I seem to always end up having no one to talk to...

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I don't know what is is, but even when I do find some people, like this person I chatted with for a couple of years, and someone else I've known for over a decade... they just stop wanting to talk. The former after taking a break from uni and being back with her family suddenly it seems made her think she didn't need me, the latter after a couple of years of chatting online... for a decade we talked in-person, but of course we couldn't anymore in a pandemic... and suddenly he doesn't even contact me for a whole month, then every two weeks after I messaged, then we're back to over two weeks... I think I should resign to no communication...

Haha. The story of my life!

I never did work out how others can make so many friends. It is a mystery to me.

I have three or four people I keep in touch with who are nice genuine people. The rest are just "People I know".

Same with me. Relationships seem so fragile, i have tons of people i can only call "people i know" but not friends.

Thankfully i have a few good irl friends that i stayed in contact, but i try not to depend on them too much either since it's not a given they will always live close to me.

I get the same. I try to keep in touch by texting them (not excessively, just sometimes) but I can tell they seem aloof with me and the conversation dies out when it could go on for longer. I know people don't always know what to say or aren't always in the mood or whatever, but I also know that if I didn't text them then they wouldn't text me. Then the friendship dies off. It takes two to keep a friendship, why should I always make all the effort?
The pressure does usually fall on the Aspie though. It's like ''if you don't go up to them and chat then you'll never make friends.'' But the reality is that if I went up to them to chat they'll just go ''who's this weirdo? Do we know her? Why's she trying to talk to us?''

The small group of friends I maintain is only maintained because there is a purpose beyond the social communication. I think? It helps to think about what you offer. For me:

1. One friend and I are massage therapists. We ALWAYS trade any time we hang out.

2. One friend is a single mom. Our situations are similar. We mostly get together for sake of kiddos.

3. My male friend hasn’t really had success with women. I give him tips. He also appreciates being able to have a female friend.

It takes pressure off me with lack of social skills. When there is more than just communication, that helps. I don’t know if I could maintain my friendships otherwise. Hard to say.

I also feel this. Somehow it is always on me to keep in touch with "friends." Except for family members no one ever calls or texts me without me initiating the conversation, and somehow I'm the one still reaching out when it gradually becomes clear the other person has lost interest. It's always puzzling to me because according to everybody, I'M the one with the social deficits. ???

Forget "friends"--even people who are supposed to be accountable to me in some way won't talk to me. So, it's the end of the semester, I am stressed out and tried to follow my therapist's guidelines and clearly and objectively articulate to my adviser the things I am struggling and need help with. Adviser sends back an email to say how rude my "manifesto" was and that we would talk about it next year (after half of my concerns no longer matter). I asked some other people in my office what I said wrong and they didn't see anything "rude" about it. So it's clearly his issue but I am always the one who ends up "paying" socially for the ways others dismiss me. So, I'm thinking all the effort I put in to communicate with people is pretty much wasted.

I do agree with Erjoy29--I had one good friendship before I moved and it was based on a collaborative project we worked on together. So we always had something to discuss that interested us both. But the project lost support and my friend retired and I moved away. He's still the only one who reliably responds to my texts, though.

My friendships, also, have always revolved around shared interests, activities, goals, etc.

i tend to think that NTs are not making real friends but just have them as "social friends". so i don't count them. they are just people they know and often socialize with. i assume they enjoy the socializing. then they enjoy these people and think of the as friends.

i wonder how any, what percentage, of NTs are even able to have a true friendship with another person who would be well accepting. too much socializing can fog your mind.

At the end of the semester, most professors are extremely busy with grading papers/assignments, preparing and grading the final exam, and computing final course grades, all of which needs to be done on tight deadlines. So it's understandable that your advisor wouldn't want to talk to you right now. I would suggest that you write something like the following to your advisor:

"Please, could I talk to you as soon as you are done with final grading, if you don't have time to talk to me now? I need to discuss some time-sensitive matters with you. Next semester will be too late. I'm sorry my previous message came across to you as a 'manifesto,' let alone a rude one. I suspect a misunderstanding, which hopefully we can straighten out when we talk?"

If this doesn't get a response, THEN I would suggest talking to the department chair about the situation.