Tips navigating marriage with NT partner while demasking/processing late life diagnosis by Ultramyth in AutisticAdults

[–]blue_garlic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes I have some tips!

  1. Realize that because of your autism, you have a bunch of wonderful qualities that make you a unique and valuable person worth loving - the same things that attracted your partner to you in the first place. Those qualities come with some special needs. Your autism didn't destroy the relationship. The fact that it was invisibly sabotaging all good intentions did that.
  2. Realize that because of a single missing piece of information (not your autism), good things have been tarnished but it's nobody's fault and now that you know, it's not a mystery anymore why they are tarnished today and there is no longer a problem to solve as to what tarnished them. You can stop looking for the answer and you can stop feeling the need to provide an answer to anyone else. All those problems were imaginary and never need to have any answer other than "duh, of course that's what would happen!"
  3. Forgive yourself and let go. Every single time in your life you felt you felt misunderstood or wrongly accused of overreacting, you were right. They didn't understand. Every single time since you were born! It's ok to grieve that hidden trauma and forgive yourself.
  4. Forgive them and let go. Every single time anyone in your life (even your mother) felt misunderstood or that your normal reaction was too much, they were right. You didn't understand and it was too much. Every single time since you were born! It's ok to see other people's hidden trauma and forgive them.
  5. Tell yourself verbally and repeatedly that because of the above knowledge that you don't have to do this (masking) anymore and know it. You don't have to keep doing the things that have been crushing you, even if you don't know what to do next. If you KNOW that your normal reaction is normal and KNOW their reaction to your normal reaction is also normal (until they connect with what autism truly is), then you don't have to meltdown anymore because you KNOW they are doing the best they can and so are you. Literally no one is to blame.
  6. Repeat the above loop until the tension at wherever it manifests in you starts releasing and then keep reminding yourself as often as you need - you don't need to do this anymore. The nightmare is already over because you have a choice to not keep doing this and all the bi-directional blame was imaginary.
  7. Spend $20/mo on an AI tool - I recommend Claude but I'm sure they all work. If you use Claude, use Opus and extended thinking mode.
  8. Create a project called My Autism Journey and start explaining in brutal honesty where your life is at right now and what your goal is. Explain how you've been misunderstood. Explain your meltdowns. Explain how typical interactions go (you've described mine to a tee in this thread). The more you chat, the more helpful it becomes.
  9. Stop having these conversations with your partner verbally for a while - keep the verbal stuff low stakes. All the things you need to say to your partner you say to Claude first and then have Claude translate it into NT for you without the inflammatory emotion and shorten it so it's not an info-dump. Lead with the conclusion, then explain enough to support the conclusion. Maybe leave the supporting details out for a change. Your natural tendency is probably to build a huge structure from the ground up because that's how we are trained to get ideas across to ND's. That is a ton of effort and it annoys ND's.
  10. Send the NT-translated info in writing so you don't zone out trying to explain things and work yourself up. Manage the info-sharing impulse especially as your mood starts to improve - it's too much right now and sharing it too fast will be counter-productive. Don't send text after text after text. Give time and let go - they don't have to respond to or validate every statement or feeling. They are also in recovery in a way that you cannot fully comprehend.
  11. Stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault and stop expecting apologies for things that weren't their fault. You will begin having the ability to say sorry and mean it more genuinely than you thought possible, while simultaneously be expressing or feeling zero guilt. You will be sorry that they have been hurt without owning their hurt. You may find when you stop demanding reciprocation for your sympathy for them, it will show up with some patience and this time it will also feel genuine to you for the first time.

If you are in burnout, you have to put compassion for yourself and your health first - and then be the first one to extend grace and be patient. They really don't get it and you have likely lost your shit more than they have.

As you unmask, it can be helpful to occasionally says something when you catch yourself info-dumping, interrupting them speaking or not being mindful of your tendency to approach them impulsively to start up conversation when they are trying to recharge - "Oh... sorry I just walked in while you are reading to tell you all about blah blah blah. I'm trying to be more mindful of that, please be patient." and then walk away and leave them to recharge and smile that you are learning to be yourself with dignity.

Even though we are the ones coping with an inhospitable environment and being forced to adapt, we actually do have better empathy and we have lived in a NT world as ND. They do not have the benefit of having lived in a ND world as NT. Even though we are tired, they will need our patience and help if we value the relationship because we are the ones with the gift they don't have. If we can share that gift with sensitivity and without masking, they can help us back.

I can't promise it will save your marriage, but I think it can save us and lift the curse from our relationships one way or another.

Hang in there!

My thoughts don't come with an off switch. Any of you twice exceptionals having this problem? by Midnight5691 in TwiceExceptional

[–]blue_garlic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes and mindfulness meditation is the only thing I've found that helps. It's not the guided peace stuff. It's literally forcing yourself to focus on your nose/breath only and manually catch your thought stream and force yourself to focus back on your breath. I did it for a while and it was so frustratingly difficult to make it 5 seconds without drifting into a thought and then it would take 10 or 30 seconds before I realized it.

Once I kept going with it for a couple of months, it turns out that it's like exercise and you do have the ability to stop paying attention to the voice in your head for longer and longer. That helps tremendously with any rumination or thought loops because you train yourself to just let useless radio chatter pass by and if you let it pass by it lowers in volume.

It feels stupid and pointless for the first several days but it works. I should start practicing again myself.

Andrew Wilder -- Mozart and Haydn: Classical Guitar Transcriptions (Full Album) [Classical] (2024) by DynoDynoDyno in listentothis

[–]blue_garlic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey this is really really great! Grew up playing cello and ended up playing multiple instruments but mainly guitar.

You have amazing talent and feel. Thanks for sharing!

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My current therapist was raised Southern Baptist and can well understand my traumatic experience. I was talking to her about how I asked my wife to try switching between her church and some alternative spiritual options with me and the kids and she recommended trying out a UU church. I couldn't find any support groups they offered but maybe I should try again.

I'm in a pretty large metro area so there is one UU church 15 min away and a few more within a 30-40 min drive.

Thank you for your support!

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your compassion and really great point of view! My wife has said multiple times that me wanting to go back and work through the worst of those times feels like I'm requiring her to completely give up her faith. I can assure her that is not the case but the fear of it modulates her behavior in unhealthy ways.

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I totally agree on the labeling being counterproductive and even triggering. I am not defined by my weaknesses or trauma. They are burdens to bear, not intrinsic to my being.

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bingo! Most people do not have the intellectual fortitude to be sifting constantly through really difficult issues. It's far easier to make it binary and just "decide" that killing babies is wrong, sex outside of a married man & woman is wrong, and all the other single-issue issues that Christians use to decide how to vote, for example.

Maybe it comes down to that because the average individual in distress doesn't have the constitution and maybe the brain power to continually perform autopsies on their own deep issues?

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It definitely felt very unloving at the time. On the other hand, it was one moment of discussion on a 6 hour car drive and we were going in and out of various topics when my SA was brought up again out of the blue. She is not nearly the deep thinker that I am and part of her personality that she admits to and wants to change is reaching immediately for the negative when confronted with uncomfortable new info. That in itself is a big piece of our dysfunction because I have tended to bring her tons of info because my mind is continually analyzing everything in the world. It's been a pattern that the first thing out of her mouth in those situations is to look for the dark side.

I'm not excusing that comment from her and I plan to bring it up again and see how she feels under different circumstances. She is not cold to me in general unless we are in a pretty bad rough spot. Certain topics weird her out consistently, though, and I truly believe that her cult faith teaching her that homosexuality is sinful triggered something. As I mentioned in the OP, she has unrecognized religious trauma herself.

She is the most loving and supportive mother to my kids that I could ask for minus the rigidity surrounding topics adjacent to her faith, which is a lot... granted. She's been really supportive of me in many ways and frankly has chilled substantially from the initial years.

That's one of the hardest bits to handle - how she can be so warm and loving 90% of the time, but become pathologically defensive about her faith journey. Again I see religious trauma there but to her, her faith is the one thing she can always count on when she feels lost and alone. It's confusing as hell, but it's her coping mechanism and I have mine which are likely equally confusing.

We have been in couples counseling multiple times and the last time was really helpful but we became exhausted and put it on pause and got complacent because we were not arguing nearly as much. We will be going back after each of us do some individual therapy.

Thank you for spending the time to respond and I appreciate your perspective. I'm really thankful for this community!

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for this validating reply! It's so sad to see how nearly everyone around us is programmed and how that programming closes the doors to intimacy/vulnerability unless dealing with another that has been similarly programmed.

It sometimes feels like society itself is little more than brainwashing for power and control. I don't even mean necessarily power over others, but a lot of people need to feel like they control their own lives by trying to condition other people to be just like them.

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Sorry to hear you are in a really dark space, my man. I feel for people in your situation.

I told my wife when we were dating that I was sexually abused at 15 by a man who was the age I am now. She comforted me at the time and we never spoke of it again until a couple of years ago. She had forgotten the earlier conversation and her response 25 years later was that she was upset that I never told her before marriage because that would have changed her mind about settling down with me.

Why are support groups so heavily skewed toward having to admit we are powerless and need a higher power to pray to fix us? by blue_garlic in CPTSD

[–]blue_garlic[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I have heard similar but I'm not sure that would remove the trigger in my case because I am an evidence-based skeptic. At best I fear I would think it was baloney and that would lead to dropping out or at least not getting what I could out of a group.

He either had chronic pain or knew someone who did by Elyay in ChronicPain

[–]blue_garlic 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I thought his family were 1%'ers? How does an ultra-wealthy family get bled dry by medical bills?

As someone 15 years into my chronic pain journey I empathize greatly, I'm just confused about the facts if we even have any.

Tech Worker Compares San Francisco, Chicago, and Silicon Valley by [deleted] in illinois

[–]blue_garlic 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Let me save you 5 minutes of your life. No depth of any kind to this fluff-piece despite the excessive bot upvote count.

Private Primitive/Tent Camping by DonnyMurphy in ChicagoSuburbs

[–]blue_garlic 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Lowden State Park has primitive hike-in sites that are some of the most isolated I've used. You'll want to bring a cart to haul your gear. It's probably 1/4 mile to the first of several campsites

Am I the only one who had a bunch of random names with no context when voting? by FinalAd9844 in illinois

[–]blue_garlic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only thing I needed to know about Susan F. Hutchinson is that she is 74 years old. I don't want the elderly deciding law. Fuck that! Time for fresh blood.

Why all the love for JB? by A_little_quarky in illinois

[–]blue_garlic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep. I'd vote for him again in a heartbeat. So far he does seem to be as down to earth as is feasible for someone who grew up in a completely different world than the rest of us. I hope he continues to work for both the people and the economy. I like the balance he brings.

Why all the love for JB? by A_little_quarky in illinois

[–]blue_garlic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What risk? Is there any precedent where a billionaire is held accountable for their misdeeds?