I need help.

[Grumpy Cat]

Good point...possibly one way to circumvent social anxiety issues in general. But all these "communications" classes...do you recall taking them as requirements? Geez..I had bonehead English and that's about all in that category. Clearly a lot has changed...lol. Duh.

English when I took mine was Composition I and II and Speech. Speech is a lot of people's downfall.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

I was thinking about doing it online.



Portland Community College. I'm even getting my math requirements done right now in high school. I might even do Portland State University...

A University will not really have online classes and you may have to live on campus. The bachelor degree I'm having to pursue now is going to be all online, but that's because I already have my nursing degree.

 

[Juliet8080]

A University will not really have online classes and you may have to live on campus. The bachelor degree I'm having to pursue now is going to be all online, but that's because I already have my nursing degree.

True. I'm not really sure what's going to happen. I know I am able to live at home for that, though.

 

[Judge]

English when I took mine was Composition I and II and Speech. Speech is a lot of people's downfall.

Yeah. The speech classes I noticed on other community colleges. Something I never had and am certainly glad I didn't! I never had to do another public presentation beyond high school until I started working as an underwriter. Even then I never liked having to do such things.

 

[AutumnRed]

Hello there, I hope you get your diagnosis soon, that should hopefully give you more leeway in the future to negotiate your way around these sorts of problems. Trust school to turn something as cool and interesting as history into a nightmare. I actually quit school because of this sort of thing, but returned later when I found the 'working world' even harder. There is only one point that I wish to make after reading this, and that is to say that being an aspie is like living on a battlefield, and your survival depends on choosing which battles you fight. I haven't always been good at this, I always thought I had to do things the way others said, and now, at 37, I'm being treated for severe adrenal fatigue as a direct consequence of all the stress caused by this. I suggest asking yourself which option causes the least stress, and choose that one. Try to get maximum effect from minimum effort, because life will take its toll on you (as an aspie) if you can't figure out how to live with neurotypicals while causing the least damage to yourself. I'm not a fan of pushing through things unless I absolutely have to, because I know the huge toll that this takes over time. The pushing through approach left me with terrible depression and anxiety which caused me to flunk university at 23, with only 3 papers to go. I wasn't diagnosed at the time though. Also, further to my war-like approach, if you're sure you've got aspergers, and the doctor doesn't agree, keep fighting for the diganosis and change doctors. The psychological difference between self diagnosis and official diagnosis is quite profound, in my experience, and gives permission to be more flexible with yourself. Sorry if I sound like I'm pontificating, and I wish you the very best of luck

 

[Judge]

A simple truth. Jobs and careers often come and go sometimes due to one's failings, and other times because of situations completely beyond their control. There are no guarantees.

And more often than not, one cannot get away from the relationship of having an education relative to whatever work they find. Even if it occasionally involves uncomfortable assignments that may make no sense. It will still always remain a means to an end. The end being the hope of gainful employment of some kind.

For what's it's worth, I think this one of those "battles" that is worth fighting, because the stakes are relatively low compared to an assignment on the job, or in college. "Practice" so to speak, for more trying times and considerably higher stakes. Believe me, I know It's tough when you have to push yourself over social anxiety issues. However at select times it will serve you well in the long run. To really know your limits and choose those battles to fight, you have to be prepared to test them from time to time. It's a process I've had to deal with my whole adult life.

Perhaps the best thing I can share with you is that as my personal level of confidence goes up on occasion, my social anxiety issues have gone down. I recognize and work with my limitations, but I still am willing to fight those battles on occasion, even when I want to run from them.

 

[Juliet8080]

Hello there, I hope you get your diagnosis soon, that should hopefully give you more leeway in the future to negotiate your way around these sorts of problems. Trust school to turn something as cool and interesting as history into a nightmare. I actually quit school because of this sort of thing, but returned later when I found the 'working world' even harder. There is only one point that I wish to make after reading this, and that is to say that being an aspie is like living on a battlefield, and your survival depends on choosing which battles you fight. I haven't always been good at this, I always thought I had to do things the way others said, and now, at 37, I'm being treated for severe adrenal fatigue as a direct consequence of all the stress caused by this. I suggest asking yourself which option causes the least stress, and choose that one. Try to get maximum effect from minimum effort, because life will take its toll on you (as an aspie) if you can't figure out how to live with neurotypicals while causing the least damage to yourself. I'm not a fan of pushing through things unless I absolutely have to, because I know the huge toll that this takes over time. The pushing through approach left me with terrible depression and anxiety which caused me to flunk university at 23, with only 3 papers to go. I wasn't diagnosed at the time though. Also, further to my war-like approach, if you're sure you've got aspergers, and the doctor doesn't agree, keep fighting for the diganosis and change doctors. The psychological difference between self diagnosis and official diagnosis is quite profound, in my experience, and gives permission to be more flexible with yourself. Sorry if I sound like I'm pontificating, and I wish you the very best of luck

Thank you so much! That's really helpful!

A simple truth. Jobs and careers often come and go sometimes due to one's failings, and other times because of situations completely beyond their control. There are no guarantees.

And more often than not, one cannot get away from the relationship of having an education relative to whatever work they find. Even if it occasionally involves uncomfortable assignments that may make no sense. It will still always remain a means to an end. The end being the hope of gainful employment of some kind.

For what's it's worth, I think this one of those "battles" that is worth fighting, because the stakes are relatively low compared to an assignment on the job, or in college. "Practice" so to speak, for more trying times and considerably higher stakes. Believe me, I know It's tough when you have to push yourself over social anxiety issues. However at select times it will serve you well in the long run. To really know your limits and choose those battles to fight, you have to be prepared to test them from time to time. It's a process I've had to deal with my whole adult life.

Perhaps the best thing I can share with you is that as my personal level of confidence goes up on occasion, my social anxiety issues have gone down. I recognize and work with my limitations, but I still am willing to fight those battles on occasion, even when I want to run from them.

Very true. I have learned that this is one battle I don't want to fight, and now I realize that this is just too big of a leap for me, especially since it's for something not that important. Thank you, though!

 

[Judge]

Very true. I have learned that this is one battle I don't want to fight, and now I realize that this is just too big of a leap for me, especially since it's for something not that important. Thank you, though!

Well, what colors this dilemma is not knowing if this falls somewhere between a legitimate class assignment and what may amount to a bizarre practical joke! What may mean nothing to an NT is another matter for an Aspie. I think we all get that.

Pity if this turns out to be an assignment full of levity on the part of one instructor. But then under the circumstances he might actually end up learning more from this than his students. Keep us in the loop!

 

[Sev]

I haven't really read the responses thoroughly, so my response is written in the context of the original post only.

It is very normal for Aspies.
The majority of people on the autistic spectrum that I have spoken to really did hate that component of education.

Depending on where you are, it can be extremely difficult can get out of a particular assignment or change its specifications. I know that where I am, Australia, that all the work gets sent to a state panel of people who review it and more often then not, each assignment ticks off a section of criteria that the state demands a student to be evaluated in. Of course, this is probably different in other countries/states/planets but its not always a simple task for a teacher to just serve up an alternative assignment.

However, while I was in school (recently graduated!! ~ ) a few of the teachers actually broke the rules to help me feel comfortable. For example, whenever a public speaking assignment comes up I could request to do it privately in front of only the teacher - instead of the entire class. It was still unpleasant, but it was better. There were a number of other instances, but you get the picture. These teachers got me through high school, without a doubt. While its probably politically unwise to suggest that you try and encourage the teachers to turn a blind eye, it might be worth finding the teachers that are aspie-friendly and befriended them. If teachers run groups/clubs there, go join one or two with interests that you like and try to get involved. Teachers can't like you if they don't know you. Despite being extremely awkward I did my best to be socially active.

In one case, I went up to the library to do some studying and opened my math book. Out came the exam. The exam I sat three days before. Obviously, I had somehow managed to forget to hand my exam in at the end of the session, and instead, walked out with it... The feeling of simultaneous hilarity and horror was unbearable, I almost collapsed. I survived it though, handed in to the teacher and explained my problem and because the teacher knew me they were able to sympathize and my paper was submitted (after being scrutinized). Usually, I guess you would just fail the paper.

Personally, I hate the way the education system is designed. I think that you should be able to choose from a variety of tasks to fit the criteria, but alas, its not likely to ever evolve to something like that.

I guess I'll mention one of my recent social problems that I had to overcome. Recently, I had to get up on stage with the rest of the people from my class to sing a song as part of the graduation procedure. I was in the front row. Now, usually, things are not so bad. After all, we're only singing, right? I said to my friend. But no, it turned out that we had to do all sorts of weird dancing actions alongside it. I'm quite sure that we all looked like idiots, but hey, the audience liked it (I... think they would applaud anything). I got quite a number of the actions wrong, couldn't follow the words, and almost fell over a number of times. So, all in all, its not something I would do again and in the lead up to it, I tried to think of almost every excuse I could, but none were really good enough to get me out of it. So, I did my best to avoid having a panic attack and got the job done (it was a pretty crap job though).

In this case, I had to deal with it. I couldn't do anything about it but whinge and complain to my introverted friends about my terrible hardship of having to dance in public. But, now that its over, its not so bad. I honestly spent hours worrying about this event and it was over in less than a few minutes.

In regard to your assignment, you won't always be able to avoid situations like this, and school can be a pretty good practice round for social related stuff - so don't throw opportunities like that away so quickly (but if you do, I wont blame you). So just do your best to get through it however painful it is, and go home and release the tension afterwards (screaming and yelling a series of cuss words was one of my favourite routines - not all family members like this one so use with caution). I do suggest though, be friendly with the right teachers (usually helps).

But yeah, I know how you feel and it sucks that Aspies have to deal with a world designed for NTs, but at the moment, we just have to conform. Good luck!

Viva la Aspie Revolution!

 

[tree]

Juliet8080

 

[Juliet8080]

Juliet8080

Ohh thank you so much!