New on here! Here's my (abridged) story

Post Reply New Topic

Hello everyone!

So, I'm 26. I was recently diagnosed with Asperger's/high-functioning autism. I've also been diagnosed with OCD for a while. It's been a crazy year, really. I'm about to graduate with my MA in English (Yay!).

But, on the flip side, about 7 months ago, I found out that a guy with whom I was in a serious relationship at the time had been looking at child porn and had done stuff to his daughter. Heavy ish. I nearly shut down for a while, and I regressed to before I had learned communication behaviors. (When was 23, one of my work supervisors took the time to teach me empathy, eye contact, different facial expressions and the emotions they're associated with, intonation and how to mimic it, and active listening skills.) I holed up in my apartment for months, only going out when I had to, and I isolated myself from friends and family. I lost eye contact and other behaviors, so I've been having to reintroduce those behaviors.

It takes me a long time to process almost any emotion, so it took me a few months to even really begin processing this. I've been doing better since about mid-February, though I still carry around the baggage of the trauma and the trust issues that entails. I'm working with a counselor to identify warning signs in relationships. I found out that my ex has been diagnosed with schitzoaffective disorder and has sociopathic tendencies. Because of his ability to read people very well, I was a target, being someone who cannot naturally read emotions and let her guard down at home, and I was manipulated in ways which I probably will never realize. I'm looking to better my potential quality of life, and I am getting out more. It's honestly hard to talk about this stuff, but I'm hoping to find a friendly environment on here. Thanks for making it this far, and I'm sorry to vent this much. I'm really still trying hard to figure everything out right now.

Hey meganardo welcome.

Thanks!

I'm sorry about what you've recently gone through but it's good that you're doing things to become better (meet with a counselor, reintroducing social behaviors like eye-contact). Life is really hard sometimes and it's important that you are taking steps to move on with your life.
Meanwhile, welcome to WP I hope that you find us to be helpful and that you feel at home here.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome. Glad you are here.

Thanks for the support, everyone!