Thoughts about friendship

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I think it’s useful to think of friendships as having several ingredients, each of which can be cultivated.

Foundations of friendship:

1) Companionship: Enjoying each other’s company. Companionship has two main aspects: (a) liking each other as people, and (b) one or more shared interests: activities you both enjoy, or topics you both enjoy talking about. A shared sense of humor helps too, and for many people (not everyone) is an essential part of companionship.

2) Emotional sharing / intimacy. Emotional support, sympathy, mutual understanding, and freedom to be (relatively) unmasked: These are often major areas of difficulty between autistic people and NT’s, due to the mutual empathy problem. On the other hand, meeting other autistic people in a support group can give us a head start, with each other, on this dimension of friendship.

3) Doing favors for each other: Favors should be small at first, small enough that you won’t feel ripped off if it’s not reciprocated. Favors can gradually get bigger as the friendship deepens.

4) Comradeship: An emotional bond formed by facing common challenges together. Extreme example: war buddies. More common example: Teammates on a sports team. Another example: Political activists working closely together for a common goal. Many autistic people have never experienced comradeship. Many of us tend to be clumsy, hence were never wanted on anyone’s sports team.

Close friendship additionally requires:

5) Caring about each other’s well-being. The more you both care, the deeper the friendship.

6) Trust. (Up to a point at least, but not total trust – e.g., one should never share bank account passwords! And one should never relinquish one’s right to mental privacy.)

Pitfall: Many autistic people have a tendency to be prematurely trusting. Upon getting burned as a result, some of us then go to the opposite extreme of jumping to nasty conclusions about people. What we need is the middle ground of “Love many, trust few”: Prepare for the worst, by taking reasonable precautions and asserting boundaries, but be slow to jump to negative conclusions about specific people.

but be slow to jump to negative conclusions about specific people.

Question about this one, shouldn't be actually quick about negative conclusions? Just for the sake of quickly filtering out incompatible people?

But most everyday encounters with other people are not like that.

As autistic people, we are often frustrated by other people jumping to unwarranted prejudicial conclusions about us, based on our body language, our tone of voice, or whatever.

While people you meet every day can't kill you due to laws, they still want your money. Or rape you. Or at the very least, they want to waste your time.

I simply don't trust my first impressions of people.

Heh, guess we have opposite first impressions then, because my first one is always "eek, a human, get it off me". So I think it's pretty safe to go with this one?

The problem is, how do I check quickly if my first impression is incorrect and they might actually be safe? How long does it take before spending time with someone becomes actually pleasant, or at the very least, not threatening?

10 Traits of Likeable People -- 2019/05/06

Imagine walking into work and you're greeted with smiles and enthusiastic hellos from all of your co-workers; while you make your way through the building you feel like a rock-star. You shake everyone's hand, get pats on the back, and you being there leaves the entire place feeling more uplifted. You're friends with everyone and your boss loves you.

This is an every day occurrence, if you're a likeable person. If this seems like something that could never possibly happen to you, then I'd like to remind you that social skills, like any skills, are completely learn-able; and with a little practice you too could be the talk of the office, and be going home with a thriving social life.

Here are several traits that likeable people share. If you cultivate them, you'll join the ranks of those who spend their weekends with friends, their evenings at dinner parties, and their days surrounded by coworkers that love and respect them.

1) They Are Secure: Likeable people don't come from a place of insecurity. They go into every interaction thinking "I bet me and this other person would get along great, I should really get to know them better". And then the likeable person moves on from there. Start from a positive place and others will notice. If you're not there yet, faking your confidence will help put your insecurities at ease.

2) They're Genuine: Likeable people never try to be something they aren't. If you don't know something, admit it. If you don't agree with a statement someone else has made, don't grin and bare it. Instead, honestly admit that you don't see it the same way as the other person. Don't put them down. Simply try to see where they're coming from, and strive to understand their point of view.

3) They Don't Judge: When you are judgmental, people can sense it. Even if you smile and hide your negative feelings, the people around you can sense that you have just formed a poor opinion of them. Rather than seeing others as good or bad, try to understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, choices, and mistakes. Likeable people make this their philosophy and, as long as no one is getting hurt, they never pass judgment on the value or morality of another person.

4) They're Positive: Negativity abounds in our world. We have negativity in the news, on our homepages, and it appears on the Facebook and twitter feeds of our friends. Even a lot of the novels I read end up with negative endings! Be a positive voice in a world where everyone sounds a little like Eeyore. Being positive will make you a pleasure to talk to and more people will want to talk to you.

5) They Don't Compete: Conversations aren't competitions. Likeable people never story-top or one-up in a conversation. Instead, they view conversations as an opportunity to connect and create deep relationships with others. If you want to be more likeable, enter every conversation with the goal to make the other person feel liked and respected. This will change the tone of the interactions you have, and make everyone involved more likely to enjoy it.

6) They Provide Value: When you're in a conversation with someone and they complain that they don't know what to get their mom for Christmas, do you lament how awful that must be before going into a story of your own? Or do you recognize that they have a problem they may need help solving? People everywhere have problems they wouldn't mind help solving. But as people, we tend to be self-involved and not notice. If you take notice and help people solve their problems, you'll create friends for life.

7) They Don't Settle for Small Talk: Small talk doesn't develop long lasting friendships, and small talk won't make you likeable person. Likeable people avoid small talk by transforming it into deep conversation. They do this by being genuinely interested in others, asking honest questions to help further their understanding, and relating to what they're told, briefly, before gathering more from the person they're talking to. Don't settle for small talk–do everything in your power to move the conversation forward to more personal subjects.

8) They Touch People: Patting shoulders, shaking hands, and (in some cases) hugging other people makes people more comfortable around you. Touching eliminates the physical barrier of distance, and so it eliminates the emotional barrier that the distance represents. Touch is an art, and the first few times that you attempt it it may seem awkward, but practice makes perfect and the art of touch is important if you want to become more likeable.

9) They Don't Shy Away: Likeable people have tons of friends! This isn't magic–it's because they intentionally befriend tons of people. They meet people; they get those peoples' contact information; they befriend those people and spend time with them; and then they go meet more people, never losing touch with anyone they've gotten to know. You can't be more likeable and not meet new people. You have to get out of your comfort zone and build lots of relationships if you want to become more likeable.

10) They Genuinely Like People: I know what you're thinking: But people suck! It's true, everyone has moments when they act rudely and everyone can be annoying from time to time. But deep down, most people are really nice. They care about others, and unless they're having a bad day, they're easy to get along with. Likeable people know this, and so they like people. They want to get to know other people, and they enter every interaction expecting a positive experience. If you only remember one tip from this article, it should be to develop the attitude of liking people. If you do that you'll become more likeable in no time.

Likeable people were all less likeable at one point in time. They simply decided to work at becoming more engaged, more respectful, and more likeable. Now they seem to work magic and develop friendships wherever they go. You can seem like that too! You simply have to develop the habits I've outlined above and you'll have the social life, the career, and the life that being more likeable brings you.

For most of us at least, there isn't a good way to "check quickly" -- that's my point.

Autistic people can have friends

One reason I started writing this blog is that I got tired of seeing social skills programs teach autistic people that they have to become normal in order to have friends.

It’s not true. There are a lot of autistic people who have friends without becoming remotely normal. Oddness and friendship are entirely compatible.

You can be autistic, seem autistic, and have friends who like you and enjoy your company.

Some people won’t like you, and that’s ok. Not everyone has to like everyone.

Some people will dislike you because they are bigoted against autistic people. That’s not ok, but it doesn’t have to ruin your life. Ableists don’t speak for everyone. Those people aren’t your friends. Other people can be.

You’ll probably always face ableism. Trying to be normal probably won’t make that go away; accepting yourself probably won’t make that go away either. You don’t need to change the whole world in order to have friends.

You can have friends as the person you are, in the world as it is now.

I'd add this to Foundations of friendship: Accepting, forgiving (and eventually understanding) each other's oddities and faults.

This is a great discussion and I have had lots of experiences of a friend.

A friend is
1. Someone who will be there for you through good and bad times
2. Respects your boundaries and takes no for an answer
3. A real friend will not only just focus on themselves
4. Accepts you for who you are
5. They will be supportive no matter what
6. They will correct you and be honest with you to protect you from making bad choices
7. They will be kind, gentle, genuine
8. They are interested in the lives of those they call friends
9. They offer good advice
10. They are excited to see you
11. They are humble
12. They celebrate your accomplishments with you

Someone who is not a friend
1. Someone who constantly criticizes
2. Someone who give just to get in return
3. Disrespects your boundaries
4. The relationship is one-sided
5. They gossip all the time about other people and their friends
6. They run the other way when their friends are going through a rough time
7. They constantly hide their true feelings behind other people
8. They pretend to be your friend so they can use you for things
9. They constantly insult you, talk down you
10.They are jealous of you
11. They are competitive and constantly on on up you for things
12. They are not excited to see you but they are excited to see other people
13. They dismiss your accomplishments with short responses like "That's cool"
14. When you invite them to things, they make excuses about not having the money, etc. Then you see them on social media hanging with other friends

14. When you invite them to things, they make excuses about not having the money, etc. Then you see them on social media hanging with other friends

A friend is
[...]
4. Accepts you for who you are
5. They will be supportive no matter what
6. They will correct you and be honest with you to protect you from making bad choices

Someone who is not a friend
1. Someone who constantly criticizes