• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Dealing with Loneliness! Yes. We. Can.

Lysander

Well-Known Member
I've decided to make this post because I've had some harsh recollections coming to mind recently. I do not take pride in them, nor am I ashamed to be bothered presently. Times of loneliness require courage to get through and may continue to needle us, if the memory persists.

I do not define myself by this, but sometimes it seems like I've been unusually lonely. Mercifully, I learned late in youth that my birth was not foreplanned. Which explains why I was treated differently, and in fact may explain a lot. My extended family was never really around. I had visited them over the years, but no correspondence ever came my way. My father had run away when I was little, apparently. He had a few kids in Oregon, my half-siblings and I, but he married a woman with children of her own and eloped to Alaska, which is pretty far away. One thing that I know with certainty is that he did not abandon his children because he lacked the means to involve himself. A good riddance, by all appearances.

I loved my half-siblings very dearly, as much as full siblings. Possibly better. We grew up together. But they, like my mother, were abusive and one day my brother admitted to thinking that because my sister was his full-sister, and I was his half-sister, that I was not his sister. It was too much at the time and I didn't believe him. But they always left me out and treated me so hatefully when I tried to ingratiate myself into their group, it seems he must have meant it.

Then there were the drugs (not mine), and school. Besides my late grandma, bless her heart, I always had one thing going for me. I was a prodigy and academic excellence, as well as waist-length princess hair and a great butt, was something my mother, and her "other kids" I guess, always envied. My vocabulary confused the other offspring, and as you might guess, making friends is not a skill I would put on my resume. But I graduated with a 4.0. That's right, I got straight-A's, and never did join in on the family habit. Autism, and loneliness, can have it's perks.

WE ARE STRONGER BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN LONELY!

If I may say so myself, our resilience is beautiful and astonishing! Like the grace of a solitary cat, one who has survived loneliness possesses something that deserves respect. Therefore with due regard, I ask that you please not suffer because of the knowledge that others had what you did not. Loneliness cuts deeply, but it does not take away your value! Even if it is unnecessary or unfair because of circumstances beyond our control, enduring the discomfort of being alone is how we learn to rely on ourselves and through developing our own individuality, shows us how we may nurture the unique strengths of others whom we may know later in life.
 
Good point. The loneliness...different-ness...gave me some protection in some form while growing up in an abusive family, too. I'm way more willing to think differently than the people around me tell me to think.
 
Good point. The loneliness...different-ness...gave me some protection in some form while growing up in an abusive family, too. I'm way more willing to think differently than the people around me tell me to think.

Our mindmaps are similar. Sometimes I think our actual minds are, too. :)
 
WE ARE STRONGER BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN LONELY!

If I may say so myself, our resilience is beautiful and astonishing! Like the grace of a solitary cat, one who has survived loneliness possesses something that deserves respect. Therefore with due regard, I ask that you please not suffer because of the knowledge that others had what you did not. Loneliness cuts deeply, but it does not take away your value! Even if it is unnecessary or unfair because of circumstances beyond our control, enduring the discomfort of being alone is how we learn to rely on ourselves and through developing our own individuality, shows us how we may nurture the unique strengths of others whom we may know later in life.

This certainly delves into the heart of it!
Thank you, Lysander, for finding the positive to a situation I can barely live with.. I will have to assimilate, but I'm grateful you've given me this :)
 
One thing about being alone, you learn to get along with yourself. After awhile, it got to where I quite enjoyed being alone and it's hard to get me to socialize now. One extreme to the other. :yum:
 
Agreed. Although at times I continue to puzzle myself wondering how I even made it this far.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

- Friedrich Nietzsche
 
I'm getting divorced it's been a long time coming I was used and let go when they got what they wanted. It's part of the reason why I was to seek clarification on what's wrong with me and why I did not see it coming.

All I wanted or want is a companion to be there when no one else will be there.

Right now it's a mixture of despair and depression for me mixed in with a bit of happiness from my youngest son who was diagnosed with Autism two years ago.
 
Sometimes I wonder if I would go to a for divorced or singles aspies group which has the implicit understanding from the beginning that we aren't "shopping" or looking for dates, etc.
Mostly I am glad to breathe while in this peace I've found.
 
Sometimes I wonder if I would go to a for divorced or singles aspies group which has the implicit understanding from the beginning that we aren't "shopping" or looking for dates, etc.
Mostly I am glad to breathe while in this peace I've found.

They should make a site for that id join
 

New Threads

Top Bottom