NT friends not understanding
A good example would be last night, where my close friend and I cuddled up in my bed to watch a movie after drinking. I said to him, look we can watch the movie, but after that you have to go back to your own bed to sleep because I cannot sleep when in physical contact with another person, or indeed even if that other person causes any alteration to my bed routine (the ways I lie, arrange my blankets, etc). He totally didn't get this, and went on and on about relating it to trust and closeness (just so you don't get the wrong idea - he wasn't trying to pressure me into anything, he is just a cuddly person and I have a lot of NT friends who like to sleep with their friends (again, I'm not talking sex/sexual here)), and said that if I just relaxed and stopped worrying about whether he was comfortable or not the problem would go away (which, as we all know, is a rather pointless thing to say to an aspie). Finally I was too tired to argue and ended up lying awake in intense discomfort all night. In the early hours of the morning (this morning), he woke up briefly to see me sitting in my usual ball staring out the window. So he went to bed. Now I'm certain he thinks I'm not comfortable around him, or don't trust him, or something ridiculous because he links my potential motives back to those of his and of his NT friends.
Ridiculously, this is not the first time this scenario has happened (except with different people) and I'm getting jolly tired of having sleepless intensely uncomfortable nights.
This is only the tip of the iceberg, and my NT friends (although not all of them; there are exceptions) just won't listen to reason, or either don't understand, or refuse to listen, when I try to explain by linking the miscommunications back to my AS. It's frustrating.
Can anyone relate?
Welcome to the world of dealing with NTs. Dude, my best friend of nearly 20 years forsaked me recently after a misunderstanding with his girlfriend, though in fairness most of our friendship together he was always torn between the social life with everyone else and me. Peer pressure, I guess, finally won out. No, we didn't end our friendship, but we're not best friends anymore...or anywhere even close to that.
My former boss at Suncoast was considered a very close friend of mine..and due to peer pressure brought on by our douchebag assistant manager, she dropped me as a friend so she could date him. Did I mention the guy was in his early '30s, balding, lived with his mom, got canned from his jobs for doing lousy work, blamed all his problems on his father walking out on them at an early age, and spent his entire paychecks on Star Wars figures?
Just get used to it, dude. NTs don't want to get close to us, cause they're afraid. They don't know how to react to us, or deal with us...so they don't want to even try. You're living in a world with the majority of people who are already utterly unmotivated as it is to do much of anything other than complain all the time to feel better about themselves, and you expect these same people to even make the attempt to learn how to deal with an Autistic person? You give humanity way too much credit, good sir....
In my experience, many people do, in fact, do that very thing. I cannot count the number of times I've been treated like some sort of subhuman freak, or mentally ill, because I happen to casually mention that I'm a vegetarian. But that's a whole 'nother rant I don't want to derail the thread with.
Back on topic:
I know exactly what you mean. I've managed to get a lot of my NT friends to accept that what I say is an accurate description of myself, even if they don't understand it. Unfortunately, this has come about mainly by weeding out now-former friends who simply couldn't accept it, and insisted that I was just "overreacting" and needed to "get over myself".
The really twisted thing is that it's not just NTs who have this problem. Even other aspies don't quite "get it" if my quirks are different from theirs. Even my wife, who I've been with for well over a decade now, and who is aspie herself, cannot seem to "get it" that I need certain things certain ways at certain times. The worst is her insistence on trying to "fix" my problems with physical contact, no matter how many times I've told her, and demonstrated through violent meltdowns, that that is the worst possible thing she could do at those times.
I think, ultimately, a lot of people just have a mental block that prevents them from registering that other people are different, and that those differences are often counter-intuitive. There's too much reliance on emotion and vague "intuition" (whatever that actually is) that prevents them from evaluating and reacting to a situation rationally.
I'm not sure, but I THINK the parents have to consent to minors marriage but, then again, a child CAN "divorce" his/her parents. Again, CRAZY logic!
It's a convoluted situation that varies greatly by state. In my state, 16 is AoC, except when the adut is in a significant position of authority over the minor. Even so, statutory rape doesn't come into play unless the minor is... 13 or 14, I forget which; otherwise it's only "indecent liberties", which is a misdemeanor, not a felony. 16 is the youngest AoC for sex nationwide IIRC; but marriage is permitted as young as 13 for females and 14 for males in some states; with parental consent required in nearly all states for anyone under 18, and a court-order required for under-16 in a few. Oddly, two states, Nebraska and Mississippi, set the AoC for marriage without parental/guardian consent higher than the AoC for sex (19 and 21, respectively, wih the AoC for sex at 18).
Those NT's who don't want to even consider the possibility when told about you being aspie are often thinking in black and white terms. They think everyone is either "Normal" or "Crazy" and they interpret what you are saying is that you are crazy. They deny because they can see that you don't fit their understanding of "crazy."
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MONKEY
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I get the whole "but your really normal" or "everyone does that!" kind of thing, it is annoying, yes true I am normal outwardly but inside there's alot of crap going on. And the slip ups I do have annoy some of my friends, even my best friend (aspie) he has it more but still moans if I don't look at him when talking, even though he's always doing that.
I don't have a problem with sharing a bed with a friend though, I like it, as long as I have enough room to move. I have one friend I have sleepovers with and she's always stealing the covers off me, but when she doesn't it's nice and warm having someone sleeping beside me.
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I've gotten that a lot. The whole "you can't be Aspie, you act so normal, you actually have social skills!" garbage. Well, of course I have social skills, I've worked very very hard to learn them. I've learned how to be a sort of social chameleon, mimicking those around me to blend in. It doesn't always work, but mostly it keep me from being too obviously AS. But that isn't me. And I can only do it for so long before I need some time away from the crowd to relax and regain my energy. It's very exhausting.
My wife used to be a terrible blanket hog.
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