A halcyon day before the storms gathered
firemonkey
Citizen
in General ASD
Jan 15 1965. My 8th birthday. Saw Mary Poppins at the Leicester square Odeon followed by a birthday celebration at a
Lyons corner house.It was a halcyon day before the storms gathered. I may have been odd, but if so other children had not reacted as though I was. 5 days later I started boarding school.The place where sons of diplomats go at the age of 8 or less. I was totally unsuited for it. I was faced with something I struggled to cope with. Not overtly traumatic ,but traumatic nonetheless. It manifested in bed-wetting. The differences between the other boys and me became glaringly apparent on going to public school. Like a lot of my generation found decades later to be autistic I was subjected to severe bullying. In my case it was verbal. The result was increasingly poor mental health resulting in an overdose at the end of my penultimate term there.
I went back for what should have been my A level term so as not to disappointment my father. I lasted a week before saying I couldn't cope. After a few days in the school sanatorium I was admitted to Severalls psychiatric hospital.
Lyons corner house.It was a halcyon day before the storms gathered. I may have been odd, but if so other children had not reacted as though I was. 5 days later I started boarding school.The place where sons of diplomats go at the age of 8 or less. I was totally unsuited for it. I was faced with something I struggled to cope with. Not overtly traumatic ,but traumatic nonetheless. It manifested in bed-wetting. The differences between the other boys and me became glaringly apparent on going to public school. Like a lot of my generation found decades later to be autistic I was subjected to severe bullying. In my case it was verbal. The result was increasingly poor mental health resulting in an overdose at the end of my penultimate term there.
I went back for what should have been my A level term so as not to disappointment my father. I lasted a week before saying I couldn't cope. After a few days in the school sanatorium I was admitted to Severalls psychiatric hospital.
Comments
I'm the second youngest of seven,so a lot of people older than me are younger than my siblings and my parents are older than there parents.
Not sure what that has to do with the opening post.
School for me wasn't too different from home, if there was a silver lining to come out of it... By secondary school there was very little a bully could do that scared me, except for being really outnumbered.
Its good to talk about these experiences, better than keeping them locked away.
When I was in the nursery/daycare at church as a toddler while the rest of my family went to worship, most of the kids either ignored me or played with me occasionally. Most kids weren't rude to me.
At playgrounds throughout my childhood I managed to play with other kids just fine, and made some "friends".
During school though, other kids were mean to me and seemed to go out of their way to exclude and upset me, even in Kindergarten.
I wonder what makes kids so inclusive outside of school VS in school.
Just remember that you have at least 20 more years ahead of you.
With your new knowledge of yourself, you can do a lot to make yourself happy.
Try not to let the past interfere with your present and future.