Last updated on November 26, 2023
Visitors have asked why the blog doesn’t deal more with personal issues like romance, marriage, children. There’s not much to “teach” other people. My advice to autistics is to stop trying to please everyone else and find your own social network. In that social network, you might (or might not) find friendships and love.
If you don’t have friends, you definitely won’t find love. I am a believer in friendships helping us cope with life.
Before I removed the Q&A section on the blog site, the majority of questions I received were about relationships / dating. Basically, “How can my son / daughter have a ‘normal’ social life and find love?”
I tired of the question because 1) there is no one answer and 2) many of the autistics corresponding with me hated the pressure to find “love” and didn’t want parental help with romance!
Though I have a short ebook available on the topic of relationships, I lost enthusiasm for the project because so many questions were about sex and love. There are plenty of online and in-print guides to the technical aspects of sex and any guide to love will be flawed.
I plan to update the relationship guide during 2017, but with more on social skills and more autism-specific research citations.
But, parents, please remember what you want and need is not what your child might want or need. It is not “empathy” if all you are doing is overlaying your emotional system onto other people.
Dating isn’t easy for anyone. There are no simple answers to how people meet (work, school, social clubs, online) and fewer answers on how to date successfully. As for love… forcing it is probably the only wrong solution out there.
What should a blog or podcast address? I’m not sure. Apparently, if I want traffic and sponsors, sex sells. It might get more views, but would I be helping anyone?
Use the Facebook Page if you want to suggest topics and ask questions.
Also, a reminder that plans for a podcast will take additional resources. Please consider sponsoring The Autistic Me if you’d like more blogging and a podcast.
Thank you, as always.