With this I am gonna take you up on your option to vent in your inbox. Because this makes me so happy I need to share this and you seem the kind of person that would love this. (Correct me if I am wrong, you can also just delete this, I am so sorry if this is overstepping)
So a few weeks ago we as a friend group moved in together because some of us study now while others still go to school (I should maybe mention that we are all the same age, the furthest is 10 months apart) so it was like the perfect timing and we have been waiting on this for years.
But one of our friends is autistic and the day we got to sign the papers she stopped talking and withdrew and no matter what we did we just couldn't get through to her but we still moved her in with us.
It didn't get better for weeks and we were terrified that we pushed her too fast too soon but a week ago she started talking again (very little and mostly through repeating what we say but by now she speaks her own words again) and to eat with us before she would just be in her room and when we would try convincing her to eat with all of us, she would start getting stressed out so it was mostly just one of us eating with her in her room and she slowly initiated contact again, like touching our hands, or leaning against us while she over the last weeks would keep as much distance as possible and just crawled into bed late at night with me and then in the morning go back to flinching away.
And Friday she got the whole train and bike ride to her school + the school day done and today we finally got to talk about routines and stuff and now it just feels like we all finally are completely moved in and it's just amazing because we always wanted this but we were scared that she is not okay.
I don't know but I needed to get rid of this because nearly every body we have been talking to was like "What did you expect moving in with her??" And putting the fault on her which is not the case, maybe others can't tell but we could tell that she was trying.
(Don't get me wrong: I am happy about her now being so good and not that she was suffering all this weeks. Believe me it broke my heart and there were a lot of tears of desperation shed. But I just love that no one at any point got angry at her or let his frustration out on her. )
I hope this maybe even cheers you up too, I read that you have been some moving going on too I hope it goes great. <3
Okay, this literally made me smile so much. You guys were so supportive and loving, and even when she was non-verbal and overwhelmed, you were so patient and never got angry.
You're a wonderful friend, and she's so lucky to have you! And I'm glad you have a good routine for her now, so she can feel comfortable being herself and being around you guys again <3
Just keep being patient and asking her what she needs <3 And keep being awesome and amazing!! <333
Also I totally just happy stimmed while reading this, so enjoy this gif of Markimoo doing the same <3
(This did cheer me up, thank you <3 My brother is moving in with us again after some very not-good things, and it's just been a very stressful time. He's almost all the way in now though, and we're almost done getting rid of old things and cleaning the house, so soon it'll be okay again).