The bullying I went through in elementary school was verbal, as well as people putting gum in my hair, something that happened on a weekly basis. I wasn't formally diagnosed with Asperger's since when I was growing up, the only form of autism that was recognized was LFA. It lasted until my family moved across town and I got to go to a new middle school and high school, which ironically, was the cross-town rival school where the bullies went. In the 7th grade, people would dump my bag on the floor, and towards the end of the year, someone even stole my PE lock, but since I couldn't prove who did it, I had to pay the $3.00 or so as a fine.
Then, as an adult, I married someone who turned out to be verbally abusive, and I know that if I didn't get out when I did, the abuse would have become physical. I'm just glad that I was diagnosed with Asperger's a couple of years after the divorce became final because my ex would have used that against me.
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"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason,
and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
- Galileo Galilei
04 May 2009, 3:26 pm
