Published on 12, July, 2020
My husband and I are carers for a 16 year old autistic girl.
She is struggling with a young lad who is also autistic and who seems to have developed a hyperfixation with her.
This young lad has been messaging her constantly on social media for a while, and she has managed to successfully block him so far.
However he can sometimes be part of the same social circle that she mixes with. For example he was recently at a group get together at someone's house and he kept trying to touch her (not in a sexual way) and sometimes tried to put his arm around her. He also constantly asked her to go outside with him.
We have advised her to be be kind but direct with him & keep telling him that she is not interested in a relationship with him.
Do you have any other suggestions or advice that we could share with her, to be sure she is able to keep herself safe.
Thanks in advance.
I'm a bit older than he seemingly is and I found this out the hard way (i.e. it all became very public). Early intervention would do a lot of good.
I'm glad she has friends and I hope they can step in.
Thank you for your reply
Yes she does have friends who can help
I think we just need reassurance that we have done all we can to help her deal with it. I agree, from what she has told us it is not intended as malicious. It still a challenging thing to deal with at any age.
I'm presuming that she has friends? Maybe if she hasn't already, if she felt comfortable enough to, she could confide in them and they may be able to give her a protective shield of sorts.
If she's been direct about it, then I think she's done all that she personally can.
It's a delicate thing to deal with because, based on what you've said, the young lad in question isn't being malicious, but simply doesn't know the line. I wouldn't want that to blow up for him in quite a big way which leaves him feeling like he can't reach out to anyone again either.