Self esteem issues and Autism

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Lately i have been having debilitating self esteem issues,including my personality, my social understandings of things, my looks, and i dont know what to do anymore. I cant even act myself in public because supposively my autism shows. So i have to act "normal" all the time and its so hard to do, it tires me out, i overthink about myself alot and i hate that with autism, comes a lot of self esteem issues, anyone else feel this way?

Perhaps most of us I think.

I have felt the same way.

I was self-conscious when I first got my diagnosis. I became more aware of my deficits socially and felt very inadequate. Over the last year, I have gained more confidence in my social skills. I am not so self-conscious. I do feel inadequate in certain social situations. I don't know how to do intimate relationships, especially romantic ones. Less intimate relationships are not a problem for me at the the moment. I have had to force myself to be in social situations and the result is that I have not been rejected. Most people like me. I also keep learning more and more about how to behave just from personal experience.

I how your life circumstances give you the opportunity to practice your social skills and gain more self-confidence. AS doesn't mean we can't learn social skills. It just means we have to consciously think our way through social situations a lot of times. At this point in my life, after 30 years of practice, I don't know if my social deficits cause me enough harm in my daily life to warrant a diagnosis. I still have AS. I have just learned different social scripts that enable me to get through the day.

How to fix self-esteem issues in 3 easy steps:

1) Love yourself unconditionally.
2) See step 1)
3) Any questions? See step 1)

Simple.

Olympiadis,

You're smarter than your subconscious. I think you could manage it.

Why do you have to act normal? I guarantee its less stressful not to...well if you then don't make it your goal to mostly associate with normal people. I have terrible self esteem, but couldn't act normal if I wanted...found it easier to quit trying.

I've had terrible self-esteem issues, most of my life----up, through my 30s, even, I think. I got out of it, I guess, when I accepted myself, the way I am. I don't really put alot of effort into being "normal", anymore, really----I mean, there's still those social conventions that one still has to "meet" / contend with / whatever, but I don't care if someone doesn't like me, anymore, since I became comfortable with myself, living alone, doing things alone, etc.