Neurodiverse Marriages – Tool To Answer Stay Or Go. Some of you may not even know you are in a neurodiverse marriage. If you’re married to someone on the Autism Spectrum, you are in a neurodiverse marriage aka Asperger Marriage. Your relationship is more transactional than relational and you can’t even remember what a healthy relationship looks like. You might have lost your sense of self suffering from Cassandra.
Neurodiverse Marriages – Tool To Answer Stay Or Go
I’ve been married to my Asperger Husband for 25 years and spent the last 15 years managing my ongoing Cassandra symptoms. We have many strengths, however, the disorder keeps the shortcomings extremely challenging. As a marriage counselor, I have given my couples many tools to not only survive their marriages, but thrive in them. When it comes to working with neurodiverse couples, it is essential to get the tools needed for communication and emotional connection. An essential tool for the Neurotypical Wife (NT) is to have an independent life within her interdependent life with her Asperger Husband (AS). Self-care includes having her own, hobbies, job, friends, etc. In making herself happy she allows room for the relationship to be “good enough.” Happy Me Happy We is a book I wrote to help understand what it is you want so you know what you want in a relationship.
Once you’ve got a good idea of what you want in your relationship, develop a two column list with 1) things you can tolerate in your marriage and 2) things you will not tolerate in your marriage. Understanding Autism is a developmental delay, there are things the brain cannot register and will make it difficult to interact with someone on the spectrum. Yes, there are tools for more effective communication and emotional connection, but the most important tool is taking care of yourself in the marriage. Because we NT wives tend to overfunction in our relationships, we are exhausted, resentful, angry, to name a few emotions. And this exhaustion leads to poor physical and emotional well being. Most Asperger husbands are good at heart, but can make interacting troublesome. In weighing the pros and cons, just like neurotypical marriages, it is important to know what are deal breakers.
Using this tool helps NT wives know where their boundaries lie. If you continue to make the intolerable behaviors acceptable then you know you’ve made a choice to remain in your marriage and should give up the “victim” status as you’ve made a choice. Of course, you need to share with your husband what is tolerable and what is not. He does need to be given the opportunity to learn new ways to behave with you. Neurodiverse marriage counseling/coaching does just that. We all have choices when it comes to staying or going.
For more information please contact me at CouplesCounselorSanDiego.com