Low-maintenance friendship

In autistic adults, greater quantity AND quality of friendships were associated with less loneliness; loneliness in turn predicted more depression/anxiety and lower life satisfaction and self-esteem, even after controlling for autism symptoms. Supports the value of having satisfying friendships, but does not test contact frequency or a 'long gaps are OK' arrangement.

During lockdowns autistic people missed low-frequency 'weak-tie' and incidental contact (acquaintances, strangers), which appeared to support wellbeing much as for non-autistic people. Indirectly suggests low-intensity connections are valuable, but is not about a deliberate low-maintenance close-friendship protocol.

In a large general-population longitudinal study, cross-lagged effects between friendship characteristics (including contact frequency) and health were consistently small, with health predicting friendship more than the reverse. Indirectly consistent with the idea that infrequent contact need not harm wellbeing if quality is retained — but not an ADHD/autism sample and not a test of this method.

Plain-language clinical review stating that 'object permanence' is NOT a recognized condition in adults with ADHD; the underlying recognized features are inattention/forgetfulness/working-memory difficulty. The 'poor object constancy → friends forgotten' mechanism this method relies on is a popular construct, not an empirically validated clinical entity.