Loneliness

I’m new to the forum. I’m fairly newly diagnosed as autistic. I am feeling really lonely at the moment. I was wondering if anyone else feels this way as although my understanding is that autistic people often like their own company I don’t and I crave friendships but I seem to have difficulty making and maintaining them. I have been wondering about possibly trying to access an autism support group to try and make some links with other people and wondered if others have tried these and how they have found them. 

Parents
  • Hi, sorry to hear of your struggles. I understand the feeling of loneliness and the difficulties around friendships. Like you, I too struggle to build and maintain them. When feeling lonely it feels like you are a million miles away from anyone drowning in despair.

    I have very few friends but the ones I do have came from a support group on facebook. I’ll be honest some of the people there were toxic but there are also some good ones on there. 

    Personally I fear judgement, verbal abuse, lack of understanding and coming across as stupid (although I know I’m not). It has really hindered me with social settings and amplified the feeling of being alone. 

    Definitely something that isn’t helped by difficulties around emotional regulation.

    I hope your feeling of loneliness improves and that you can make some friends. It would make me happy to have another should you be interested. 

    Best wishes going forwards

Reply
  • Hi, sorry to hear of your struggles. I understand the feeling of loneliness and the difficulties around friendships. Like you, I too struggle to build and maintain them. When feeling lonely it feels like you are a million miles away from anyone drowning in despair.

    I have very few friends but the ones I do have came from a support group on facebook. I’ll be honest some of the people there were toxic but there are also some good ones on there. 

    Personally I fear judgement, verbal abuse, lack of understanding and coming across as stupid (although I know I’m not). It has really hindered me with social settings and amplified the feeling of being alone. 

    Definitely something that isn’t helped by difficulties around emotional regulation.

    I hope your feeling of loneliness improves and that you can make some friends. It would make me happy to have another should you be interested. 

    Best wishes going forwards

Children
  • Thank you for your reply. It helps to know that I am not the only one who struggles with these things - but I don’t mean by that I’m glad other people suffer if that makes sense. I have joined a Facebook group too called Everything Autism. It is good to have this way of connecting with people, although it somehow doesn’t feel as real as being face-to-face. I would be happy to have another friend too :)