I've let down my family.

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When I was younger, I was always the smart child in the family. Out of all of my cousins [I have no siblings], I was the one that my family was sure was going to complete school, get a degree and be successful. Things are now far from that.
I am a 16 year old high school drop-out, with AS and Depression, unemployed, friendless [in real life]. I am not feeling sorry for myself, this is how my family sees me now.
My family used to see the good qualities in me regardless of my differences...now all they see is my differences. I heard my mother talking to her partner the other day and she said..."If Brittany wont try in life, then I wont attempt to help her".

She has given up on me. I don't just have that sentence as proof, her actions show it aswell. She used to try and force me to go to school, or get into a course...which is proof that she cared. Now, if all I want to do is sit at home and be online, she accepts it and doesn't question me about it. It's almost like she has said to herself..."My daughter is destined for a worthless life, I may aswell get used to it,".
It's the same with the rest of my family aswell...they are really apathetic about my situation. The people who once encouraged me, pushed me and helped me to do great things, to learn and to grow...are now just, not caring.

Even if I did get into a course or find work...I would still be thought of as useless by others. It happened when I started my employment skills course last year. My family didn't praise or encourage me, it's like they knew that I was going to fail. In the end, I passed the course but they STILL didn't think much of me! I don't know what my point to this is...it's just a rant really. I just know that i've let my family down, i've destroyed any hope that they have for me and I don't think that I can live with that.

I heard my mother saying she had given up on me and was starting to not care anymore.This really meens that they do and cant cope well or are trying to proove a point.My mother knew i could hear i know because i asked her about what she had said and she admitted it.She said she was trying to get me to take notice and knew i ear wigged into conversations.This annoys me because i can hear very well and cant help over hearing everything.

What matters is how YOU see you. You have to be the one who believes in you. There won't always be anyone else to do it consistently, epsecially if you don't. Sometimes there will, and those times will feel really good. Most of the time though, if you're anything like me, you're going to have to find that belief within yourself - almost as if you must succeed in spite of the world and everyone in it.

I know that probably sounds corny and cliche, but it's true.

I am so there with you, Brittany; I got that from my parents and from someone on WP I never even talked to.

1. You're a teenage female - you're not supposed to get on with your family at all at this point in your life.

2. You weren't put on this earth to satisfy your family's expectations. Be yourself - you're only young once.

3. Do you think you've tried to help yourself? What things have you tried? If you feel that you've been giving your best then that's all that matters.

4. Take some risks while you're still so young that you can run home to your parents.

all one can do is try their best.

Your family must be related to mine, or in other words, it is just how mine feel about me as well. Im sorry I cant say something very profound that will help you, because as Im in the same spot as you I dont really know what to do with myself either.. All I can do is what I can to find happiness.. But even that is a great challenge most of the time.

From what you posted, I don't think it's that harsh. She's not saying that she gave up on you, but that there is no reason to try to help you if you don't try to help yourself. You're almost an adult, she cannot nudge you into making every decision or taking every step.

Instead of feeling that you let everyone down, why not get your act together? You're only sixteen, you haven't ruined your life, even if you may be in a rut. I think school should be your main concern, most people your age don't have a job (at least in the U.S.) and you may make some friends and at least lift yourself a bit out of your depression. What is involved with enrolling back in highschool?

You're worried about getting a job at 16? Isn't it a bit early to be resigning yourself to those kind of thoughts? Like Phagocyte said if you feel this way, why don't you try to change it? I know that I'm one of the last people of Earth supposed to give other these kinds of advise since I'm in a similar spot and I don't think that you haven't given thought to how you're going to change your situation, but start with baby steps.

The bigger question is, do you feel that you've let yourself down?

I think the situation is reversed. I think your family has let you down albeit not maliciously.

It is hard for people to deal with what they cannot understand, what they have no frame of reference for. That is a recipe to make mistakes.

Soon you will be 18 and you can kindle your hope and theirs by showing them what you can really do. We've talked and although you dropped out of school you are intellectually beyond your age group. You have talent and you are down to earth and that is a powerful combination! I have no doubt you will succeed.

As the cliche goes, chin up! walk straight and smile

the teenage years = the time in your life where everything you do is wrong in your parents' eyes.

It sounds like they're waiting to see what direction you set for yourself. What do you want to do?

Your 16, driven, intelligent, articulate, what can't you do?

Just give it time.

she's an excellent photographer too.


im so jealous of her new camera

me want....

cant you go back to school? as a droput i wished i would have stayed in but understand if you dont want to go back. im shure you'll be alright, i went through a similar fase when i was a teenager. goodluck

There are times that I feel that I've let my family down. I'd think about how I was never really that successful, and that I've ended up being unemployed and living in a bachelor pad. I have it in my mind, sometimes, that my parents would see me as an equal, if I had a job. I also feel that I've let my family down, because my parents only like thin people, without accents, who are successful. I've learned to take that with a grain of salt, last year. I have it in my head, that if I was an NT, like my dainty little, well-educated sister, that i would have gotten more respect, from my family. It was just this past Christmas, that I've found out who the favourite sister, really is. I was surprised to find out that my relatives favour me, over my sister. I've thought that they didn't play favourites.