Ever try to make friends with other people w/ disabilities?

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I'm willing to but it depends what they have and how high functioning they are. I mean, I'll always be nice to somebody but to actually connect with them and be a friend that's something else. I find it hard to connect with other people with Asperger's Syndrome, probably because the people I met weren't as high functioning as I was. Saying this, I haven't really met too many people with Asperger's Syndrome in person. On the other hand, I find it hard to connect to the average neurotypical person as well because they don't seem to understand me.

My friend has a disability but we're more alike and I've known her since high school. She has schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, borderline depression, learning disabilities, auditory processing disorder and drug/alcohol problems. She's a really great person though and we seem to understand each others problems a lot.

I tend to connect with people who have similar problems like who, who are very shy, are the motherly teddy bear types or the INTJ personality types for some reason.

i was once friends with someone else exactly like me (with classic autism and same special interests), and the best part was he lived right accross the street. everything was going great til his mother (she was a homophobe) found out I was gay and she cut off my friendship. i still get a little sad every time i pass by his house.

while walking, sometimes i see him and we constantly wave to eachother til we cannot see eachother anymore. he is the only person that i will accually say hello to on my entire walking route. i would stop and say hello but i am afraid this his mother will say something homophobic to me.

Most of the people I have considered friends have had some sort of difference or disability. The first friends I had were probably in college, and thinking about them, even the most normal of them could be called eccentric.

I've had friends who had disabilities, and I'm engaged to someone who has Aspie traits, but was never actually diagnosed with Asperger's. I also have NT friends who accept those who are slightly different. I never set out to become friends with people who have disabilities, it just was a coincidence that they were disabled.

I tend to get along with NTs who are older than me, and people with disabilities who are my age. I have a friend of the same age and I'm not quite sure what she's got, I think it might be Fragile-X Syndrome, but anyway we get on well. She doesn't have many other friends and is not a great socialiser, but I met her in college and one of the teachers actually said what condition she had and I know she didn't say AS or Autism, but I can't remember what else she said. I have doubts about Fragile-X Syndrome because she doesn't have any different physical features what I've read about in those with Fragile-X Syndrome.

I also have another friend of my age who is Autistic. But he seems to have much more of a social life than me, funnily enough.

I tried to befriend some of the other students who are on the disabled students program at my college but my impression was most of them were as*holes.

At my first primary school, there was a girl with Williams Syndrome. I didn't know that at the time, but looking at photos of her now, I'm pretty certain she had it. She clung to me. She used to be upset every morning, but as soon as I arrived, her face would light up and she'd say, 'I'm OK now, my friend is here'. There was also a man who lived a few doors down from me. He had a learning disability and was rather like a child. He was one of my friends. Other kids would make fun of him, but I adored him.

I make friends with people who have relatives with disabilities, or at least are familiar with ASD.

Maybe it's that they're familiar with my type. I don't know. They're not deep friends, though.

That's a funny phrase..."deep friends."

Not on purpose, but most of the people I talk to (or at least used to, some I don't see anymore) are aspie or have ADHD or something else. There was also a nice man I met at a mental hospital (I wasn't a patient, just visiting family member) who had schizophrenia, and I talked with him a few times.

Once, it was a disaster for me. I remember lots of people thinking that I would get along really well with this mentally handicapped girl at my high school, it turned out I didn't get along with her at all. She turned to to be rude, manipulative, mean, nosy and lying. She would look into rooms in the school and make faces at people and laugh just to annoy them. She would ask people personal questions and get mad if they said they didn't want to talk about because it was personal. She got mad at me because at Halloween she wanted to trick-or-treat with me and I don't trick or treat and I said "I'd love to but I don't really trick or treat anymore". She would always get annoyed when people said they couldn't hang out with her. Other people have had issues with her too. Also, she was one of those people who think if it was OK for THEM to bully another person, but doesn't think it is OK for ANOTHER PERSON to bully them. I have gotten along with other mentally handicapped people though.

However, not every situation has been like that. I have an acquaintance who has moderate autism, enjoyed some of the people at the camp I went to for autistic children last year and had a casual friend with autism when I was about 10.

At the moment, all of my close friends are older NTs, I have few acquaintances who have disabilities though. They are all my age.

I recently tried to make friends with a guy who told me he has Aspergers at university. Nice chap but when we parted ways and I emailed him he never replied so I gave up.

A year later he wanted to be my facebook friend and I agreed. When I read his conversations on facebook with other people I realised we had nothing in common and understood why he found my conversations boring.

Having a common diagnosis or disability does not mean you will automatically be friends.

I find most of the people I would be inclined to call friends I have met through being around a group or clique. These are typically the outcasts that end up forming a group.

I do have a good friend that shares all of the same traits of AS as I do, except AFAIK she doesn't have any special interest. She ended up saving my life, so even though it was awkward for us to hang out at first, I felt like I needed to be there for her when she had problems.

My primary school was a mainstream school but was the 'reject' school for all the kids other schools didn't want, we had a girl with cerebral palsy for a little while and as other kids wanted nothing to do with either of us we ended-up spending time together and got on really well. She wasn't there for long so I assume she was put into a 'special education' school, I ran into her in college but didn't continue the friendship. I half-heartedly attempted to become friends with several of the disabled students in my first college, especially when I later went on to be a teaching assistant for the more severely disabled, but at that time I was very ill so had to focus on my health over making friends.

I try with AS/ASD adults - unsuccessfully, but then that's mostly due to having known none locally until a few months ago.

I never met anyone with Aspergers ( except from this site of caurse) My ex boyfriend has a tick disorder , anxienty and he is on meds for panic attacks and depression )I have 2 friends with physical disability ( muscular dystrophy and sight problems)

I worked at a daycare centered for a while that had a boy with classic autism. the lady used to tell me not to handle him or get him his lunch or anything because he would act out, he did with everyone else but her.

We got along great. I learned what words he used to refer to his favorite movie (jungle book) and that he hated plates handed to him because he did not like forks. After about a week he would sit on my lap and flap his hands on my thights and smile at me and we would hang out, without talking and watch jungle book.

I guess it seemed weird to other people because he was 10 and I was in my twenties? But he was a great kid to hang around with. As for disabled adults, I am not sure. I have a friend with ADHD and ocd and our conversations are definitely a sight! Between his obsessions and mine.

I recently made friends with a girl from an ASD support group and so far it has been a success.