TW1ZTY wrote:
What's really sad is when you spend years trying to rebuild trust and make up for the way one has acted in the past, only to have it all flushed down the crapper because you make another mistake.
The perfection some parents demand out of their children is sickening, especially if they have diagnosed autism AND mental illness!

I've recently heard ASD described as follows, though it can probably apply to any mental disorder...
Imagine you and I sit down to play a board game. the rulebook is written in a foreign language and, rather than being bothered to translate them for you, you'll just have to learn as we play. Everytime you break a rule, the game starts all over again. And you *have* to play until you beat me. That doesn't sound fair, or like very much fun to me. Eventually, you'll get frustrated with always losing and resign from all social interaction, or I'll get frustrated with your constant rule breaking, tell you off, and never play the game with you again.
After explaining it like that, people tend to understand my diagnosis a bit better. Though, life still sucks. Especially where "capital R" relationships are concerned.