How did you guys and gals deal with autism during teenage years?

[mdirks225]

As the subject says, how did everyone deal with it?

Me personally (self diagnosed recently - past 2 weeks.. have yet to see someone about it), I finally understand why all through out my high school years (senior still, half way through the year) I've had communication issues with everybody and teachers, except for one which probably knew somehow that I was on the spectrum.

But now, I'm just gonna push through and try making more connections with people (its pretty hard when you could care less about half the things or fads going on today in my generation).

How did you handle it?

 

[Ereth]

Well, I didn't know I was autistic until after high school, so I don't know how much my comments will help. But I probably would've felt a bit better about myself back then. Being able to put a name to my strangeness (well, part of it, because I probably would still be "odd" without the AS) helped me a ton. I hope your own self-confidence increases like mine did.

 

[LoneHeart]

About 90% of the other kids at my high school thought I was a mute because I never spoke except either to my very close friends or when I had to.

 

[umbrellabeach]

I wasn't diagnosed until age sixteen, but I knew I was different from everyone else somehow. I didn't think too much of it, but instead just got absorbed in my obsessions. They were my whole world to me, so when I wasn't forced to interact with the outside world (and being homeschooled helped with that), I was pretty happy. Although I faced a good amount of bullying, it was mostly from authority figures who wanted me to do what everyone else was doing, not other kids my age, who mostly ignored me.

 

[Ylva]

I didn't know about my label, but psychologically I just stopped caring what people thought. It's not as easy as it sounds. You have to manually not-care every time and it really zaps your energy.

 

[Aspieistj]

Undiagnosed until in my early 60s, I was hurt, angry, shut out, and totally unable to understand how or why other kids were interested in so many things that I just KNEW were stupid.

 

[Ste11aeres]

I was homeschooled. Spent most of my time in the woods. My teenage years were pretty good.

 

[Sparticus]

As a teen I wasn't diagnosed and there wasn't much publicity/info about Aspies. I was shy but good in sports and strong. I had two popular older brothers so that helped tremendously. I was in the Cub and Boy Scouts and camping/hiking/Nature changed my life. In sophmore year I was absent 100 days. Junior year I missed most of the first half of the year. I was a rebel-Police knew me by my first name. I spent a lot of time down at the railroad tracks [forest] in parks, hanging out and contributing to the greater good of humanity

 

[checkered past]

I was born in the mid 1960's and grew up in the 1970's and early 1980's. At that time you never heard anything about Asperger's and Autism was a label applied mostly to very severe cases of people who were so bad off that they weren't aware of others or their surroundings and were completely unable to communicate and mostly just sat and rocked back and forth swinging their heads oblivious to the world around them.

I'm not sure exactly when the term Autism gradually began to be expanded beyond non-functional severe cases to include the less-severe, quirky sort of people who just didn't quite get it, it must have been in the 1990's that the idea of Autism expanded to encompass a spectrum of varying degrees of awareness. I started having a lot of trouble in school in the second and fourth grades and was eventually placed in a different school in a class for students who had "emotional conflict" where I stayed until about the 7th or 8th grade and eventually ended up in a different school in regular classes.

So, growing up I was just the unpopular, quirky kid who was weird and had very different ideas about everything, who wasn't interested in the things that other people were interested in, and the things I was into most people thught were weird and somewhat disconcerting. I was pretty much a loner who hated school, had very few friends, was painfully shy with girls, and who was lonely but just not able to fit in with others due to differences in interests.

 

[Cerulean]

I found out about it when I was 27, but it made a lot of things fall into place. I spent high school feeling alienated, the social aspects and overload (my high school had over 3000 students) made it really hard to focus on work and my grades didn't stay as high as I'd have liked them to.. At some point I just said F it, cut my hair short and dyed it odd colors, and dressed however I wanted. On the one hand it was more comfortable for me to be myself, on the other hand nothing sticks out like a girl wearing men's clothes and green hair in a school of upper middle class white people.

 

[Ravkrat]

Currently 20, trying to finish college funny thing most people thought i was a mute/psychopath/creep (the joys of being 6ft 5inches,never smiling and pale-white skin) during high-school i just plain disconnected from everyone and everything,though that probably has more to do with the depression i was in than AS.

 

[Ravkrat]

Cerulean..for some reason when i try to picture what you wrote i think of "new guy" cracks me up xD

 

[theduckrabbit]

Cough syrup. Tons of it. Wednesdays, saturdays and twice on fridays. Dont do it but thats what i did.

 

[Aspie510]

I was royally screwed up in the head. That's what I remember. I was thankful for a robust German build of 6'2". That put a stop to the physical abuse I had to endure from my older sister. And it scared most bullies away. So I was free from that kind of thing. But I was still totally confused and scared by everything. Scared for the future. Scared that someone might find out about my "secrets". Sacred of being alone. Scared. So I did drugs. WOW did I do drugs. I got to the point where I was shooting meth.

I would never repeat anything in my teen years if given an option to do-over. I want nothing to do with those memories.

 

[Vanilla]

I hated being a teenager

As a child I would play with children, but as a teen, the biggest issue I faced was that everyone around me changed, while I remained the same. Girls stopped playing, and started sitting and gossiping during school lunch breaks. They started wearing make up, and short skirts, which I never understood. I hated being asked about 'my dream wedding' too; I would tell them that it was the groom that would matter more than how we celebrated the big day, and they couldn't believe that I hadn't invested as much thought in to it as they all had.

Guys became harder to talk to, because of the added complication of them now wanting more than friendship. As I got along better with guys, than girls, this made having friends at all hard. I had to learn the hard way that guys who say their happy 'just being friends', weren't always so. I used to sit alone at lunch, as I couldn't understand what was wrong with everyone else, haha.

At parties, I'd sit with the adults, or stay home and avoid going out to the clubs. I gave them a proper chance, and even though I never saw the appeal, I had hoped that once I had gotten to the clubs, I'd magically fall in love with them. No chance. I would stand there, watching everyone else get drunk, and have fun making a fool of themselves, wondering why I didn't feel the same way; yet secretly also glad I didn't.

It wasn't until I became an adult that I was able to cope better with people again, though obviously there are still complications, but there's less peer pressure, and teenage rebellion to worry about. Adults are also a bit more rational.

 

[wyverary]

Rather badly. Even after my diagnosis at 16 (which was never really explained to me--it took a stint in a psych ward in my early 20s to have it pointed out and explained and offered the assistance I needed), I was oblivious, tried way too hard, made too many social faux-pas, and generally an awkward mess. I had friends, loyal ones, but I was never quite sure how to act around them--and I always envied their other relationships that came so easy to them, especially with the teachers! It left me with a lot of bitterness by the time I left school.

 

[Ste11aeres]

I hated being a teenager

As a child I would play with children, but as a teen, the biggest issue I faced was that everyone around me changed, while I remained the same. Girls stopped playing, and started sitting and gossiping during school lunch breaks. They started wearing make up, and short skirts, which I never understood. I hated being asked about 'my dream wedding' too; I would tell them that it was the groom that would matter more than how we celebrated the big day, and they couldn't believe that I hadn't invested as much thought in to it as they all had.

You should see the movie Revenge of the Bridesmaids, which pokes fun at a culture where the Wedding Celebration is more important than the groom. In one of the early scenes, four little girls are playing Wedding. One of them is dressed in a suit. The "bride" asks her "What are you doing?" "I'm the groom. There has to be a groom."
The "Bride" is like "No. You have to be a bridesmaid. MOM!!!" The mom comes over, puts the suit on a chair, and says, "Here. This chair can be the groom. He's not very important."

 

[Nolan1971]

Thankfully I went an aspie friendly private school otherwise I probably would have dropped out since I could not handle public high school.
I was aware of my condition from an early age but did not know what it was until 40. I was very quite and shy until I met my best friend Rich
who helped me blossom socially. I treasure those 4 yrs!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kuribo]

I'm sixteen and currently in high school. I hate everything about it. It's a disgusting environment built entirely around conformity and blind obedience, both of which I believe to be the root causes of discrimination and bullying in society.

After June 2014, I'll only be going there twice a week and attending college three times a week. I can't wait to be (mostly) away from that cesspool.

 

[nowwhat]

Didn't figure it out until I was 40. Highschool was hell. First I retreated into drugs. Once I figure out that wasn't going to work out, I found my current special interest, which has, as side benefits, brought me employment, friends, fitness, and many other intangibles too numerous to list.