>>111987Yes, it is very difficult, and the consequences are clear and present for chronic misfits with abnormal upbringing. It is exhausting and demoralizing to spend your whole life being treated by many like every damn thing you do, say, think, feel, and believe is wrong or unwelcome. Common-sense counsel won't work for people who happen to be statistical outliers and that really sucks. That doesn't mean you're "less than", there's nothing wrong with you at all. That also doesn't mean you aren't stuck with disregarding most folk wisdom as largely irrelevant suggestion. Not your fault, but it's sadly your responsibility as no one's coming to save you. That is harsh, but so is life.
If you find or are given advice or instruction, ask yourself: how much is the advice-giver like myself? If "not at all", maybe do or believe the opposite. You must learn discernment, what to regard and what to discard whether through one or other glowing rectangle (even some dead blog or sub-50-followed channel of a random nobody who clearly went through what you're going through), some underrated fiction or lyrics writer who may or may not have "meant it", a religious-philosophical-whatever loudmouth from thousands of years ago (or just a handful of decades), it doesn't matter. The shape and color of the bottle is unimportant, read only the message within. But knowing what bottles to avoid or open in the first place also requires well-honed and well-oiled discernment! Whether or not you're engaging or theorizing in science to aid your situation -- which is an excellent toolset of discernment for those whose learning process is analytical, so long as one avoids the pit of dogmatic "scientism" -- consider the following cherry-picks (only the picks that apply here) from some other page that happens to be scientific approached to Buddhism by a physicist with a Ph. D, but all that's irrelevant in this thread (the message, not the bottle):
> Today, we are fortunate to have a well-established scientific method to rule out "bad theories" and focus on "good theories." ...> What is the "scientific method"?> An acceptable "theory" must have,> • power (ability) to explain as many things that we experience in this world,> • consistency, i.e., not one explanation can be inconsistent with another within the same theory,> • the power to predict, i.e., point out things that are still unknown but could be verified in the future.> If one wants to read more about the scientific method, I can recommend two books: 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' by Thomas Kuhn is a classic; 'The Beginning of Infinity' by David Deutsch is a recent and more easy-to-read book...> Thus: explanatory power, consistency, and prediction power are the three measures of the validity of a scientific theory.
> Source for the curious:> https://puredhamma.net/dhamma-and-science/dhamma-and-science/In any case, whatever message you apply or however you "draw the blueprint yourself" will take a lot longer, thrice the effort to achieve a third the results of the fortunate masses born and raised with fully-functioning instincts for integration. But we can only play the hand we were dealt, and some of us didn't get the "instruction manual on how to socialize before leaving the womb". There's a little whitepill hiding under this massive suppository of a blackpill, though! If you were unfortunate to begin at rock-bottom, this liability can become an asset once you realize that you're in a position to climb and through much effort soaring far higher than the fortunate masses, whose personal growth are linear whereas yours can be quadratic.
It's similar to how one who starts life in poverty CAN learn to save money and so on to surpass even those born with silver spoons in their mouths who have no idea how to grow money, no clue what to do should they suddenly be cut off from the bank of mom-and-dad, don't appreciate what they have until they don't, and went through private schools to learn how systems work whereas everyone else are trained in obedience by those who've learned how systems work. And besides: after spending your youth and much of adulthood being beaten (verbally, physically...) and rejected so consistently, to git so gud that you'll be dating your former bully's daughters while they in their 40's are caught in the quicksand of wage-slavery because they didn't know better than to knock up their girlfriend in their late teens / early tweens and are now both obese and bitter? Call it "poindexter's revenge". But really, don't make things like "marrying a model half your age one day maybe" your end-goal, because that's out of your control. Your focus should be on YOU and what YOU can do and control like cultivating discipline and wisdom (over mere "book knowledge", it's unproductive to be a useless container of facts unless you plan to to use them well) instead of chasing fleeting feelings like motivation and happiness (or getting more ass than a toilet seat) that are bound to be blown away by the bittiest breeze. Doesn't it seem wiser to build your foundation on rock than on sand? If you find prime tween pussy at the end of your rainbow, awesome. If not, fine. Try to be less needy for female validation, or being rich or fit or whatever. And besides, they find no-confidence manginas (they're now called "simps" and "soyboys"; nothing new under the sun) a major turn-off. Even decent-looking women nearly always end up sick to death of half the human population begging for her approval! No matter what, in dating or wealth or getting "jacked": learn to let go of expectations beyond your control and walk on.
If you are autistic or thereabouts in one way or another: learn to redirect that special interest hyperfocus from gaming lore, or making music genre obsessing or collecting toys or whatever your whole personality, to: how2socialize, /fit/ gainz, finances, and most important a well-paying career (but how much you're paid is less important than what you save, don't get greedy for that 5060 Ti just about anything at ~1/3 the cost works about as well for most use-cases, the cheapest and most expensive of anything is throwing your money away) that won't completely drain your willpower (not even 70k/yr is worth the personal price of endless stress, depression, and health issues in "keeping up with the joneses") by forcing you to expend tremendous energy on "masking" even though you still will in some capacity ("being considerate" is not masking, by the way, but don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm).
But autists are usually smart (and analytical) enough to find and implement ten-thousand little tricks to minimize the damage and optimally recover via self-accommodation, periodic selective isolation, simple moral living (don't have to go all the way to "minimalism" or "underconsumption-core" as your whole personality, but they're decent enough lifestyle guidelines to get started), and so on. In something like plumbing, garbageman, or road repair (and you're being paid to lift, save on gym fees!) there's not nearly as much "primate politics" and "schoolyard status-climbing". But short of living in an isolated cabin on a mountain and going hunting and fishing the rest of your life, as tempting as that may sound, you will have to sacrifice some individuality in order to be part of a group; but at the same time try to avoid anywhere you'd have fake a personality as hard as as a movie actor or pop idol in order to be tolerated but never celebrated! Tossing another idea to whomever wants it: something like a mortician or merchant marine is not only an excellent moral service to your community (but don't underestimate just how much a grossly underrated contribution to society is being in construction and farming!) being able to say "I work for a funeral home" or "I spend half the year on the open ocean" makes for an excellent ice-breaker. Something like those helps free up mental, emotional, and most importantly social energies for self-improvement, socializing how and where you damn well please. To git gud at skill-grinding your integration stat: maybe consider joining a fitness or artist club, volunteering for a food pantry, attending your church's post-sermon Bible study... whatever gets you off the computer and talking to anyone other than cashiers and nurses at least a few times a week! Here are yet more pious platitudes tossed out there, feel free to pick and choose whichever resonates: work to live not live to work, and to succeed in any endeavor it's a good bet to do what "everyone else" isn't. For example, most still want to be a "content-creator" (ugh), but more and more are realizing what a dead end that is for everyone who weren't part of that "online gold rush" curve about 15-20 years back. Wouldn't it be awesome to right now be ahead of the current curve and join the "offline gold rush", striking while the iron is hot?
There's nothing wrong with you, though unfortunately you're going to have to accept and own that you just so happen to be one of the "special snowflakes" seemingly everyone hates -- but don't fall for the trap of being prideful at being different just like you shouldn't let the pendulum swing to the other end of feeling Other and Less-Than, you are neither better nor worse than da normiez, forgive them for they know not what they do. Only you know your particular subscription of issues so it's going to have to be you to resist the blackpill and find your own solutions. It's so easy to get caught in the quicksand of following "normality" that doesn't apply to your complex and terrible life situation. There is no correct answer (make A move, then MAKE IT the right move), but keep the faith no matter what happens and get your ass up. We're all gonna make it, bro.