I also have a few NT friends, who accept me just like I am, and have told me many times I am a wonderful person. It's my family that is the problem. I mean my husband and children, not my brothers and sister in Germany. Since most of them are Aspies, too, they are just as odd as I am! And the NTs (three of the six brothers) are so used to be outnumbered by Aspies, that to them we are normal.

My mother never accepted me or the other Aspies for who we are. But my father was Aspie, too, and was treated like garbage by my mother. It was a hard life for all of us. My mother died in 1986 and my father in 1997. My youngest brother (who is an NT) and his wife looked after him the last 11 years of his life (he was just as incapable of managing on his own as I am). And I think he actually enjoyed those last 11 years. He would surf the net, play on his computer, do his puzzles, build electrical things and listen to his music (he loved opera). I am glad he had those years by himself, it was terrible to watch how my mother treated him.

The brother who is the most understanding of me is an NT, strangely. He is a teacher at a neurological rehab centre and works with kids ages three to six who were brain damaged in accidents. He is very patient and loving. I loved staying with him and his wife and kids for a week last year, when I went to Germany for Christmas.

I wished more NTs were like him!