Hi,
I'm very new to this site - in fact I've been on here for 15 minutes but knew straight away that I should sign up as I believe I may be able to get some solid advice.
I've been with my partner shy of three months, not very long at all but long enough to have noticed things about him that have led me to believe he has autism.
I have diagnosed depression along with various other mental health problems, one of these is paranoia.
Now my paranoia is very odd - I never read into things. No one has ever said anything to me and I've thought the meaning to be different. However whenever someone goes to say something, corrects themselves and carries on, I get paranoid with that.
For example - a conversation I had with my partner today:
Me ''Do you worry long distance will be an issue?''
Him ''Well we'll give it a tria - no it will be fine, it will be fine''
I hear ''we'll give it a trial run'' which leads into ''If he doesn't like the long distance thing then he'll dump me''
I decided to talk to him about this, and finally opened up about my paranoia and he was very lovely and sweet about it. But he admited he was annoyed because he thought he had gotten better at holding conversations, that it has been an issue for him in the past.
I didn't tell him what he had said originally as I was very upset, I've been struggling with a low period for a while and couldn't bring myself to say it.
But when he mentioned that he has struggled in the past with issues such as holding conversations I got to thinking about other things that have happened.
Such as when I'm tired he'll think I'm upset, when I'm upset he'll think I'm tired. When I'm angry with him he won't realise but when I'm just confused or something he gets worried he's upset me. He can't read me at all and I find myself having to say ''I'm feeling this'' or ''I'm feeling that'' - he can't read facial expressions very well.
He doesn't have any close friends I don't think, never mentioned any. I don't have many friends myself but the ones I do have are my best friends and I talk about them all the time. He has aquaintences which he does see often, but I don't think he has any one properly close to him.
He has this desire to have a certain style about him, and a certain life style, and when he struggles to attain something he gets very annoyed. He loves coffee in the morning whilst outside in the garden, like it's a movie. I am not a morning person so pulling me out of bed is a chore and if it doesn't happen he gets really moody.
He's such a darling guy, I deal with horrible nightmares and he always knows what to say to make me feel better. If he does have autism I would not leave him at all - in fact I don't even know if I should mention that he does because what impact would it have on his life really?
He works, he pays bills, he travels by himself. He isn't incapable of anything besides a few social things.
I have friends and family members with autism, little things they do I can see in my partner.
Does anyone think he might have autism? If so what should I do? Is there anything on the internet that can teach me how to deal with it, to make both of our lives better. Should I tell him?
I love him a lot and want to help him, but I just don't know how!