Knocked down and drained

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Hi:
I recently confronted some people recently who I thought were friends, but they turned out to be toxic and fair-weathered. Though I don't recall how I felt about physiologically, I felt it this time after reading the nasty things that one of them said to me.

1. I have been crying off and on
2. Yesterday I felt as if a strong wind had knocked me down
3. At times I didn't feel well

Anyone have any good ways to cope when I do get these feelings?

Uhmmm. I find a train set helps, but not everyone is into trains.
Many times I have had to absorb myself into trains or something to numb the pain. It diverts my attention away from what has happened until I am emotionally healed.

I know many people are into train sets. Anyway, I like distractions. I think I know just the things.

Yesterday, I felt a little better, but I attempted to distract myself by being my own friend and doing a picnic by the pool in my neighborhood. I also watched some episodes of a favorite tv show.

Well firstly, I'd ditch those friends. If you can even call them that. Secondly try to do something you enjoy. Even if it might not feel fun at the time.

For the record, they ditched me because they were mad that I didn't do things their way. The husband has no problem criticizing other people but can't take it himself. He came back at me and said some very nasty and abusive things to me. For example, he accused me of turning against them because I am offended. "I knew you would turn on us as you have," which is not true. I wanted to remain friends with them. However, they stopped inviting me to things and never called me anymore unless they wanted something from me.

The husband had the nerve to ask me to "Give him an example of how they treated me like a piece of trash," which I refused to say.

Your feelings seem to me to just be natural reaction to what feels like deliberate betrayal and mistreatment.
If they are abusive people, you are better off without them.
It does not feel that way now, for one reason, it is typically difficult for Aspies to make friends; many/most of us are socially awkward and neither communicate well with new people, nor do we find it easy to reach out to find new friends.
I understand your feelings; holding onto people that you begin to believe are not good for you because of fear of loneliness.
Been there, done that.
I am truly sorry that they turned out to be that kind of people; I believe that many on WP have had your bad experience.

I didn't feel awkward with them at all when I started connecting with them. In fact, we seemed to bond instantly as we had things in common. In fact, I thought he was on the spectrum himself. They appeared to be nice people on the surface, but when I was with them behind closed doors was when I saw the truth. Believe me, what I got from them was an abusive friendship. The husband is the most abusive as he has some serious problems of his own.

The abuse in that friendship that I received didn't happen overnight. It began with criticism while the husband would gradually display his outbursts at his wife and children gradually. He would put them down just about every time he would turn around too. Over time, he began treating me the same way and proving there is something wrong with me, while he was just perfect and superior to me. I also found out later that he lies all the time and I will not get into that. He eventually lost his interest in me because I did some things he didn't agree with.

After reading that email and feeling the way I did, I never want to see them again. However, I want to find some good ways to cope.

Update:
Thank you very much, everyone and I wanted to let you know that I found some great coping skills.

1. Prayer
2. Positive affirmations in subliminal messages
3. I also realized that those "Friends" are very unhappy people who only want what they want.