Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi I am looking for advice for my son who is 19 and wants to form a relationship with a girl but he has really bad anxiety and can not move past the initial flirting stage. Because of this he misreads the signals and it crashes and burns before it gets off the ground. Does anyone know of any literature he can read to help him. Thanks
I hope your son has made progress over the past year. Dating, going out, forming relationships can be a big problem for autistic people and often takes longer. In terms of resources, there's a new research project:
SAAIL: https://autlives.wixsite.com/research/resources
Then this might be useful. The site is general but autism-aware: https://www.lovenotanger.org/my-adult-child-is-still-single/
And a couple of other threads here:
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/18797/relationships-and-dating-as-an-autistic-person
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/12989/self-employed-autistic-and-looking-for-nice-girlfriend
I'm coming to the conclusion that despite how things usually work in our society, for a young autistic straight man with little experience, it may require the woman to make the first move, and unambiguously too. How you arrange that is the problem.