Do your family and friends understand your autism/asperger's

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SherlockTheUnicorn
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02 Dec 2013, 4:17 am

Mine certainly do not and I'm constantly being told I'm nasty and selfish. Since I was diagnosed about 2 years ago, not one of them has even bothered to Google it. Sure they know roughly what it is, but they don't understand what things I find difficult and they expect me to behave like an NT and get angry at me when I don't. "It's your own fault you don't have any friends, you don't join in, you don't go out to clubs and stuff." "people don't like you because you're rude and you don't look at them when they're speaking to you." "you need to stop getting so upset over tiny little things!" "sometimes i wonder if you even care, you show no sympathy to anyone when they need it!" These are just a handful of the comments I get on a daily basis. I feel so alone. :(



salamandaqwerty
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02 Dec 2013, 4:28 am

my mother actually made me see a specialist as she knew there was something different about me. the rest of my family don't get it at all. I am always the easy target and a complete failure in their eyes. I get a lot of the same as you, I think it is easier for them to blame things on character flaws rather than a complicated syndrome. have you tried giving them a book to read on aspergers? its really hard to overlook the similarities of peoples experiences with it. maybe it might help them understand the world you inhabit is a bit different than thiers


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redrobin62
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02 Dec 2013, 4:40 am

People who know me don't understand my Asperger's either but it's okay since I spend no time with anyone anyway.



jk1
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02 Dec 2013, 5:57 am

In my case my family are the only people who kind of understand me. I told them about my diagnosis in late October. They had been aware that I had always been friendless. They had always worried about me somehow. My mum said it's rather a relief to know why I had certain habits. No one else cares about me. I am friendless.



Anemone
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02 Dec 2013, 8:18 am

Nope, and not really interested, either.

I'm the one coaching my elderly aunt on disability rights. (She's coming around, which is good because she has serious mobility issues and people can be so ignorant.)

I would love to have one relative who's ahead of the curve on me, or at least trying to reach a basic level of understanding of the issues.



JSBACHlover
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02 Dec 2013, 9:59 pm

At first they thought I was being ridiculous, even though my sister used to tease me for being "on the spectrum" and "weird" and used to get mad at me for not picking up social cues.

Now they just think, "Well, if this will make him feel better about himself, fine."

If the diagnosis helps, that's all that matters. Others' opinions are of no import.