I'm getting extremely fed up of being somewhere on the autistic spectrum.
A couple of months ago, I went on a work placement which required me to stay away from home for a few days. Since it was organised through my university I could claim things like travel and accommodation on an expenses form. My expenses were returned today and I emailed a note to the woman who had arranged the trip, letting her know I had got my money back. However, I neglected to say "thank you" in the note because, for whatever reason, those little social minutiae pass my by sometimes. I think I saw the note in pretty utilitarian terms more than anything else.
Well, upon hearing this my Mum got extremely angry with me. I realise I should have said "thank you" in the note, but the way she was speaking to me you'd have thought that I had taken a crap on her doorstep. It felt utterly disproportionate to what had happened, and I've basically gone off and I'm not speaking to her or my Dad right now. I wasn't in the mood to have a conversation we've had about five times before now.
I'm annoyed on two fronts. The first is that while my Mum says she's supportive she more often than not comes off as negative and accusatory towards me which I find hurtful. I don't do these things to be rude or thoughtless and I haven't gone off now to be recalcitrant. It takes a genuine effort on my part to both socialise and remember what is socially appropriate. It's difficult for me, and I do try and do the right thing as often as I can. The second reason I'm annoyed is that things like this happen to begin with and that I can't learn from my mistakes, and the thought that my social ineptitude is going to have a serious impact on my relationships and future career is a pressing worry for me.
I think I'm jaded with my parents because I feel that I'm not making any progress on coping with this autistic presence and they are never going to really understand or be patient enough with me to get past it. I don't know what to do. However, I do have an excellent book by a man called Tony Attwood which correlates with a lot of my own experiences.
I suppose I can seek support and help in these scenarios, but to be honest it just feels utterly emasculating. It's not a good feeling when you're twenty years old and you have to be told if an item of clothing is appropriate to wear or your Facebook picture makes you look like a pervert (this actually happened). I think I'm quite a proud person who doesn't take criticism very well, so I feel utterly in conflict between this autism and the ways in which I'm supposed to deal with it.