For adult aspies

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I absolutely agree, when we are embarrassed and shamed for the right reasons and when we can alter our behavior this can be beneficial. I suppose this is kind of the invisible disability thing because I doubt they would have tried to shame someone who was blind into reading from the chalk board.

In school they tried to make me read aloud and I wouldn't do it, I think from social anxiety. They would do things like say that everyone had to sit there until I read aloud but that never worked. Besides all the pressure on me making me even more anxious I had enough sense to know that they weren't going to waste the entire day or make all the other kids miss lunch over it and they certainly couldn't keep us all overnight. Doing things like that can make bullying worse too. I didn't realize it at the time but the other kids may have felt like they were being punished because of me.

I definitely was bullied, but it was more as a younger child, like elementary school age. I still caught s**t from people here and there after that, but it never bothered me much. Basically, I learned fairly early on that the world around me was filled with idiots who want to make themselves feel better by making others feel bad, and if you just show them that it doesn't bother you, they shut up pretty quickly. You either point out the flaw in their logic, simply agree with them in a completely non-caring manner, or you totally ignore them. I was apparently born a gigantic smartass, so I had an answer for just about anything anyone could possibly say to me. The "bullies" learned that I wasn't a target worth messing with. That, and I used to NEVER use my locker, so I'd have all my books in my bookbag at once, and in the event that I would actually have to defend myself, usually all it took was one swing from the bookbag. And if I for some reason didn't have it on me at the time, I knew how to throw my weight into my punches.The kids who got targeted the most were the ones who would freak out and start screaming and flailing frantically when picked on. Why? Because seeing that can be pretty damn funny sometimes, despite the fact that it's mean. I don't agree with it, but I can understand why it's entertaining to some.

The only specific thing I can recall being bullied for was being fat. I never got made fun of for much of anything else.

I tried ignoring bullies once. Hard to ignore them when they're punching you in the head. Ignoring bullies is like ignoring any other problem. Doesn't make it go away.

I'm in this category... Age 45, and was misunderstood and misdiagnosed several times in childhood. I was even misdiagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when I told of kids chasing me home from school, and bullying me, and they thought I was imagining it! For that, I was put in a mental hospital for 7 months at age 9.

It was hell being me, and it would have been much easier if anyone had correctly figured me out, and stopped forcing me to "interact with peers" against my will (makes my skin crawl to even type that phrase)! !! !! ! It had me thinking I was just "weird", and that I had no right to feel that way, and further that I was just stuck like that for the rest of my life... Maybe pretending everything in my life was different in order to cope. Really a bad way to live!

But with that said, I am grateful to be understood now, and it's all fallen into place over the last 20 years, and I wouldn't change a single thing in my life today!

Charles

I was pretty much incessantly bullied right up until near the end of secondary school. I think the biggest reason was that I didn't react as most people would. Instead of crying or fighting back I went completely blank. I might be screaming inside but none of it showed on my face. I think it ended up a kind of sport to try to get a reaction out of me. Most of it stopped after I finally snapped one day on the school bus home and literally kicked one guy's face in. I got into a fair amount of trouble for that but it was worth it.

My parents didn't notice anything odd with me as a child. My father wanted nothing to do with me. My mother cared but didn't notice anything. She also didn't notice anything about my nephew while his behavior screamed 'aspie' to me (once I found out what AS was). He was diagnosed late last year.

...I'll get to this , this could touch on some not-that-great memories for me (And a not-so--great present-day life .) ...

and and stuff in school .
II was seen as " different " and sent to what I guess what " emotronally disturbed " schools much of the time .
I never really " got to go to college " and that makes me weep to this day .
I still want so much to " go away to college " in the standard way , even late , after all these years .
Of course , it would be an improvement on being homeless .