New person - brother with aspergers, really need help

Hi, 

I'm really desperate for some need advice and help. 

A year ago my brother was diagnosed with aspergers. There's 4 of us siblings altogether but a big age gap between us (he's 18, I'm 29, sister 30, brother 27). 

We're very close and have a siblings watsapp chat. He feels most comfortable communicating by watsapp. He uses a watsapp titled with his name to message us lots of things e.g. when he's feeling rubbish or overwhelmed or panicky and anxious.

He lives with my parents. Over this summer when he was off from college, he felt he was a lone a lot and his mental health hugely deteriorated. As siblings, we arranged to see him at least once a week and also came home as much as we could and went on a weekend away, etc. But he had high expectations as an 18 yr old to be going out all the time, getting drunk. Thanks to social media he constantly talks about others doing things he isn't.

He masks his difficulties in social situations really well. We were told this in his diagnosis and I know he has friends at college - he did go out with them, and went for drinks and went to Pride in London, etc a handful of times. He just doesn't feel he makes close enough relationships. He also have very very high anxiety and a history of depression. 

After summer, he felt he couldn't go back to college because of the boring summer he had in comparison to others. He locked himself in his room refusing to come out or eat. My parents contacted the GP and they sent a crisis team out. Since then he has fluctuated. The college have said he missed out too much to go back this year and recommended deferring. My brother now sees his time in college and the friendships he has made as idyllic and recognises he is more socially isolated now.

He is refusing to see someone to talk to, refusing to hang out with us to do things, and very rarely engages when we offer help to do the things he says he wants to do (he says he just wants to work). Instead he sends us streams and streams of messages in the watsapp group most days about how he hates us (my parents included), how everything is our fault because we didn't make sure he had an amazing summer, how all his problems are because he has a rubbish family and nothing to do with aspergers. I've tried to get him to go to support about aspergers and he categorically refuses. He said he wanted to go to the gym so I signed him up and he hasn't been once. 

He spends all his time in his room, in his own head, and messaging us hateful messages. He will also message me normally but in a different format e.g. texts. These will usually be about what he should eat to go to the gym, though he hasn't gone. 

I'm just at a loss as to what to do. He refuses any sort of help, ignores anything we send him about aspergers (we send him stuff we think he can relate to like when that guy from Love Island said he had aspergers on instagram etc hoping it would help open a conversation with him). He just says he hates us and it's our fault his life is how it is. He doesn't leave the house or do anything. He says everything would be fine if he had friends and a normal life. We try to explain that perhaps understanding why he feels the way he does especially with making friends might help us figure out the best way to help him but he says he knows why he doesn't have a normal life and friends and it's because of his family.

I'm so so stuck. I am sure he is depressed as well as struggling to accept aspergers but he won't speak to anyone. His therapy is apparently hate messaging his siblings.

  • i think you should let him know his importance and what glitters inside of him:) Maybe he just blamed how different he could be which burdened him from making friends, but even NT people cant get rid of being loneliness. What he needs is just different bonds:)

  • tbf i dont feel like it's fair for your ex bf to let a police to talk to you, afterwards he should treat you more patiently and more humanitarianly. Compulsory actions would never ever be an option under any circumstances, because it ignored individual's needs.

  • I'm certainly not half my age mentally but due to issues with metagocnition, I do struggle to regulate my emotions. If your brother is being abusive via WhatsApp this isn't ok. I'd suggest as a group you create a carefully worded message explaining how you're there to help him, how his words impact on you and how it's not ok to talk to you that way. Give him a chance to change and if he doesn't leave the group chat.

    I now have a successful career, am academically accomplished etc but I've had to do a lot of learning along the way. I was infatuated with my first bf and when we split up I sent him so many messages he eventually changed his number and asked the police to have a chat with me. That was a huge wake-up call and incredibly scary as I couldn't believe what a numpty I'd been as I pride myself in being a good person.  Every relationship I've had since I've evaluated my behaviour and have had to work o strategies to be less intense.

    Personally, I really value honesty and like people to sit down with me and say this was your reaction to x and this is why y happened. Here are some alternatives you could try in future to get the outcome you'd like.

    Your brother's behaviour sounds very challenging. As the sibling's group have any of you considered attending a local autism support group to build a support network with others in your situation. 

  • Another thing to consider is that we Aspergians, Aspies or Auties are roughly half our age emotionally ~ so your brother in body is 18 and in mind is 9 sort of thing. Young at heart and all that. :-)

    Good point DT. Jumping societal hoops and your own aspirations with the toolkit of a much younger self plus the challenges of communication and connecting with others at the right level can be tiring and can tie you in knots..

    Once knotted you can find yourself over analysing how you got where you did..and where was the moment it went wrong.. hopefully after that and self care and respite you feel able to re-engage again.

    things going wrong is inevitable (I have the scabs on my knees to prove it), success is often said to be the act of getting up one more time than you’ve fallen over.

    from Ellie

    aged 43 and three quarters (or almost 22 in Aspie years)

    p.s. I am sure your brother appreciates greatly your support. Being Aspie can mean a lot of personal frustration at times.


  • Hi .

    Perhaps read this and have a clock-alot session maybe:


    http://www.autismforthvalley.co.uk/files/5314/4595/7798/Attwood-Tony-The-Complete-Guide-to-Aspergers-Syndrome.pdf


    Another thing to consider is that we Aspergians, Aspies or Auties are roughly half our age emotionally ~ so your brother in body is 18 and in mind is 9 sort of thing. Young at heart and all that. :-)

    He is basically just finishing his preadolescence and starting his adolescence ~ whilst you have been attempting to introduce him to Adulthood a stage too early. Work with the adolescent scale of psychological development, and psychological adulthood will come alot more easily and quickly, more usually.