If you can never talk to your family again, are you screwed?

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That is, would you end up socially isolated (since stereotypically geeks etc. only have their family to interact with)?

Are there statistically many ASD people with old friends? (That is, not people simply encountered this week, with the friendship breaking up the week after.) If there aren't and through circumstances they have no family (unless, of course, they eventually end up creating one, which is presumably even harder for ASD people than making friends is) then surely they'll end up forever alone? (Yes, a meme. )

Also, if you had to guess, how many people are in this situation? Say, if one had to take a sample of aspies?

Since Chris is also family, yes, I'd be screwed.

No, I don't miss interaction with my family. I even stopped talking, better: listening, on the phone to my sister. For me communication is e-mails. I don't have much in common with that people who are coincidentally related to me, thus interaction is futile.

My family have chosen to have nothing to do with me (except my wife, but she's not really 'family' except by contract).. I don't consider myself screwed.. Why is it so bad to have few/no friends anyway?

I have almost no contact with my family. A few times per year I have to talk to them or visit them, otherwise I pretty much forget they ever existed. Doesn't cause me any problems. They live on the other side of the world. I have my own friends, most of whom I've been close with for years. I spent enough of my life learning how to talk to people and make new friends that I don't need to worry that I'll end up "screwed" as you put it.

I am actually in that situation at this very moment. (The situation is a relatively new development)

All evidence seems to tell me that I am screwed. I'd give you details but I'm trying to stop rambling so much.

More accurately, I'm completely f*****.

The fact that I got online to see this particular thread on this particular day is actually an amazing coincidence.

No. My family doesn't help me. I'd be sad, though.

I guess it depends on individuals' need for interaction.

Some people want to interact with others, but because of AS etc they end up having no friends. So if those who desire interaction with others lose good relationships even with their families, then, they are pretty much "screwed".

Some are quite happy alone. For them it makes little difference whether they speak to their families or not. So they are not really screwed even without their families.

Only person I would have something to do with is my little sister she is also Aspergers and we are very similar and have the same Interests and hobbies we both are silly everytime we see each other.

Social isolation is only* "screwed" if you're unable to survive on your own and can't ask for help after your family have died, which is why you put things in place in case your family dies before you do. People who can't ask for help would already have this in place though.

*If you want social interaction then you'd see it as such, of course, but people don't need it to survive (there's always the 'net too to talk to others)

Yep. I need their support and I don't feel comfortable talking to my husband's family.

Yep, IRL there is only my family, (read: my mother in reality)


I can't even guess at statistics because we are so different in these aspects; I can only answer for me.
No old friends here.

I don't have any old friends. My dad has AS and my sister and I get along well. My mom is the only one I have issues with.

I have no old friends.

No friends or family contact here. I'd probably be long gone if this bunch of stray cats weren't so dependent on me. I just can't bear the thought of them dying all alone because of abandonment, just like me, so I stay for them.

I work hard and spend all I have on them, so you can imagine what utterly spoilt, pampered, fat strays these are. They'll cry despondently if among all the yummy food I bring them there isn't their personal favorite that day.

I don't really speak to my family all that much. They think I am weird, and we have nothing in common. My husband and I have two daughters; they are young, but I would be devastated if I couldn't speak with them or my husband. I have one or two people that I would consider friends other than my husband.

At this point in my life, yes I would be not only screwed, but heartbroken. All of my close friends have moved out of state and I only talk to them on the phone. The only people I have left besides my family are a few people who I help with auto repairs on occasion and the people I talk to at work. As it is now, I spend most of the time I am not at work alone at home.