As a teenager and an Aspie, I have found it very hard to live a life even close to normal among society. I am wondering if it gets harder or easier as things progress. Right now my biggest problem is my vast reserves of knowledge far beyond the capacity of my peers. It may be a bit easier and a bit harder, but I'd just like to know how much better/worse it gets from here.
As a teenager and an Aspie, I have found it very hard to live a life even close to normal among society. I am wondering if it gets harder or easier as things progress. Right now my biggest problem is my vast reserves of knowledge far beyond the capacity of my peers. It may be a bit easier and a bit harder, but I'd just like to know how much better/worse it gets from here.
Well, I think that will depend on where you go and what sort of people you surround yourself with.
I don't know what your knowledge base deals with -- but if, for instance, it has to do with science and you go on to work in science, life could very well get better since you'd have things in common with your colleagues/peers and people with similar knowledge levels to you.
My advice is -- follow your interest(s) ... it's the best chance for making things easier. (You'll just have to learn to ignore the rest of society.) :wink:
I am 16 right now, but I completely skipped high school an I am partly home schooled and I take classes at a commity colledge. So I am very fortunate that I have no peers to worry about (although I did in middle school and I found them to be agressive and uninterested in learning).
But my main interest is history and I'm more well-versed in that than my history teacher (her admitance, and I have to agree). I'm at an age where the school system breeds technology, math, and science people. History is left out of the discussion, and it leaves me rather isolated as far as finding people with similar interests.
I'll give a good recent example. I was in my gifted history class, these people are supposedly the cream of the crop. I was on a rant about how the standardized tests promote teaching to a test. I brought up Mahmud of Ghazni, a famous Afghan general of the 900's to test my point. I asked if anyone knew who he was. Blank stares ensued from students and teacher. I have also had a similar problem with procrastinating. I remember last year that I just blanked on a German test, completely blanked. Got a 0 or something like the same. I just find math pointless at this stage because I will never use it. Same with science. I cannot do all of my math homework at once now because my brain just shuts off after a point and the words are in one ear out the other. Happens a lot during math. Wish I could take more history classes and less math and science, but there are only 2 history magnet schools in the country, one in Georgia and the other in Kansas. That infuriates me, but I should probably end my rant before anyone gets bored.
I clearly am not like you. I have never tailored myself to anything, and am quite frequently very stubborn. I dislike ignorance, and although that makes me a hypocrit as there are a lot of things that I am ignorant of, I stand by my position. I refuse to round myself, as that would make me a mile wide inch deep person, the kind that built this education system in the first place. Sorry if I seem angry at you, I am just angry at my peers and the idiots that built public education
"Everyone's searching for who they are and how they fit in. In the end, it just takes time."
I think thats a lifelong process, not just exclusive to teenage years.
I'm currently 18 and have now left college, just starting university. With only 2 years left of my teen years I have this to say:
It's all about how you view things
Getting depressed about not having friends etc is avoidable if you tell yourself that you do not need them to be happy in life. I'll take spending my time at home hacking my cisco boxes and playing my guitar over going out to a nightclub.
Social interaction for those on the spectrum is not a recreational activity but a chore in 99% of cases. So why bother if you don't have to?
Learn enough social skills to get along in a work environment in a professional manner but forget the rest.
I am starting to want friends and other people around me, but I do not want social interaction. I think I'm looking for a sidekick, as clearly insane as that sounds(and is).
I know I was a lot happier when I did have friends. But I've spent the last eight years of my life desperately trying to make friends, to no avail, so I try to convince myself that I don't need them. Or at least, that I'll have to do without them. Can you have no friends as a teenager and not become screwed up to some degree?
I'm 18, but I feel more like 12 (kind of worrying, but never mind...) and I think it'll be a few years before I'll be psychologically fit and stable enough to manage university.
Cats are better than humans. :smile:
I've compiled a list of where I rank things compared to humanity. Notable rankings:
-#1 Okapi, the most Autistic of all animals I have come across
-#2 Canines, some of the most intelligent of all creatures
-#7 Gorillas, put this low due to the evolutionary link to humans
Moving down the list, past the point where numerical rankings are Cochroaches, able to survive nuclear bombs, Humans, natures cruelest mistake, and mosquitoes, the most annoying creature in the animal kingdom at the very bottom of the list.
I've compiled a list of where I rank things compared to humanity. Notable rankings:
-#1 Okapi, the most Autistic of all animals I have come across
-#2 Canines, some of the most intelligent of all creatures
-#7 Gorillas, put this low due to the evolutionary link to humans
Moving down the list, past the point where numerical rankings are Cochroaches, able to survive nuclear bombs, Humans, natures cruelest mistake, and mosquitoes, the most annoying creature in the animal kingdom at the very bottom of the list.
Things will eventually improve, once people grow out of the teen years and prepare to enter the workforce, they're more tolerant of diversity. It doesn't matter if in high school you were a nerd or geek, as studious people in the US are called. Growing up for me, the worst of the bullying was in elementary school and the first year of middle school before my family moved. I had friends in high school, mostly because I was in band and on the debate team. That's something I recommend, find a club on campus that is of interest to you, you'll get to know more people as you share an interest.
"Things will eventually improve, once people grow out of the teen years and prepare to enter the workforce, they're more tolerant of diversity." :shock:
Not where I live, I don't know about other peoples experiences.