Autism in young adults

3SailAway
Tue, 02 Aug 2022 14:59:03 +0000

My teen nephew is on the spectrum. He is a terrific kid and we are so used to him that we sometimes forget that others see him as atypical. He is doing well in high school and will likely be fine in college, and in any job where he can work independently. His struggles are with understanding the social world around him.

When I stop to think about it, the main things that stick out are:

1. He doesn’t read people well, and is often unaware of how things will make others feel. He tends to hurt people’s feelings by being blunt and he has trouble making friends.

2. He can get obsessed with his favorite subjects, and doesn’t understand why others do not share his level of interest.

3. He handles it much better now, but he has extreme frustration about many things in the social world that don’t make sense to him, for example, rules, etiquette, and people’s behavior/feelings in general. His frustration about these issues caused countless meltdowns until he was about twelve.

I hope that you can find the right professional to help your relative. Unless he has difficulty with relationships, I would look beyond autism. However, I’m not sure the exact diagnosis matters as much as practical measures that would help him function better and be happier/more comfortable in his own skin. Best wishes!