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| Like Katherine Hepburn says, Aspies don't want to be alone, they simply want to be left alone. (Image: Flickr.com CC) |
Note: I jumped ahead to #30 on the list because I went off on a tangent in my last posting about Aspies and their pathological need to be liked. I decided to cut it out of there and do this post.
Aspies/Narcissists/Sociopaths are a funny breed. They want relationships with people that are close and loving. They really do. Aspies/Narcissists/Sociopaths are extremely lonely people. What they don't realize, though, is they bring the loneliness on themselves by being so reclusive and difficult.
Aspies actually prefer to be left alone, but they want you to leave them alone while sitting next to them. They don't want to talk to you, they don't want you to talk to them, they don't want to touch you, they don't want you to touch them. They just want you to sit next to them and bask in the glory of their deigning to be present.
During your marriage, you'll be treated as an accessory to their life. You will be the trophy wife, the maid, the cook, the prostitute, the wage earner, the day care provider, the brood mare for their children they want (but also don't want them to bother them), chauffeur, masseuse, and any other role of slavery you can fathom. But the one thing you WON'T be is an equal partner in the marriage. You also won't be cherished, honored, respected, acknowledged or treated as though you matter in any way, shape or form beyond any of the above roles. The signs of this are early in the marriage, if you're paying attention.
Nope, Aspies have people in their life for one reason and one reason only, and that's to serve them. This is why they work SO hard to win you over. You are now their new source of Narcissistic Supply.
Aspies/Narcissists/Sociopaths have an UNCANNY ability to spot your weaknesses so they can exploit them. I made the mistake of telling my STBE before we were married that I came from an alcoholic family and suffered from abandonment and trust issues as a result. He zeroed in on those almost from the moment we were married. It took a few months, because they groom you in very subtle ways, before they hop onto the "let's see how much we can run them down" train. They actually USE these weaknesses in you to build you up during the "love bombing" stage, working to convince you of what a lovely, trustworthy, loyal, honest person they are. Once you believe that, the reverse starts happening.
I also told my STBE before we married - Don't ever lie to me. Even if it's something you think will upset me, I need to know I can always count on you to tell the truth. I'd rather be hurt by the truth than a lie." Many years later, in marriage counseling, I brought this up. His response was, "You didn't mean it." Really? I didn't mean it? That's the best you can do? You profess to be inside my head to know what I meant when I said this?
For me, the "A-ha" moment came when we'd been married about six months. As I'd said earlier, I'm a pretty good cook (adventurous is really what it should be called) and I was always trying new recipes. This particular day, I'd made a dinner salad with three or four types of lettuce, strawberries, hand-made vinaigrette dressing, toasted almonds, smoked turkey, etc. His kids were there for the weekend and I called everyone to dinner.
I set the large salad bowl down in the center of the table and asked everyone what they wanted to drink? I went to get the drinks and when I came back, the STBE had served the entire salad to him and his kids, leaving my plate empty. It was entirely gone with none left for me. His solution, once he saw me sitting in the living room eating a sandwich (FUMING!) was to tell the kids, "Once you've eaten all you want from your plate, give Nancy the rest." I got the leftovers? Really? I MADE the damn thing and I get the leftovers????? Fuck that.
See how this devalues you as a person? Now, in the mind of my STBE, the Aspie/Narcissist/Sociopath, I'm nothing more than a cook and slave. I'm relegated to eating everyone else's leftovers.
Another example from my life of the "devaluing" stage is something that happened not long after the "salad incident". Mark's ex-wife had signed the kids up for bowling on Saturday mornings. Mark would take them to bowling, then lunch, and I'd use the time to clean the entire house and this was no mean task. See, Mark being the "Disney Dad" (AKA Disneyland Dad), the kids were never required to clean up after themselves, help with housework in any way, they scattered their crap all over the place and generally didn't do anything but sit around with Dad while I waited on them all, hand and foot.
One particular Saturday morning, he took the kids to bowling while I cleaned. I also washed and ironed all his uniforms, did all the dishes, cleaned the kid's bedrooms, made their beds, cleaned up their crap from the floor, etc. When Mark and the kids came home around 1 o'clock, he walked in and didn't say a thing about my having cleaned the entire two story row home. BUT - he did look around and all he said was, "You didn't clean the baseboards. What's planned for dinner?" And he walked away.
Again, devaluing me as a person. I've not met his unrealistic expectations. I cleaned 1500 square feet of living space but what he noticed was - I didn't clean the baseboards. So what did I do? I got down on my hands and knees and cleaned the baseboards. After so many months of being told by him just how wonderful I was, just how much I fulfilled him, he's now telling me I'm not good enough.
This is where the whole "being alone" kicks in. No longer are you focused on your expectations of being an equal partner in a good marriage. NOW you're focused on "keeping your man happy" at all costs. He's unhappy with you so you have to work on this, right? Because we're all told a good marriage is based on focusing on the needs and the happiness of the other person. And this IS true. If you focus on keeping your mate happy, it's like a stone thrown into a pond. The ripples that come from that spread until it touches every part of your life.
Right?
Not in an Aspie/Narcissist/Sociopath marriage. Nope. As focused as you now are on keeping your man happy, he's that focused on you keeping your man happy. Now that the devaluing stage has begun, this is where you'll start doing TOO much to keep your man happy and no matter what you do, it won't be enough. Only NOW, the Aspie will start complaining you're hovering and annoying them with all the attention. From this point on, the only time your Aspie wants you to pay attention to him is when he's horny or hungry. Period. Any other time, they expect you to flit about like a butterfly, attending to their needs, picking up after them, washing their clothes, doing the grocery shopping, keeping the kids out of their hair and generally being the fairy that comes in the middle of the night to take care of the house.
Gone are the late into the night conversations of sharing your future together. No more pillow talk because once they're done with the sex act, they'll either roll right over and fall asleep or will get up to fastidiously clean themselves as though you have leprosy and they need to get your cooties off of themselves. No more small talk over dinner because your Aspie will now have become mono-syllabic and will eat as fast as they can so they can go back to their computer/television show/movie, whatever. Any attempts at conversation over dinner are met with grunts and loud sighs, thereby training you to just sit there, eat your food, and shut the hell up.
They simply want you to leave them ALONE!
Towards the end of my marriage, the STBE started bringing the iPad into the den to "watch television" with me. However, as soon as he sat down, he'd put the ear buds in and start watching YouTube videos on the thing. I was ignored. If I wanted to say something to him, I had to tap his knee. This was met with a loud sigh, he'd do this whole dramatic thing that involved pausing the video, then taking out his ear buds, then turning to me with another loud sigh and saying, "WHAT?!?!?!"
I finally gave up. And so should you if you ever want to be in a relationship with someone who actually wants you there with them as more than a warm body.
