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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Married to someone with Asperger's/ASD/ND: support thread 12

1000 replies

Daftasabroom · 17/07/2024 18:05

New thread.

This thread is for those of us seeking to explore the dynamics of long term relationships with our ND partners. Some of us are ND ourselves, very many of us have ND children. It is a support thread, and a safe space, it does get emotional at times. Avoid sweeping generalisations if possible, try and keep it specific to you and your partner.

It's complicated and it's emotional.

The old thread is here.

Married to someone with Asperger's/ASD: support thread 11 | Mumsnet

New thread. This thread is for those of us seeking to explore the dynamics of long term relationships with our ND partners. It is a support thr...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/relationships/5081532-married-to-someone-with-aspergersasd-support-thread-11?page=1

OP posts:
LoveFoolMe · 19/07/2024 11:10

(Except for the 'joy-filled' comment about autistic special interests. DH does intensity not joy!)

LoveFoolMe · 19/07/2024 11:21

@Apex3
I’m not saying it would have necessarily changed anything, but I would have been in a much more educated position to decide whether to stay in the relationship earlier on, knowing what the future (ie as a single person but trapped in a marriage) would hold

Yes, I do think it's useful to know when someone's autistic as we can then accept that they're unable to change much, if at all. We can then decide what we can and can't live with. To accept our situation or to change it ourselves. Rather than an ongoing hope that they'd change if only we worked out the right approach....

There're so many Mumsnet threads where people think their partners will change just as soon as they realise how the OP is affected. I read those hopeful threads sadly thinking their partner might not be able (even if willing) to change.

Flittingaboutagain · 19/07/2024 11:25

Simplefoke · 18/07/2024 20:00

Do people actually sabotage things like this? I mean I know narcissistic people do but do ND people also?

In my experience yes. Usually not deliberately or consciously but the impact is the same. Like going to see Taylor Swift with someone who spends the entire concert asking when will it be finished...you just can't get the same level of joy out of it then.

SpecialMangeTout · 19/07/2024 11:33

Flittingaboutagain · 19/07/2024 11:25

In my experience yes. Usually not deliberately or consciously but the impact is the same. Like going to see Taylor Swift with someone who spends the entire concert asking when will it be finished...you just can't get the same level of joy out of it then.

I’ve just realised that sabotaging things when it’s not his special interest is DH all over 😢😢

And yes it’s totally unconscious too.

SheSlays · 19/07/2024 12:31

Apex3 · 19/07/2024 11:09

I went through something similar @SheSlays. For years and years (I’m talking 20 years!) I just thought this was the way it was. It had become normal for me. It’s only one day I was sat on the sofa, on my own, my wife walked past me without saying a word, hood of hoodie over her head, I thought to myself this CANNOT be right, this CANNOT be normal. This surely is not what other people experience out of a relationship?

Then I did some googling, found a thread where somebody mentioned Asperger’s and all the pieces fell into place. Holy smoke, did they ever. How could I be so dozy? I now realise ASD/Aspergers is probably rife throughout the whole of her Father’s side of the family. I’m not saying it would have necessarily changed anything, but I would have been in a much more educated position to decide whether to stay in the relationship earlier on, knowing what the future (ie as a single person but trapped in a marriage) would hold

“How could I be so dozy” struck a cord with me. @Apex3

And I work in mental health ….🤦🏼‍♀️ feeing like a fool for not having realised for so long.

I’m holding on to the idea that, as a society, our understanding of ND has developed enormously in the last few years.

Apex3 · 19/07/2024 15:44

SheSlays · 19/07/2024 12:31

“How could I be so dozy” struck a cord with me. @Apex3

And I work in mental health ….🤦🏼‍♀️ feeing like a fool for not having realised for so long.

I’m holding on to the idea that, as a society, our understanding of ND has developed enormously in the last few years.

I’m not sure @SheSlays, but one thing I do know is that most of my adult life has been characterised by incredible loneliness, leading to depression, drink and other fun things. I’m not complaining, as for sure I could have got out, I’m merely stating a fact

LoveFoolMe · 19/07/2024 16:42

@Apex3 😢🫂
Do you get any support from friends? Or is it to hard to talk about?

working4ever · 19/07/2024 20:58

Yep @Apex3 how could I be so stupid to set aside my boundaries to accommodate someone else. 20 plus years. It sucks. And when you have the temerity to call time.. well let's just say it isn't pleasant.

Apex3 · 19/07/2024 21:26

LoveFoolMe · 19/07/2024 16:42

@Apex3 😢🫂
Do you get any support from friends? Or is it to hard to talk about?

No, honestly I don’t think they would understand. And I don’t want to dump my emotional baggage on them. On the face of it dw is relatively chatty, pleasant, makes eye contact. All masking. I don’t think for a second they would have even considered ASD. The bottom line is she would prefer to avoid social situations where possible but, when she has to, she can play the game

Apex3 · 19/07/2024 21:28

working4ever · 19/07/2024 20:58

Yep @Apex3 how could I be so stupid to set aside my boundaries to accommodate someone else. 20 plus years. It sucks. And when you have the temerity to call time.. well let's just say it isn't pleasant.

Apologies if I caused offence @working4ever but I’m not sure i understand you?

Flittingaboutagain · 20/07/2024 09:16

SpecialMangeTout · 19/07/2024 11:33

I’ve just realised that sabotaging things when it’s not his special interest is DH all over 😢😢

And yes it’s totally unconscious too.

It's a horrible realisation to have reached personally. My husband says it's unreasonable to demand he enjoy X just to make me happy. Where do you go from there? I do almost everything of meaning without him because he won't enable me to enjoy something if it's not important to him he'll eye roll, check his watch, be on his phone, make grumpy comments etc. Occasionally I think his anxiety about doing something with me or going somewhere has also made him create an argument so that eventually I say I don't want him to come...

Rainbow03 · 20/07/2024 10:09

@Flittingaboutagain my 8 year old behaves like this. It’s not a personal things it’s simply they see no need to or maybe have no ability to cover up their inner feelings. I don’t want to do this and go there and that’s the end of that. Unless I can try and twist a situation into there being some kind of gain for her she will have no interest about anyone else’s feelings. It’s simply missing. I hope that I can help her to start to think about the bigger picture but it feels like banging my head against a wall most of the time and we avoid going to places! I imagine most partners are still at the stage of my daughter.

BustyLaRoux · 20/07/2024 10:36

Struggling this morning with DP correcting me, pulling me up on everything, rewriting history (with absolute insistence this is what happened), havjng the last word……

On holiday. It’s beautiful and we are having a lovely time. Apart from the niggly comments. I am ignoring these mostly. But in the end I had to say I am struggling with the endless slightly irritable comments. For example I just bought a (very touristy!) ceramic colourful olive oil bottle to take home as a nice memento of our trip. DP said let’s fill it with olive oil and use it here on holiday. I said mmm not sure that’s a great idea. Putting an oily bottle in our suitcase to take home. I can envisage a bit of oil (even if we wash it out) maybe getting on our clothes. He huffs and says fine we will do things your way as usual! I say well I just don’t want oil on our clothes as it would ruin them. He says “fine fine I’ve learned better than to argue. I know you like to insist on having your own way!” I ask if everything is OK and why all the irritable comments. He says he isn’t being irritable at all. I say well OK then, but I don’t always insist on my own way. I just don’t go on about it when I don’t “get my own way”. For instance not two minutes earlier I had said how it would be nice to eat at one of the nice hotels we walked past earlier and maybe book a table for tonight. DP had completely overruled me and said “no hotels don’t do great food. They’ll be fine for a drink and enjoy the view and then we can eat somewhere else.” I had replied yes but it’s not just about the food. It’s the service and the nice tablecloths and the setting etc. He had said you can have all that somewhere else. We’ll have a drink there and move on somewhere else. Shut me down basically, but I just agreed.

But when I said this is a perfect example of me not “getting my own way” and that stuff like this happens all the time but I don’t mention it or make shitty comments about it, he suddenly started rewriting history and saying he absolutely hadn’t said we won’t eat there. I was like eerrr that’s exactly what you said! You said the food won’t be that good as it never is at hotels and we can have a drink and move somewhere else! No no no. That’s not what he said at all, apparently! In fact he had said let’s see what the food is like and then we can decide!

I was like darling that may have been what you thought but I can assure you that’s not what you said. You most definitely said we will have a drink there but not eat there. I promise you this is what you said. But he won’t have it. Keeps insisting he said we would look at the menu and make a decision and how it would be silly to rule out eating there and we should keep our options open. 😧

But this is a completely different conversation to the one we had! Completely different!!! But he’s absolutely insistent this is what he said and he won’t entertain a scenario when that isn’t the case and gets quite annoyed when I suggest it wasn’t that.

I know this is just a stupid petty married squabble. It wasn’t even a squabble as I just let it go. As I usually do. But it is grating on me. We’re having a nice holiday. It’s fine for him to overrule something I’d like to do. Then get shitty with me and tell me I insist on getting my own way all the time. Which is certainly not the case! And when I give an example (in the last five minutes!) of me not getting my own way all the time by any means, he then rewrites an entire conversation. But he seems to genuinely believe that this fabricated version is real. I can’t understand how he thinks this is the conversation we had. It’s nothing like it! But as he is never wrong then it must be me who forces him to my will at all times and poor beleaguered DP just has to put up with me!!!

Does anyone fancy joining me on holiday?? I’m about to drown my DP so I will have space for one more if you fancy it!!!! 🤣 (I promise I am quite easy going and don’t insist on having my own way!)

SheSlays · 20/07/2024 12:49

@BustyLaRoux I’ll come!! I could do with a break from my unpaid role as live-in maid and PA 😆
Can we drink Aperol spritz on the beach (hoping you’re somewhere hot?!) while actively encouraging each other to “have the last word” 😊

BustyLaRoux · 20/07/2024 12:55

@SheSlays i am in southern Italy and it’s very hot and the sea is gorgeous. Please come!! I’m not in need of a PA or a maid so I’m afraid you’d be a bit redundant. You’d be forced to relax and chinwag and drink Aperol spritz with me. I LOVE the idea of encouraging each other to have the last word! Let’s do that without delay! 🥂

SheSlays · 20/07/2024 13:03

@BustyLaRoux (I would reply but need to let you have the last word.. this is more complicated than I thought 😆)

BustyLaRoux · 20/07/2024 14:38

Well indeed. But then according to DP I don’t understand SCIENCE (!!!) and I am also belligerent for not changing my opinion to match his when he tiraded at me for ten whole minutes about his scientific opinion on something and I stayed quiet. I didn’t agree but I didn’t dare disagree. So I stayed quiet. Then I got shouted at in the street for causing an argument and being so belligerent….. “why are you belligerently holding on to your view?” He asks of me as I am silent. I said because it’s fine for us not to agree but I don’t want to argue. So he got angry and said I should entertain his view and stop belligerently holding onto my own view. And that I was being argumentative by staying quiet.

Cant win. Seemingly I need to agree to everything he says and let him have the last word on all matters. And only then we will avoid arguments. Anything else he just gets angry about.

BustyLaRoux · 20/07/2024 14:42

SheSlays · 20/07/2024 13:03

@BustyLaRoux (I would reply but need to let you have the last word.. this is more complicated than I thought 😆)

@SheSlays emailing your plane ticket now. Please help my poor belligerent soul. Apparently I need someone to explain science at me!!!

Dentalflossie · 20/07/2024 14:50

@BustyLaRoux I need to agree to everything he says and let him have the last word on all matters. And only then we will avoid arguments. Anything else he just gets angry about.

My ex was exactly the same. Took me far too long too realise. Then I stopped arguing about anything and then I got divorced.

Apex3 · 20/07/2024 16:03

are you having a nice hols @BustyLaRoux? 🤣

I strongly suspect @SheSlays is going to get stuck in the airport queues, her flight probably cancelled. So that rules her out. My plan is to take the Eurostar to Paris, pick up a hire car and drive to the south of Italy. So I can be with you in about 5 days’ time.

However,

‘I’m about to drown my DP so I will have space for one more if you fancy it!!!!’

please make sure this is completed before I arrive. Your dp possibly won’t want me there, and I’m going to be pissed if I get there and, having driven all that way, you say ‘oh I’m so sorry I couldn’t bring myself to do it’.

Many thanks and see you in 5 days 👌

BustyLaRoux · 20/07/2024 16:48

Thank you @Apex3 despite appearances to the contrary I am having a lovely holiday! DP buggered off for a bit on one of his wanders and I lay on a lounger on our roof terrace and read my magazine and finished off last night’s Prosecco.

DP has actually gone and booked us a sundown table at the hotel he earlier poo poo-ed. Suspect either he is being very romantic and trying to do something he knows I will like OR is trying to prove he absolutely didn’t dismiss my suggestion (see earlier: the food will probably be shit so we can have a drink and then move on) at all. I will go with the former as he is prone to doing nice things for me and is not actually that petty.

In a bid for marital harmony I have indeed left the bedroom door open so the air con can circulate down the stairs (science!!!) although I know it will
make our bedroom too warm, I am also not that petty and will let him think I have succumbed to his scientific view rather than belligerently pushed ahead with my own non-scientific view of the aircon/ heat circulation. I am after all just a silly woman and probably cannot grasp such intellectual matters anyway!

Damn, you may be right about poor @SheSlays being able to get here! Hmmm that is a quandary. However there is a sofa bed as well so I could put you both up…? As for whether DP
will live to see another day, presently I cannot say. I did go down to the rocks to see about drowning earlier but he’d already got out the sea. If he tries to mainsplain the aircon at me again tomorrow though, he may not be so lucky. (There is also a lovely roof terrace I could push him off. The wall is quite low and he is quite tall
so gravity isn’t on his side!!!! 😁)

Apex3 · 20/07/2024 17:22

Enjoy the rest of your hols @BustyLaRoux! Sounds fab ☺️

ItWasMaroon · 23/07/2024 14:43

Hi, I'm not sure if it's ok for me to barge in on this thread but I'm having a tough day and I don't know where else I can talk about this without being vilified.

Name changed.

Somedays I feel like DW thinks I'm stupid. She prides herself on being the "logical" and "practical" one out of the two of us. She's not. We got into an argument this morning as doing anything that doesn't have any tangible benefits or isn't done the way she would do it apparently means I'm wrong/ignorant/gullible.

"Why would anyone do that?"

I hear that all the time.

The cause this time? Bloody moisturising face masks. Yes, maybe they don't work, maybe I'm paying for the brand, maybe it's the packaging that drew me in, but we can afford it and I enjoy it! Am I not allowed to do anything that's not 100% practical?

This is a minor issue but this is my life now. Bought a new phone? I'm an idiot because x brand and y model is better and cheaper. Bought a water bottle? She didn't see me doing any research how would I know I made the right choice? It's a £7 water bottle ffs. Went for skate day with the local roller derby group? "Why would you want to hurt yourself and be packed in a small area with so many people?"

I try to remember the good times but somedays all I can see are the bad times. Sad

ItWasMaroon · 23/07/2024 14:46

To be fair, I don't think anything she says is said maliciously but she genuinely cannot see the point in moisturising masks [there's no point to this but that doesn't matter to me] or any of the other stuff.

BustyLaRoux · 23/07/2024 20:26

I get it @ItWasMaroon. My dad is just like this. Can’t see that other people just do things differently and that that is fine. Has to pass
comment. They are wrong. Unless he agrees with it/does it/understands it then they are wrong. Not different. But wrong. Maybe you could adopt a broken record phrase to employ during such moments. Something like “we are all
different and I just do things differently to you. That is all”
It is infuriating though! I think my dad thinks the world should be made up of versions of himself. Everyone else is criticised, wrong, stupid…..

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