Comment on I'm on the spectrum. How do I live the rest of my life?
the_q@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Why are other people and societal expectations so important to you?
Comment on I'm on the spectrum. How do I live the rest of my life?
the_q@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Why are other people and societal expectations so important to you?
vestmoria@linux.community 11 months ago
TheFunkyMonk@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Your personality is the problem, not the fact that you’re on the spectrum. I know plenty of autistic people who are very pleasant to be around, even those who are heavily introverted. If you put negative energy out towards people, they’re going to give it back to you.
the_q@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
You’re assuming a lot from a few paragraphs, and in a way proving their point. The assumption that some autistic people are pleasant so it must be possible for many is just plain wrong. There are autistic people that can’t speak or that constantly scream and being around them is difficult with personality being meaningless in any interactions with them.
Steve@communick.news 11 months ago
It’s not much of an assumption. They basically said as much themselves. Autistic people can be dicks too…
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
They openly admit to doing the bad behavior back to them.
There is no need to go for confrontation, asking why someone talks so little might just be a way of trying to include them in a group or getting to know them, and it sounds like OP just responds as hostile as possible. They could just say “I’m comfortable talking little” or whatever.
vestmoria@linux.community 11 months ago
TheFunkyMonk@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Why even ask if you’re just going to deflect opinions you don’t like?
Hope you get some help, dude.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
I’m an autistic introvert and upvoted them. You really don’t see how you immediately go for personal attacks and derogatory behavior? You don’t need to tell people they’re being boring. You can just leave and not interact and thus not hurt their feelings.
the_q@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Your description of authenticity and its importance to you is a societal expectation. The request of talking more from others is a societal expectation. The fact that you’re struggling in a system where you’re viewed as outside the norm is societal expectation.
People in general expect the world and the people they interact with to be like them more or less. Your coworkers do it to you and if frustrates you, but you’re doing it to them which frustrates them. You expect authenticity because you’re attempting authenticity and they’re expecting societal norms and are presenting societal norms.
You aren’t required to participate in their system, but it won’t be easy on you.
I do want to touch on something you said about societal expectations. You say they’re a form of unconscious, self imposed control. How is your authenticity any different? Autism makes it hard to think outside a tried and true path. That rigidity is difficult to deal with, but may be worth looking into. Regardless, being authentic will be difficult in most social spaces, but that isn’t an absolute. The onus is on both you and the people around you.
vestmoria@linux.community 11 months ago
the_q@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help with managing symptoms and helping you make changes to lessen the impact others have on you and vice versa. I know you mentioned that mental health isn’t really something you can easily get help with, but there are sites and books you can check out at libraries that can at least put you on the right path. I will warn you though that the exercises and methods CBT asks of you will straight up make you angry and feel stupid. You’ll reject them as silly or tell yourself that you’re experiences are different so it won’t work for you, but I promise as someone who also felt that way it isn’t true. That rigidity I mentioned before is what will be fueling those thoughts and feelings so keep that in mind if you choose to look into the CBT.
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 11 months ago
I have developed an answer to such questions:
I play chess. If you know that game: when it’s my turn, there are many possible moves. I can make only one. I can think about many of the other possibilities, but usually not all of them. So in the end, I am going to have one answer to the question “why did I…?” Only one is needed. And I am going to have only a few answers to all the possible questions “why didn’t I…?”. Maybe two or three, sometimes maybe even five of these possible moves that I decided against. But there will always be so many more possible moves (about 30 by average), where I don’t know the reason why I didn’t choose to make them. And in real life there are even more possibilities what I could do. Every second I do a thing, and I don’t do so many other things… And that’s why that question “why didn’t you?” is so boring, and so useless.
vestmoria@linux.community 11 months ago
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 11 months ago
Not this time. It’s a theoretical answer to this kind of question. You decide if and when to use it.