Hello youths, it is your queer auntie Abadidea back with the advice

I was alerted to a 19yo autistic person who heard "autistic people tend to form their first successful long-term relationship around 30" and concluded that there is then no point to even trying until they're 30. I don't know where this statistic came from or how accurate it is, but that's a bit beside the point, because:

Very few people get into a successful long-term relationship on their very first try. The usual way of things is that two well-meaning young people fall in love and then something goes painfully, messily wrong four months in and they both LEARN something about how to conduct themselves and how to deal with others. Repeat two or three more times until two people who have developed some emotional maturity fall in love. It may take autistic people a little longer on average to iron out the kinks, but they'll get there!

If you decide "I won't even try until I'm 30 because the math says that's when it works out," what's going to happen is that you're going to be 30 with the emotional maturity of a wildly unbalanced 18yo and all the other 30yos are going to be like... yeah, not touching that with a 10-foot pole.

Successful relationships come from practice, not from waiting for the Maturity Fairy to bless you!

#autism #relationships #advice #actuallyautistic

@0xabad1dea A lot of ideas about relationships and sex are based on this notion that you're supposed to be able to do it perfectly on the first try, aren't they?

A lot of no-sex-before-marriage is the same way, this idea that you need to wait until you find the perfect partner, settle down with then and then proceed to have the most mind-blowing sex ever with no time spent figuring out your limits or preferences.

@Owlor @0xabad1dea
I thought no-sex-before-marriage people only have sex for reproduction anyway and don't have expectations of having fun in the process
@Doomed_Daniel @Owlor nah they usually try to sell The Youths on it by telling them that sex is waaaaaaaaay better if you formally commit to strictly only ever doing it with the very first person you try it with.
@0xabad1dea @Owlor
and people believe that?!
@Doomed_Daniel @0xabad1dea @Owlor to be fair to the people who fall for it there is a lot of brainwashing involved