Life as a High School Student with Aspergers!! !

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I have aspergers. I am now in college. But, since I made it through high school, and survived, I thought i'd share my hints on how to survive high school with other people with aspergers. So I wrote a book about it and published it. We all have to share our hints on how to survive and thrive, if we are going to help each other.

Awesome! Many grats! and all that good stuff

mind telling us what its called?

I've been there, and finally finished High School.

The day when everyone else got on the bus for the school-funded "we're giving you a party so you don't go off on your own and get drunk" party, I waved goodbye, and rejoiced in my final freedom from that treacherous prison that they called a High School...

Oh, and in your book, there better be a chapter about "understanding Prom hype". I, with all the therapy I've gone through that was designed to make me assimilate into NT society, was barely able to put up with everyone talking endlessly about this useless over-lavish EXPENSIVE excuse for some macho man to try and get laid. Needles to say, I didn't go ($800 saved = new computer, so I'm not complaining...), but the hype for the month leading up to the event was annoying to say the least.

Thanks for replying. To answer some questions; The book is called Obvious Isn't Obvious A Teenagers Guide to Aspergers. And right now, unfourtunatly, it is available only through my publishers website. LuLu.com
I agree with your opinion of prom, a complete waste of time and money. My school (Former-Thank God) held theirs at Southfork Ranch, which anyone who watches bad 80's television is familar with because of the show DALLAS. It was a waste of money for the school and the students, but thats just my opinion, as I am sure some people would say prom is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

WOW, I never even gave the prom a thought!

That sounds very interesting, That book can help many experiencing difficulties now their, of course I have been out of high school for 6 years, I miss the past, but not the experience, get what I mean?

ohh... and I went to the PROM, very big waste of $$$ and I wish I never went, 2 times!! !

My daughter is homeschooled because of the mean things kids did and said to her. I'd love to get the book for her. She is a senior thank goodnes!! !! !! !! !! !

I think it is wonderfull that you home school your daughter, it is likely the easiest enviorment that someone with aspergers can learn in. When I was doing reasearch for my book, including interveiws with people of all ages who have aspergers, I found that the people who were home schooled face in college, what everyone else faced in high school. My book also includes a lengthy list of websites with more info on aspergers then you could ever hope to read.

From my experience, facing social issues in college is much easier (people in college are just much more accepting than in High School), but going to a public High School helped me understand some things about NT's, which makes it easier for me to deal with NT's in life (and gives me some protection from the common workplace problems that AS people face).

In fact, I can mask my AS so well that people have to probe fairly deeply before they can find that out. I can't keep it up indefinitely, but long enough to get through a school/work day.

Also, one of the problems i faced in Middle and High school was people talking about sexual slang terms that I didn't know about, telling me what they "mean", and taking advantage of that. This problem, however, was rectified by the creation of Wikipedia. Now, instead of taking people's word about stuff like this at face value, I have a readily available source to verify their claims.

Eh, that's nice you wrote a book but surviving highschool doesn't sound like a huge feat, just another stepping stone of life.

I agree, that some people have an easier time dealing with their aspergers in high school. Some people have a greater range of social skills. I however wrote the book for those who have trouble fitting in and trouble with their social skills.

Now that you're in college, do you have any advice? I'm a freshman this year, and high school wasn't easy but it was certainly doable...I'm finding college to be harder, because I have to make all new friends, and be social 24-7. Do you feel its harder or easier than high school?

I found college easier in that respect too. One thing that helped was in college, there isn't as much forced socialization as there is in high school, you are free to socialize as much or as little as you want.

I sure as hell don't have to be social 24/7... All I need is to report to classes (which is minimal socialization that is already about the topic of the lecture), get my food (again, minimal socialization), and then play video games for the rest of the time I'm not working... Not too much there.

Then again, I go to a technology university, so everyone here is a nerd as a prerequisite (and the aspie:NT ratio is rather high...) The only non-nerdy people here are the people that were given free tuition by the school to play sports, since otherwise we wouldn't have any sports teams whatsoever...

I didn't go to prom either. In fact, when I refused to participate in a school fundraising project, I was told if I didn't I couldn't go to the prom to which I responded "I'm not going anyway."

Prom isn't just a high school thing. The school I went to for 8th grade had an 8th grade prom. I caught alot of nonsense from everyone, including a couple of teachers and the principal, because I wasn't going to the 8th grade prom. One girl tried to get me to meet her at the prom and be her date, even though it was known she already had a date.

I got picked on in high school too for not going to the prom. My high school also had alot of other school dances as well and I got picked on for not going to them too. In fact, a girl in that school also once tried to get me to meet her at a school dance and be her date even though it was no secret at that school she had a steady boyfriend.

I think it's kind of cool the concept of the anti-prom has started to get popular. For those who don't know, an anti-prom is alternative event to a school prom. In some cases, it may be another dance held independently of the school, or something else altogether. The sentiments behind alot of anti-proms are expressed here, such as outrageous costs and excesses, the fact they do nothing more than put the popular kids, jocks, etc, on a higher artificial pedastal than they are already on, how they just don't represent what the mainstream student population wants, or to provide an event where the disenfranchised students can enjoy themselves, free of harassment. I probably wouldn't have gone to one of those either, but at least some are fighting back.