Autism and Friendships

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Always a solid Type II but in last few years slipping into the Type III if not already there.

The closest fit for me is Type I, although I've always had few to no friends. I don't miss people too much when we've been apart, but I am attached to the people in my life.

I would consider myself to be a Type I. Relatively good at platonic socializing though not as skilled as an NT. Friends come and go but I typically have maybe two or three close friends and half a dozen others. I do relatively well in groups. Sometimes it takes a while to integrate into a new group and I hate it when they tell you to "choose a group" but before long I can become a functional member of the team.

On a good day I can feign some degree of charisma. Maybe I'm not as badly affected as some here when it comes to (platonic) socializing but that's not the only problem that can beset aspies. I have issues with concentrating, organizing, etc.

I guess type 1 would be the closest, but I don't exactly make friends just as anyone without autism would...its very hard for me to initiate interaction and keep it going to the point of developing a friendship and there are plenty of people who have disliked me in my life so I also have anxiety about being rejected which adds to making it hard to make friends. I do miss friends and close family members, not sure if I am only mildly capable of attatchment...maybe I would just go about expressing said attatchment a bit differently than someone without autism. I certainly like socializing to a lower degree than average, I get worn out from it a lot quicker then a lot of people but I still do like interacting with people and hate being alone for too long.

I'm mostly a type 1, though I've had times where I was type 2 or even type 3. I desire a limited amount of social interaction, and I do tend to become attached to other people and start to miss them if I haven't seen them for a while, but at the same time, some people just sort of vanish into the background, and I almost forget about them after a while. As well, I don't often like to attend social functions, though I will attend them if a friend is going, or if it involves an activity I enjoy.

Mostly NT and would say I am Type 1. I spend most of my time alone when I can. I have friends who I see rarely and miss occassionally. My mother and brother seem to have a hard time without me around now that we moved away. I miss my mom sometimes but not in the same way. I enjoy not being part of the drama of the family. In college I lived alone in a dorm and tried to see if I could go all day without saying a word to anyone. Including working at the food line, I didn't speak all day. But sometimes I got lonely when I thought I never would. I did miss my family at that time. Now I see my husband and kids all the time and just want to lock myself in my room sometimes.

I think there it makes sense to look at this topic in terms of different dimensions rather than a small set of categories. The OP identifies useful dimensions.

The way I would describe myself:

Way of developing friendships: Tends to develop friendships very slowly, with a strong preference for introverts or people on the spectrum.
Ability to go without friends: Will sometimes miss friends.
Ability to socialise: Will despise socializing, and as a result only attend social functions because they 'have to', or because the activity enjoyment compensates for the annoyance.
Mode of attachment: Capable of attachment according to idiosyncratic rules.