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Greetings!
I am new to this website and find it very helpful. I have a very close friend who is a very high functioning male with autism. Him and I have great chemistry. We do majority of communication via text. There have been lots of projects and finals over the last two weeks. I haven’t heard from him. However, he has never typically initiated conversations with anyone ever. We established that right in the beginning but that doesn’t bother me at all. He is well worth it and I find him extremely fascinating and wonderful. Do shutdowns very? He lives in a place with very invasive nosey people and is uncomfortable with them knowing his business too and has previously put his phone away whilst doing homework before. This is the longest I haven’t heard from him. My obsessing is getting the best of me. I can’t sleep due to this and other issues with my mental health. Is this something that can happen around finals time with advanced intense classes?
Thanks for your time
Siri

Welcome to WrongPlanet! I'm autistic and I definitely understand how initiating conversations can be challenging. It's great that you both established up front that your friend doesn't typically start communication, which helps avoid misinterpreting that or taking it personally. Your friend might be overwhelmed with preparing for finals - I remember what that was like. It can be challenging to keep the sort of focus finishing projects and getting ready for important tests requires. Sometimes I overloaded myself with coursework and would then mis-estimate the amount of work required and get into a big time crunch at the end of the semester. In those situations I would have to do my very best to avoid interruptions that would take my focus and time away from my schoolwork (later it was very similar at my job when critical deadlines were approaching). It's like a type of overwhelm involving struggling with executive function and distractions, sort of a type of shutdown. There were times when just the stress of getting ready for finals would put me in shutdown with anxiety. Have you considered working out an understanding with him about responding to communications that you initiate similar to how you mutually understood that he doesn't normally initiate conversation? For instance if he's willing, he could just send a very brief acknowledgement that he received your text message and will respond when he's under less pressure. That would allow him to focus on his time-critical schoolwork and at the same time avoid you having to worry about not hearing back from him. Working toward that sort of mutual understanding is good in any relationship, but is especially helpful with an autistic person because we can be challenged with communicating. I hope you get clarification from him so you can reduce your stress and get some rest.

There are different forms of text. I am old school and I tend to send letters or cards especially if it is important rather than just an email.

If a letter or card gets returned to me with address unknown, then I know something is amiss.

Welcome to wrong planet.

It probably has nothing to do with how he thinks of you. Autistics are often bad at multitasking so maybe he needs and can not do more than hyper-focus on his finals. He might not even have looked at his mail and emails. My advice is to wait until after the finals week before trying to contact him again. He will still be the same fascinating person next week.