Brave new world - not?

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You must think I'm the greatest whiner of all time. Could I ask you to read this and see if it describes you? Because it describes me and - even though we all know the story - when I read it again, I broke down sobbing. Because I know it'll never change, he'll be hounded from pillar to post until he dies of something or other.
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In the farmyard, a duck stared at the duckling and said, “What an ugly duckling; we don’t want him here.” The ugly duckling was bitten, pushed and ridiculed by the ducks. He didn’t know where to hide. Every day it got worse. His brothers and sisters said, “I wish the cat would get you.” His mother said she wished he’d never been born. The ducks pecked him, the chickens beat him, and the girl who fed the poultry kicked him. Finally the ugly duckling ran away.

A storm arose, and he struggled against it. Towards evening, he reached a little cottage. He sat by the cottage, and then noticed that the door was not quite closed. There was an opening just large enough for him to slip through, which he did, and got shelter for the night.

In this cottage lived an old woman, a cat, and a hen. The old woman’s sight was so bad that she thought he was a duck that could lay eggs. So he was allowed to stay on trial for three weeks. But there were no eggs. “Can you lay eggs?” asked the hen. “No? Then have the goodness to hold your tongue.” And the cat said, “Can you raise your back, or purr? No? Then you have no right to express an opinion when sensible people are speaking.” The duckling sat in a corner feeling very low, till sunshine entered the room and he felt such a longing to swim that he couldn’t help telling the hen. “That’s absurd,” said the hen. “You have nothing to do, so you have foolish ideas. If you could purr or lay eggs, you wouldn’t think like that.” “But swimming is wonderful,” said the duckling. “You must be crazy!” said the hen. “Ask the cat if he would like to swim in the water. Ask the old woman. Do you think she would like to swim?” “You don’t understand me,” said the duckling. “Who can understand you, I wonder? Do you think you’re better than others? Thank your good fortune that you have been received here. But you are not very agreeable. I speak only for your own good. I advise you to lay eggs and learn to purr as soon as possible.” The duckling said, “I believe I must go out into the world again.”
“Yes, do,” said the hen.

The duckling left the cottage and found water in which he could swim and dive. All the animals avoided him because he was ugly. Eventually winter came. The ugly duckling had to swim about on the water to keep it from freezing. Each night the space on which he swam got smaller. Soon it froze so that ice crackled when he moved. The duckling paddled hard to keep the ice from closing up. Soon he was exhausted, and lay still and helpless, frozen in the ice.

In the morning, a peasant broke the ice and brought the duckling home to his wife. The duckling revived in the warmth. When the children tried to play with him, he thought they would hurt him, so he started up in terror, fluttered into the milk-pan, and splashed milk around the room. The woman clapped her hands, which scared him even more. He flew into the butter-cask, then into the meal-tub, and out again. The woman screamed and struck at him with tongs. The children laughed and screamed and tumbled over each other trying to catch him. Finally the duckling escaped and fell exhausted into the snow.

The ugly duckling was actually a cygnet. The ending to the story is a happy one (he comes across other swans and is accepted by them, etc. etc.)...

Oh, okay, I thought you'd accidentally missed the ending of the story, or something.

Claradoon: uh…you do know that something isn’t “right” with your neighbours if you experience death threats and attempts at killing you because you don’t reciprocate, and you fear that it may happen again if you continue to be "you". I mean, this is quite obvious to me; and I’m safe to assume that you’ve notified the coppers right?

I'd be bunkering up if I were you....

I don’t think there’s anything you can “do” that’d satisfy these people if they take such insane and extreme measures because you aren’t a social butterfly (Jesus!)…. Something is definitely going down in your area that you aren't picking up.

The death threats aren't current. There was somebody seriously trying to kill me when I was a kid. And he almost did, twice. On both occasions he had me overpowered and was going for the kill when somebody intervened. And there was the third time when he gave me a concussion. Which I mention now to indicate not that I expect to die, but that the situation can get serious, which is why I hide. When I moved in here 3 years ago, I thought Brave New World, here we go. Kerblooey. And now I'm moving again, and it's going to happen all over again. People start out liking me, then I guess I do some aspie things - well I do the shifty-eyed thing of course. Then I shut down some days. Also I meltdown, silently if I'm outside. And I recognize nobody. If I was a young man they'd peg me as a shooter, but I'm an old woman so they think I'm ... a witch? which they no longer burn.

The police? If they know I exist then they think I'm a weird loner.

I don't know how to prevent it happening again.

Yesterday I saw an ad - cognitive behavior therapy re disabilities. Maybe that would help. I'll phone her.

Thank you all for putting up with me droning on and on like this.

Intolerance is a beautiful thing isn’t it?

I think I understand now (i.e., PTSD from previous encounters which I fully understand and sympathize with), and you don’t want this to happen again so you try to go out of your way to be overtly nice; but since you have trouble with social situations…yeah.

Though...if you feel the situation ever degenerates to whatever, the police are there for a reason: to protect us who are different; though I don't presume to know them, they might be more understanding than you think they are....

Good luck (what else is there?).