What my mum just told me 😑

So my mum and I were on the train earlier and she just told me that when I meet people I should say hello to them instead of just being completely quiet and displaying all these closed body language stuff and not start a convo with them. I mean, as someone who has had selective mutism when I was really young as well as having a diagnosis of autism along with some mental health conditions and still has ongoing sessions with my psychologist, peer worker etc. regarding these barriers I have, you do know it’s not easy right?? Like it’s not easy especially when you’re already used to some things that you’ve always developed since you were really young. Yet my mum expects me to change that pretty quickly even though she’s already aware of my struggles even since I was really young… also, she suggests that her and I to “go to church” for me to connect with people, like??? why go to church for??? 🤨🤨

there’s social groups that I plan to attend soon (the ones held by NDIS affiliated services) and she really liked that idea of me potentially going to social groups since that was also what my psychologist suggested as well.

I feel that the fact that she brought this up to me just now I know has to do with the fact with what I told my uncle a few days ago the same day when he introduced me to a guy in our ethnic country (which I rejected. plus that guy was 8-9 years older than me…FYI, being in a relationship and “getting married” in our 20s is very much the norm in my ethnic culture which I already was able to get myself in contact with the forced marriage services about and I’m currently waiting for their next answer of them referring me to that program that they’ve mentioned to me about after they did the intake questionnaire with me ).

I was telling him (my uncle) that I’d rather be looking for a guy in Australia (which I also don’t want to since I’m not interested in dating at this stage) and he also suggested me to look for one in Australia too… and he told me some similar things that my mum was just telling me about in regards how to properly interact with people in school and stuff (like smiling at them and talk to them..etc.) and that type of thing… @rav3n im sure you might know of what I’m talking about here because this kind of thing is pretty much related to what you and I discussed about on my other post just days ago.

It’s overall not at all easy for me to maintain conversations with people as well as being in social settings where I would just normally get ignored by everyone just because of something I always did that’s part of who I am that I can’t even control (which those ones are basically: me not talking much and me displaying closed body language + not smiling). So after my psychologist, OT and other professionals I’ve had in the past recommends/suggests that I get into some social/community groups, I thought why not give it a try. And like I’ve mentioned here already, I plan on joining some soon. The first one hopefully I’ll be able to join next Friday afternoon IF I’ll be able to get a support worker from that social group organisation by then. But what rolls my eyes everytime is the fact that my family (since they’re conservative as hell) expects me to pretty much change and adapt to meeting people and smiling at them etc. etc. type of thing quite quickly it seems…😑😑😑

@Jynx @Ru-bee @tyme