Did you ever go to the lunch room?

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I was just talking to my friend and she finds it amazing I didn't go to the lunch room once between 6th grade and 12th grade (plus an extra year I stopped going for a while).

I used to be a VERY strict rule follower until around 10th grade. Every school year from Kindergarten-the beginning of 10th grade I sat in the cafiteria and hated it. It was always too loud and too chaotic for me. Even at the preschool I attended for a few months, I hated it when they would put us all in this room to eat lunch. They assigned seats and I had no choice but to sit with a child on either side of me. I like to have a seat between me and the next person. I hated being so close to them while they yelled to one another, chewed loudly making those gross mushy sounds, and pressing in on me from either side. But I did it because that was the rule. It wasn't until 10th grade that I called bullsh*t on thet rule and stopped going into the cafiteria. It seemed to be getting increasingly loud in there (but really, I just wasnt tolerating it as well) so I would often skip lunch and go hide in the library. By 11th grade I was getting in trouble for refusing to sit in there (I was on a medication that increased my panic attacks so...i really wasn't handling it well). I was actually put in detention for "defiance" over the issue a few time before teachers decided that it wasn't worth the effort.

I never went to the lunch room.

In high school I used to get caught skipping lunch when the library was closed. I begged to not go and almost cried I remember. One of the school guards would see me and would talk to me but she didn't mind that I wasn't in lunch because she knew how I felt about it. I was taken to the dean office and almost suspended for it. I just sat in a corner in my own world, unblinking with wide eyes. Which they found strange.

Last edited by Scanner on 23 Mar 2011, 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes ... then no. Elementary school was fine. It all went south in middle school, where I came to view the cafeteria as a sort of torture chamber. When I went to high school, I got special permission to take an extra class during lunch time, leaving no room in my schedule for an entire period of lunch. I just ate quietly during class, and I think that probably saved my life (or someone else's) when I think about it.

From 6th through 12th grade... less than 10 times. I only did it when the teachers that let me staying in their classroom during lunch (completely unsupervised while they were off eating lunch themselves) were out sick.

I was in the lunch room once in seventh grade, not to actually eat but I needed to get a teacher who was in there. I got hit in the head several times by "paper bullets".

I finally got to stay in department head offices. It was fun! I would often stay in the history department and debate about politics. I would sometimes stay in science and learn new things. I was always more advanced than the class (despite my bad grades) so I was given other things to work on.

I usually do, but I hate it. I either sit at my own table alone and do some homework or go outside and walk around for 20 minutes while I'm eating my disgusting food.

I'm only in the lunchroom for a few minutes a day so I can eat. I spend the rest of my time in the school library.

In my school once you were in the lunch room, you had to stay.

I NEVER thought I'd feel the "I'm so revealed that I'm not alone with this" feeling, but I'm certainly feeling it now. Remembering how I simply couldn't handle the lunch room bothered me for so many years.

Until I discovered AS, I blamed myself for not being able to handle it. I thought I was just weak. This was one of the major baggage items that I reflected on time and time again, but couldn't figure out until I found out I had AS.

I just want to offer a big-sappy-completely-non-sexual-internet-hug to everyone else that had a hard time with this.

I hated it, but I never had a choice in the matter.

When I was in HS my parents wanted me to get my working papers but I just couldn't. The only way to get it was to go to this little office that was located in the lunch room. It was only open during lunch hours. I once lost my school idand didn't go to school for like 2 weeks because I didn't want to have to go to the lunch room to get another one. I asked several times if someone else could get it like a dean or something and they always said no. It was very stressful. I ended up going when they closed after the lunch period and like basically begging.

I had to take a picture and I tried to smile. Three people in the office were watching me and laughed at me when I smiled. When I got the picture it didn't really look like a smile.

In all my schoolyears, we had to eat in the cafeteria. I just ate with my best friend. I actually didn't find the cafeteria too bad for me, but PE class was a different story.

I think I'll make a topic about that as well... I actually NEVER participated past third grade.

And here I always thought that was what they intended.

It was one of the few things I could never figure out a workaround to escape, at least most of the time. I learned to endure it - surviving my own parents taught me that much - but I always thought I was an idiot for being so intimidated by a big room full of people all making noise, until I figured out I had AS.

Now - that's how my brain is wired. Anyone who doesn't like it can deal with it...