Awkward around family members

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Am I the only person who feels awkward and uncomfortable like I would be around a stranger, to family member I haven't seen in a while? I've known them my entire life, but if I haven't seem them in a while, or even if I have, sometimes, I just feel so awkward.

It's like I'm a turtle hiding in my shell, and it shouldn't be this way at all. I honestly hate it so much, and I know I come off as not loving them, or not wanting to be there but that's not the case at all. It's embarrassing.

I'm an only child & i never had a close relationship with my parents or the rest of my family members. I tend to be in my own world around everyone & I do feel kind of shy, awkward & uncomfortable around family.

I do feel awkward but I can somehow hide it. When they ask me if I've missed them it's hard to lie and say yes though.

(I am re-doing this one since there were several errors)

I used to be close with some extended family members before age 18 upon then realizing that I wasn't going to grow out of being "Autistic" or being different for that matter. I lived three miles from them about 15 years ago and whenever they saw me, most of them pretended as if they didn't know me or just plain ignored me. Their excuse was because of my bad temper but I believe it was more than that. However, I do believe that two of them are somewhere on the autism spectrum but don't recognize it.

I haven't seen them in 14 years since moving away and have long since matured and become successful. I only hear from them once a year when we send cards to each other which is all they can handle. If I try to acknowledge the cards further, I get ignored some more.

I have a lot of other extended members of my family who I haven't seen in a while and they look at my autism as a gift. I have others who are really curious to meet me and spend time with me. I would rather invest my time in those people than the ones above because it's a negative and unhealthy relationship.

Yeah I´m that away with family members I haven´t seen in years or even remember seeing. And I hate it when family members who haven´t seen me in a while say something like, ¨oh look at you. You are so tall now. You were this short when I last saw you.¨ I act like I don´t care and hide it from them. But I don´t like it. It makes me feel weird and I´m like how do they know me. I´ve never seen you in my life or don´t remember you. But I hope that stops once I become an adult.

I feel awkward around my family and especially when I have a successful time in my life. They seem to show a lack of interest and have this pretentious attitude.
"Okay," "That's nice," "That's good."

Yet when one of my sisters gets something, one of my family members constantly boasts about successful she is at this or that.

Then when they visit me in my city, it's usually because they are either on their way to vacation somewhere or on their way back but have an hour or so to see me.

For example, my baby sister, who is the youngest, went to a theme park and the beach in a state outside of the one that I live in. She had contacted me last minute when she and her friends were already on the road and asked if we could meet for dinner as they were passing through my city. I had not seen her in 11 years. I had wanted to see about the last minute bus ride down to see her but she protested and said that she wanted this to be time for her friends. I was really upset with her because she was only putting one hour in to spend with me after all that time and here she wanted to spend it with her friends.

No, but they do she has other issues. They played favorites with her because of her talents in art and because she didn't have the same problems that I did.

1.Mathematics
2. Singing
3. Writing
4. Filming and Editing Videos
5. Psychology

It used to be my weakest skill as well but that was before I realized that I have a mind designed for math. Math is very soothing and I like it a lot.

Yes, this happends to me too. I think the more "normal" the family members are like having real jobs and stuff, the harder it is.

I was thinking about this last time I visited my grandparents. I'm incredibly awkward around them, and very self conscious, almost as I would be if they were strangers. I also have to pay a lot of attention to what they're saying, since we're having full conversations, and I'm not used to their tones, voice patterns, body language, sense of humour etc.

I don't think I actually seem awkward to them, it's more that I'm not myself. Whenever I'm there I'm just masking; they never get the real me.

Every visit is exhausting .

The funny thing about these extended family members who snub me also have lots of other issues with picking other people apart, by looking for flaws. They also looked at me like I was some bad influence. Yet, you look at one of their kids is 28 and living what appears to be a very wild lifestyle and dressing as a goth and that doesn't seem to be a problem.

^ yeah I feel the OP. . .well, I guess you and the other posters in this thread are somewhat lucky in some respects as you have family members that seem somewhat close to you even though you might not be. . .

I'm in a situation where I have living relatives but I don't have contact with any of them. . .it's a really lonely place when that happens. . .when you have a death in the family, a mother, it's like glass breaking. . .a family can never fully recover. . .a mother is the glue that holds the unit together. . .

But yeah, I mean, it can be awkward facing my own relatives that I haven't seen in 10 years or more. . .