Asperger and loneliness

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I have a psychologist with 25 years experience of AS and she has told me a majority of people with AS cannot stand a life in loneliness. Apparently we want people around us all the time but much of the time we don't want to chat with them. That was basically what she said to me.

When I was younger I was alone most of the time and enjoyed it. But as a grew up to adolescence I started to get depressed if I was left alone too long. I moved from home and got in contact with psychiatry who helped me with therapy and other stuff. To control my panic attacks around people. So right now I prefer a day with friends and family ahead of loneliness and depressions seven days a week and I am so glad I do!

How is it for you?

I do really enjoy time alone but no more than anyone else would really. Just enough time that I can process my thoughts and clear my head.

I know that it does me good to be around people. It stops me from going to far into my own head.

I myself long for more connections with pepole but find it very difficult due to sensory overload and very strong social anxiety,inspite of that I want to improve and connect more to people and I have made a bit of progress in that regard but its still quite difficult.

Part time work helps or even short college courses.

I prefer to spend 75% of my time alone, but I need at least 25% of time around others or I start to feel lonely and sad.

I am an outlier again. Oh well.

I spend the vast majority of my time alone, only being social when I absolutely have to be. When I was younger I used to get really lonely, but not so much anymore. I realized a long time ago that "normal, everyday" social interaction has no benefits for me, only a series of drawbacks, so I adapted to the loneliness.

I get all my "people" requirements working my two jobs.

When I'm away from work, I tend to like to be alone. The internet is usually enough for me.

I don't dislike people, though.

I don't like being lonely either and do wish I could have smooth conversations, a nice girlfriend and friends in general. I realize it's a no win situation for me so I spend most of my time at home depressed..

The only thing that keeps me sane is probably my mom and medications that I'm on.

I wish I could go back to the old days of spending time at friend's houses, playing sports, going to parks, etc.. It seems like the more time goes on, the more I fail at life..

Sorry if I sound so negative.

I was more content to be alone when I was younger, yes. I also think I was less socially conscious in general, both of other people's feelings, of my own feelings, and of my effect on others. I feel like once I hit a certain age my sensitivity to others went wild and is still stabilizing.

I'm not a fan of in-person socializing, though. Just improving my own unhappy circumstances right now takes up a lot of my energy, and many potential friendships seem draining or like they'd require me to go far out of my way to keep them going. Socializing is draining and difficult, and when I imagine people I want in my life I imagine it as something that would happen naturally. Ideally I'd have a small circle of friends to see a couple times a week, and I do talk to people here and there just to be friendly.

My meaningful socialization mostly comes from online, because it takes very little out of me except a little time and is highly flexible. I play online games with a small community I hang out with in voice chat sometimes, and people come and go as they please. There's no pressure to show up, but if we make plans to do something we're expected to either stick to it or let people know if we can't make it. That's about it.

Virtual fishing is pretty fun. Sit and watch the water go by. Someone else catches, I turn 'em into food.

I have found that as I get older and friends go by the way, that I get much more lonely. Most of my social connections are online, which hardly replaces the void of real social interaction.

my preferred situation is "alone together"; being in the same room as others, reading a book or something.

I don't need to be interacting with others all the time (i can't even), but if i don't have the option to, i get lonely indeed.

I think she pretty much explained my situation as well.

In my opinion, the reason (for me at least) why we really don't chat with people because, well, some of us don't know how to.

I am in a situation nowadays where I have to keep contact time with my friends (and especial acquaintances) short. This is because I quickly run out of NT friendly topics and dive into awkwardness (something my friends do not mind) or become exhausted easily. I definitely become... depressed if I don't meet up familiar faces for too long...

It feels like that I crave human company, but once I have it, unable to figure out what to do with it.