Thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely check out "Crucial Conversations". That sounds like it could be helpful.

I've read some of “How to win Friends and Influence People” at the library but none of it made sense to me. It all just seemed so bizarre and it's understanding that sort of bizarre behavior I'm trying to do. So far I've dismissed a lot of NT behavior by thinking of it as base, instinctual behavior - like animals with mating dances and songs - and that has been fitting for the most part but is probably dismissive/reductive and I feel I should do more to understand. I've touched on philosophy but so much of that is concerned with religion or the questioning of some sort of 'divine' influence which is not helpful at all.

I hope your daughter finds the book helpful. I found it in the "Helpful Resources" section on the sidebar. Might be worth checking out if you haven't already.

I feel this. A few months ago I lost all my energy to maintain my mask- completely removed myself from my friends because I couldn't be the person I wanted to be for them. The energy it takes to be patient doing things I don't want to do, showing interest in things I'm not interested in, and supporting people who can't support me just drains me. While it's been moderately lonely as I also wfh, it's a bit liberating having a completely consistent flow throughout my day; all that mental and emotional energy I can now put towards me. Familiar cycle though... Once I glue my mask together, we go again!

i feel like I've found it both easier and harder as life goes on.

like, I've gotten better at it. it's easier for me to understand body language and facial expressions now. in fact, i think because i had to learn that from the outside I've gotten really quite good at that. it's made me a halfway decent actor it turns out 😅.

however, just like you, it's harder for me to want to. I get so tired of it, and my brain gets stuck comparing how much I'm sacrificing my time and attention to how much they're willing to do that for me and it makes me bitter. it's an extremely unproductive thought pattern, but i still struggle with it.

what I've really really lost patience for is people being rude over info dumping. i may come of as a little awkward for talking about image processing techniques and how important the debayering layer is to the quality of high frame rate video.... but you're a fucking dick when you say "o don't care, stop talking" after like 30 seconds. if i can overcome my stupid bullshit to wait patiently for you to make the fucking point i understood you were trying to make 8 sentences ago, you can let me babble about noise floors for the same

anyway... this community make me feel like i might actually be allowed to ramble like this... maybe. I'm sorry if that wasn't very well organized

This has been my experience too. Looking back, I did pretty well masking and managing burnout in highschool but when I got a job and had to deal with customers is when I started to really burnout and that was how I ended up in the mental health ward and learnt I have Aspergers. I have very little energy for masking these days.

I ended up moving out into the bush and becoming a hermit, isolating myself. I was pretty damaged at the time but I'm trying to make an effort to manage things better now. Just need to find the resources to do it.

Cheers. I probably should check out the chat room. I've always tended to be a lurker but am trying to make more of an effort.

Had a mental health crisis and ended up in the hospital mental health ward. Got my diagnosis while I was in there.