The Struggle of Being Autistic in Social Relationships

I want to talk a little bit about minority stress and intolerance a little bit. Almost every week on this app I see my fellow autistic people making a post about how they've been ghosted about how these significant and important social relationships in their lives have failed them or not allowed them to be their true selfs. And I feel like so often we've internalized the message that it's our fault that if we were somehow not ourselves maybe we would be accepted. It creates so much internal conflict for me and so much grief in my life trying to beat myself into being something that I'll never be and shaming myself for some of the best parts of myself. It was never my fault, it was never your fault, it was never any autistic person's fault. We should be able to be ourselves themselves we should be accepted for our differences we should be treasured for who we are. We shouldn't have to count the days left in our most significant relationships wondering when they are going to leave. We deserve to be understood and included and celebrated.