to sustain friendships. However I knew with certainty that I was there to study and achieve success, that the friendship of others with what was to me alien lifestyles and that was my focus. I felt vindicated when getting the highest grade in my year abd by the admiration of my tutor, lecturers and the professor of our department. I look back on those years with pride, for a top grade obviously, but especially for not caving in to peer pressure to get drunk, waste time on irrelevancies and go to places I did not wish to go. My advice is to use university to learn, not to make friends 

    Alice

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