Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm a young adult, I received my diagnosis of HFASD a few years ago during a very turbulent period caused by my ex employer (a black company) shortly before leaving employment.
Most of my social circle has dissolved with people starting families or growing distant. I've always struggled to form friendships and more so intimate relationships.
The Longer you live, the more you realize that only pain, suffering and futility exist in this reality. My future seems bleak.
OO young adulthood, it's fecking horrible innit?
I never thought I'd get though mine either. MY advice would be to keep a sharp eye out for the little things that make yours (or other peoples) life more tolerable and do as much of that as you can.
I spent my twenties being a spare wheel wondeirng if I'd ever "couple up" too. Teh secret is to just keep yourself busy whilst waiting for it all to fall into place, which it will but Autism is a bit of a waiitng game when it comes to SOME of the good things in life.
Just give yourself a bit of time. Hard as that can be when you are young.
As for relationships they are very much a two edged sword as you will observe in your friends over the coming years. As you watch many of those quickly formed relationships wither and die, use your detached position to learn where they went wrong, so when YOUR times comes you can actaully keep up your end of the bargain, and hopefully avoid to many "wrong 'uns".
Looking after a pet is great training for looking after another human. (relationships are really all about looking after the other person, which is really difficult concet for us Autists, which is why we tend to form them later in life, when we've mastered looking after ourselves a bit better and grown some spare capacity. being able to look after a pet is both good training and also increases your attractiveness to others.