Right about enemies and Wrong about friends/romance

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K3ll33
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13 Nov 2016, 5:53 pm

Is anyone else always right about people they don't like and wrong about the people that they do like? What I mean is sometimes I avoid people I can see through (which works for me) but I'm mysteriously drawn to people who I can't see through, I think they like me from how great I feel around them, then I'm blindsided when I learn they don't. Is this an aspie thing or are people just not worth a crap period?
I always get backstabbed, misled, cheated on, or dropped cold turkey. I'm beginning to think friends and foes are one in the same. Just curious about others people's experiences...



Summer_Twilight
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14 Nov 2016, 7:14 am

I had heard a talk about a woman named Jennifer O'Toole who said that we often know who are friends are not but don't know who our real friends are.

I struggled with this for years and especially when I worked at an amusement park where I had trouble reading that these people were not interested in me.



stevens2010
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14 Nov 2016, 7:12 pm

Summer_Twilight wrote:
I had heard a talk about a woman named Jennifer O'Toole who said that we often know who are friends are not but don't know who our real friends are.

I struggled with this for years and especially when I worked at an amusement park where I had trouble reading that these people were not interested in me.


This is very perceptive of you. "Knowing who your friends are not" is what I refer to as "being an excellent judge of bad character." For me, this means being able to pick out the people who will be mean and try to mislead me. I used to have 100% confidence in my ability to do this, but every so often an a-hole slips through and I feel less capable.

On the other hand, there is that disability to perceive when people like you. Although this has happened many times, in one case it was so strange that my confidence and belief that I could do this was shaken.

In one case, a coworker was the sort of person who I believed did not like me much. Ours was a businesslike relationship, but I always felt he had a negative perception of me. That, the negative perception, is the most important part of this story.

Eventually, I left that job, and it came to pass that he had gone to work for another company too. He arranged for me to be hired at that company, and it became clear over time that he was in fact very impressed with me. He expressed this in ways that I'd never experienced before. Usually, I was accustomed to the fact that no matter how hard I worked or how outstanding my work output, I was lucky to simply be "accepted." That particular individual would tell people how smart I was, and send them to me with glowing recommendations.

So here was a person whom I was wary of, who I didn't think liked me, and he turned out to be a big fan. As Aspies, we don't often have people want to make us popular like that, with no apparent ulterior motive or "catch." What I can tell you is that this is the only time that happened to me, in five decades. We're still good friends. He's also an engineer, which might make you think, "aha," another geek or Aspie." In this case I don't think so, because the guy has excellent social and political skills, which basically disqualifies him from consideration as an Aspie. :mrgreen:

I'm still an "excellent judge of bad character," but I think I've humbled myself a bit to keep an open mind.

Anyway, as we get older we often have an opportunity actually to see who our "real friends" are. This always is surprising, I think. At some point, you will find yourself at a disadvantage, depressed, broke, or in a bind. Sometimes, it is an enormous surprise who will help you, and who won't. All I know is it can be people you never expected would do it. So to reciprocate this, I try to "pay forward" by helping people, with no expectation of anything in return.



Summer_Twilight
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15 Nov 2016, 8:53 pm

There were lots of signs which implied that they were not interested in me. Though they were friendly, I saw such signs as.

1. I was hardly invited to do anything outside of work
2. They were always too busy whenever I suggested getting together.
3. When I wasn't re-hired for summer season number 4, all of them were callous and blew me off.
a. Well, it's all for the best
b. There's a better job out there
c. They always rushed off instant messenger.
4. I also found by them making excuses like "I was planning on inviting you but I had to ask the others and they said no because they thought you would be too much to handle."
5. I ran into some of them for a reunion, and I got invited. When I showed up, one of them asked me in a very rude tone? "What are you doing here?"

Actually, my mom pointed it out one year beforehand at that year's reunion that none of them seemed all that interested in me. She thought that one of them seemed like a little snot too