My mum is a counsellor. She used the phrase "learned helplessness" in passing about ten years ago, and it took me years to understand what it meant.
When you ask for help and nothing is done, you learn you can't change your circumstances. So you stop asking, which has a particular charge to it when you're autistic.
One of the most rewarding articles I've researched and written, as part of my own unmasking and seeing the patterns.
https://www.heyasd.com/blogs/autism/learned-helplessness-in-autism
