Being forced into programs

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Has anyone here ever been forced into programs just because someone else wanted you to? I was forced to go into a Job Coaching class in order to get experience to function in a real workplace. The class was terrible, as I was surrounded by borderline tyrannical teachers and lower functioning associates, so it's not like I could communicate with them(really hope this doesn't count as slander; that's not my intent). I hated the program insofar as arguments would be a common occurance; I would be hateful and spiteful towards everyone in that class, teachers included (if not already implicitly stated). That was my overall feeling in the class, but I will go into even more detail if desired; would still like to hear from others, though.

Back in my freshman year of college the support service I had been accepted into TRIO had us go to an orientation which gave us the jist of the program and what services they provide. I hardly minded it aside from some of the less than necessary social interaction in that three days of "mandatory fun" as they put it. The thing which really grinned my gears with them however was the requirement of having tutoring for the first four semesters, aka first two years, of attendance. This is the only requirement that has been of unease to me since I am rather limited socially and the structuring of the tutoring was the drop in at your convenience and not by any sort of appointment which would of been to my preference. It's rather difficult for people like myself who have the difficulty of asking for help, of course being stubborn as a mule doesn't do much to help it either

There was one time in my attendance of the group in which I had to "socialize" with others. It made me even more livid simply because of the intent behind it, so I wound up just sitting in the corner, pouting and dismissing everyone. The event itself was so cringey, with everyone "dancing" to music and the only part I liked was the lemonade and cupcakes, but everything was terrible.

People have been doing this to me for forever.

For a good portion of elementary school they made me do speech therapy. This was mind numbingly boring, as I had to read words from a book for hours on end. I'm not sure if it even made any difference to my speech either.

Once, I had to go to this "social skills class" with a bunch of other people. they did stuff like showed us these flash card things and we had to guess what the people were thinking. The class was full of a bunch of these kids that were really annoying, low functioning kind of people. Not doing that again.

Another time I had to go to this program that was supposed to teach you empathy or something. It was a bunch of us sitting in a circle in some stuffy conference room talking about morals. Again, pretty stupid. I think I got kicked out of that class like twice for being disrespectful to the teacher person. After that they didn't make me redo it again, thankfully.

This isn't to mention the 9 million therapists my parents have made me go to. F*CK therapy.

I'm curious if most people in these types of classes feel the same way. Maybe that sounds like a dumb thing to ask, but I've never had to take one. I wonder because I work with people who have intellectual disabilities, and several have some form of autism. The more I see, I feel that the people helping these individuals don't really have a good idea of how to communicate with them, what will help them, and how they think. In fact, I think staff often work on minimizing some of their stims as a way of making them "better" socially, something I never thought deeply about until researching my own Asperger's traits and coming here.

I can only imagine how difficult schools must be to deal with. I hate attending IEP meetings. They're so useless. Just a bunch of people sitting around spitting out nice-sounding ideas, but they don't seem to do much.

Call it a bias, but I've come to hate these programs and the people in them, even if they're really good people. You can also call me a dumb conspiracy theorist, but these programs are about control. They don't want to help you, they want to entrench in you the idea that you're powerless because they think they have an advantage because they're "normal". They want nothing more than to drain you, make you lose your d*mn mind so that you (and I say this in hyperbole) "assimilate" into an unquestioning, stalwart cog of the government welfare sucking machine known as special education. When your behavior goes against the status quo that they set out, they throw you out, silence you because they think you don't matter. I can't tell how many stupid "checks" I got on the board (ten in one day). When I got a negative sheet, I BRAGGED about it because I was so glad about sticking it to those a**holes. I've been silenced by teachers, with the logic equivalent to Confucianism e.g. teacher over student. I fought with each teacher; I made sure they knew that I wasn't going to stand for this. I even tried to rally hate inside the group in order to direct it towards one teacher that I wanted to get fired because she was SO terrible; I stopped after realizing that everyone there were low functioning people that didn't even know the things they were going through. I fought to get out of bullsh*t field trips, cut the classes, and disrespected the authority because it's the only treatment they deserved.

And the worst part is...

I'm probably coming back there next year.

I got pretty heated writing that. Yeah, it messed me up pretty badly. I'm really sorry for anything considered obscene, It's just that I finally found an outlet to tell people how I feel because no one else cares.

TL:DR: Special Education equals corperate cog assimilation.

I was forced into sensory therapy, is this what you mean by "programs?" It was really humiliating because I was 13 and all of the other children there were really young (like under 6). But the sessions were not with the other kids.

Any program will suffice, really.

After I graduated high-school my parents pushed me to go stay at a training center for people with sever vision difficulties cuz I was born with a rare low vision disorder. It wasn't that bad after abit but they made me use a cane with I don't need & made me do some things blindfolded which I didn't training with sense my vision disorder won't get worse. I still I don't how the cane & blindfold would of helped me. I was there for about 6months.

Here's the thing.

The NT world and "making it" in the "workplace" is really just about handling conflict, aggression and violence. Which NTs do quite well with. Being naturally aggressive, they can handle it.

And NTs have made no progress towards stopping aggression and violence in society, let alone the workplace. Yet they try and convince you they know a betyer way, a higher path.

So these "programs" are just that.
Social training factories to "program" you into thinking aggression and violence is the norm, and handling such stupidity will make you "normal". They want to help you to be "normal".

Except they don't realize they can't make an autistic person into a neurotypical.
It's really just conditioning, and brainwashing.

I steer clear of "programs" and the like.
Programs help THEM use you. Programs are to help them, not you.

THANK YOU. Excuse that, I'm sorry, but I'm glad that someone hates programs like I do.

The government is forcing me to get a job.

I'd say it's more about directing everyone toward common lifestyles or views than normalizing aggression. Because if someone in that program has a meltdown from sensory overload and becomes aggressive, then they will be punished in some way. Ultimately, American society is about getting people to work, and this goes for autistic people and NTs. I went to public school and had both "normal" classes and honors/advanced classes. School doesn't like too many questions or people who think differently, they like you to follow rules, have friends, and do well on tests. It's training for taking orders and working in offices, basically. College has more freedom, but I think ultimately it's not much different--except with college, the student debt will trap you.

It should also be said, in regard to aggression, that societies seek to make their actions look clean and humane. They usually will not openly value aggression, even though I'd agree they are aggressive. For example, we've ended violent public executions and now use lethal injection in private spaces, but both refuse to really prevent crime or ask why it happens.

I've been sent to so many programs over the years I've lost count of the many and varied ways they've screwed me up.
One program I attended called "connect" gave me something like PTSD which I had to have counselling for. There was a lot of physical touching involved, or the threat of touching, and I didn't cope well with it at all.
The most recent one was a self-compassion workshop, which is probably the most useful and relaxed workshop I've ever attended. If not for one of the other participants giving me a very one-sided bear hug at the end I would have left in a state of bliss.

In the secure unit there weren't many groups thankfully, but then everyone else there were too ill to do anything; I was in the secure unit for challenging behaviour so I wasn't as severely mentally ill per se, I just couldn't keep myself safe and was on 1:1 nursing (as I was flipping out at the slightest provocation), found most of the nurses much more helpful than the other patients so didn't interact with the other patients.

But when I was on the general psych ward, there were quite a lot of groups. The nurses would bang on my door and tell me I had to go to groups.

Art therapy. I proved mathematical theorems on the large sheet of paper I was given. F*ck colouring pencils and paints, all I needed was a pen and music on my headphones. Even then, I had incidents and ended up being medicated and sent back to my room, where I hid most of the time.

Bingo. Wtf. Bingo. A nurse said "do you want to come to bingo?" I said "I have an IQ of 160. Do you really think I would be interested in the mind-dulling effects of bingo? I'd rather read my textbook." and closed the door in her face.

Group therapy. Eventually my care coordinator educated the staff about autism and I was exempt. I was just on the psych ward as a step down from the secure unit so that I could be safely discharged.

It's been over three years since I was last in the secure unit and then psych ward. I hope I never go back. It was hell. Not just because of the intelligence-deleting groups.

No I've always managed to dodge such things, I could see what was coming. I was on jobseeker's allowance for a little while, and they offered me a place in a "job club" which the grapevine said was a matter of attending some place where a jumped-up expert would teach the obvious and micro-manage me into applying for jobs and "selling myself," (yeuk!) and I'd have had to go to the damned thing about 4 times a week. So I thanked them and said I'd think about it, but I never took them up. I'd already shown them I was more than capable of competent jobseeking without their intervention.

I'm not saying all programs are rubbish, but I think a lot of the people who run these things are either simpletons on guru trips, or sock puppets for somebody else's hidden agenda, or both. But (luckily) that's not from personal experience, just what I've heard from listening to the word on the street. It seems the contents of this thread would largely support my belief. The touchy-feely thing is particularly worrying.