I think this comment is very interesting. I think I have an example of this. Last week, after some days out of the city, I came back home only for one day. I wanted to spend some time with my friend (my friend with PTSD, who has some problems in his life, is living in my house, but he usually doesnt speak to me). He was isolated in his room, like usual, so I put him a message, asking if he wanted to have lunch togethers.
He answered "No". After some days without see him, I was going to travel again for several weeks, and I was very sad that he didnt want to share a moment with me (he doesnt have friends or any social life, I think I am the only person with whom he interacts in the "real" life, but he has some online friends and some days he is able to speak a lot and laugh and spend hours speaking online with them, while he is unable to speak two consecutive sentences with me, and that makes me feel he doesnt care about me). I reacted to his "NO" with a sad face. And then he asked me, why did you put a sad face?
For me, it was very clear, I wanted to spend time with him, and when he said NO, he was rejecting me, and I was very hurt. But he didnt understand why I was sad.
This is only one example. But several times we had similar situations, I was hurt, he noticed I was hurt because of something related with him, but he didnt understand why his isolation is affecting me
I have tried to work in communication with him. Is very difficult, but we have made some improvements. For example, he is still not able to speak to me, but he has understood that for me is very important to share time togethers, so sometimes we make activities togethers in complete silence, like cook something.
Happy new year for all of you!
