Frustration in college life,partly due to aspergers

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CuriousNotion
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02 Aug 2011, 1:03 pm

Its so hard to express how I feel about the whole thing, my own emotions when it comes to social issues.
I sometimes dont see my social interactions in a negative light at all. But no matter what, college is this social struggle sometimes...because I cant tell you how people see me sometimes and I cant talk to most people without feeling that there is no connection. A person who I had great chat with can no longer be as keen to chat with me the next day. There have been better moments but I keep feeling that I want more friends , a girlfriend, more from myself and that I need to keep trying.

Does anyone feel frustration in college?



Callista
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02 Aug 2011, 1:10 pm

Sure. I have a lot of executive-dysfunction issues and that makes it very hard to get through college. Honestly, I'm lucky in that I'm in a school where they have a good disability services program. I've made friends with other disabled students through a disability support group and through a student organization centered around tabletop role-playing. In general, I don't have a lot of social time; my major problems with school have always been a matter of organization and getting the right accommodations, and using them properly. Social issues have pretty much fallen by the wayside as less important than simply surviving out on my own and getting through college without flunking out. But sure, yeah, it's frustrating sometimes. That's life.


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LuckyLeft
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02 Aug 2011, 5:39 pm

Most definitely.

I've grown up trying to be something I wasn't during my teenage years in order to mask my odd behaviors, but I do understand where you're coming from. I can talk to people, but only about school work mostly. Not much in anything else. I try to stop from keeping to talk about basketball and football (which some may think it is an advantage, which it can be in people not telling you're different, at least for a while) because I can ramble. Or any other of my 'intense fascinations'. Sometimes I just don't care what someone else has to say, and I say nothing. I'm not mentally capable of handling a relationship as of now, let alone me struggling to keep friendships. The lack of connection with people is something I struggle with when I do have conversations. Hard to have it sometimes...


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WhoKnowsWhy
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02 Aug 2011, 8:59 pm

I couldn't make friends in college at all. Maybe it's because I lived at home and not on campus. Maybe it's because I went to a small high school but a big university and just didn't know anybody. Whatever the reason, my college social life ranged from miserable to nonexistent.



SuSaNnA
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02 Aug 2011, 9:03 pm

My issue with college is that colleges are so big that I get physically exhausted by attending my lectures.
Lab sessions are also like hell, physically.

I don't like the idea that you have to physically be somewhere.

I'm not tired with my essays or research, it's going to the lecture hall that is the real problem.



jojobean
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02 Aug 2011, 9:13 pm

I wish I could finish my art/psych degree at home from my computer. Psych, yes that can be done. Art...not really.
I understand how one day you have a great chat with someone, then they avoid you. Maybe you kept them in the conversation too long and now they avoid you in order to get where they need to be? give it a rest for a few days and when that person is obviously not busy or rushed, try talking to them then.


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oldmantime
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03 Aug 2011, 12:22 am

by the time i got to college i had already given up on notions of all that stuff. friends happen as they happen. so do girlfriends. it's best to not worry about it and work on being prosperous. if you can get money you will have SOME happiness at least.



LeninzTomb
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13 Nov 2011, 3:34 am

I go to a university with 40,000+ students, and I will say that my headphones and hoodie have been my shield. I put my headphones in (ear buds), pull my hood over my head and just look straight ahead as I go around campus. I do everything I can to avoid people handing out leaflets, trying to proselytize me or make small talk.

I only have one really close friend from my university. He is my roommate right now, too. I actually met him while we were roommates at a fraternity. I lived in the fraternity for three years before moving out. Out of the hundreds of people I met in that highly social environment, the only one I really have any meaningful contact with is my roommate. Looking back, I liked the principle of the fraternity, but the practice was awful. It was simply an excuse for (mostly underage) drinking based on the pretense of learning leadership skills and networking. A noble cause, but not the reality.

Maybe something that could help is interacting with the professors more as opposed to your classmates. I easily spend more time speaking with my educators than with my classmates. I can actually have interesting conversations with my professors (especially in my major: history). I really think of some of my professors as friends, and I think that is because they recognize my intense interest. Some have even gone to bars with me, paying for my drinks and food!