Please accept my apologies as i don't mean to offend anyone by armchair diagnosing my sister. I've spoken to a friend who is a SEN teacher who thinks that she sounds like she is. And my sister's best friend who has an autistic son has come to me suggesting that my sister also has it.
I'm now in my late 40's and my sister is a couple years younger than me and still lives at home with my mum (who i also have some suspicions about).
She has fixed and very rigid ideas, with black and white thinking. She struggles academically and doesn't have a lot of confidence. My mum and sister live in their own impenetrable little bubble in which they are becoming more isolated from the world. I also think my sister is also struggling with depression.
Unfortunately she was with a not very nice boyfriend who did an 'autistic test' on her which made her very upset. It said that she wasn't autistic but it was about 15 years ago and i think things may have progressed a bit by then. Regardless, she's was quite offended by being suspected of being 'autistic' despite attempts to let her know that it's nothing to be ashamed of.
More recently though, she comes out with little things like... 'I've got a really sensitive nose for smells, and that's an autistic trait'. I respond positively and try to get her to open up more about it but am careful not to push to much so that she doesn't get defensive.
At the moment both my mum and sister are not talking to me because I tried to set a boundary with them, after they were both rather rude to me and I thought it was best that i just leave. I've tried to reach out a couple times and they are not getting back to me.
Does anyone have any tips of how to reach out to my sister, to get her talking to me again? And to get her back in my life so I can take care of her. My mum isn't going to be around forever and at some point, I'm likely to be all that she really has as family.
