Is this normal with aspergers
i wanted friends once, in my twenties, couldn't though... thought i might want a husband and kids but somewhere deep inside knew i couldn't handle that on a daily basis. never minded being alone too much. i guess i thought having friends/boyfriend/kids would be an adventure. but ever since i bought my cats i don't want kids or friends or a husband, even now, when they both died. i have my nieces and that's it. also, i have this forum.
i've been without friends for decades, can't say i even mind. i was completely alone before my nieces were born. NTs find it much harder, if possible, to live that way. you can put me on a deserted island and i'll manage, long as it has animals.
I think there's more to it than just wanting or not wanting friends - you also have to think about what kind of friendships suit you.
My pattern of friendships that I'm comfortable with has been the same my whole life: I only ever have a small number friends who I see regularly, and they're all the kind of people who are happy getting together only occasionally, but are into having really deep, involving conversations when we do. We don't "live in each other's pockets", constantly in touch every day, but we still know that we look out for each other when it's needed. They also accept that sometimes I'm just unable to socialise at all because I'm burned out, and they don't read this as unfriendliness or "ghosting".
From my perspective (which many people would disagree with, I'm sure), a lot of other people have many "friends" who are only what I'd call "acquaintances"; and while they might interact a lot more often, it often seems like a pretty superficial kind of interaction that I just don't find satisfying. And a lot of those kind of "friends" aren't people that they could rely on in a crisis.
I spent a lot of time in my youth desperately trying to make lots of "friends" and trying to be their version of "sociable" before I realised that I was striving for something that I didn't really want; I was just trying copy other people's version of "friendship", and it's one which doesn't work for me. I pushed myself into lots of melt-downs, shut-downs, and burn-outs doing that before I realised that having just my one or two good buddies was perfectly fine, and if other people find our kind of friendship weird it's none of their business.
Whatever anyone else might say, there is no "right" way to do friendship, other than that you enjoy each other's company during the good times, and are there for each other during the bad times (while understanding that, sometimes, this might not be possible).
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