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The Life of Leviathan – Depression, Bullying, Fatigue and Other Obstacles

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Original post by Leviathan1741
Aww thank you! :hugs:

Would you like me to tag you in the next one? :smile:


You're welcome :hugs:

Yes please! :bigsmile:
Original post by thefatone
Yes pls i'll read these to increase my hedon's slightly


Haha okay!
Asperger’s Syndrome (part 2)

Hi everyone! This post will discuss a few more aspects of Asperger’s syndrome. There are many more in addition to the ones I’ve written about in these blog posts, but if I tried to describe them all we’d be here forever, so I’ll just cover some more of the main ones!

One fairly major characteristic of Asperger’s syndrome is an intense love for, and/or interest in, a certain topic, for example, dinosaurs, cars, insects and so on. Aspies tend to know a lot about these topics, and they are known in the world of Asperger’s as ‘specialist subjects’. The length of time for which the interest is held varies widely, but they often last for several years, until a new specialist subject is found. Aspies may also have ‘fascinations’, which are things which they find interesting, but don’t necessarily know much about. ‘Compulsions’ are rituals which some Aspies like to carry out, for example switching a light on and off three times exactly before entering or leaving a room. Compulsions are so called because they are very controlling, and Aspies may become very agitated or upset if they aren’t able to carry out whatever ritual(s) they have.

I have had a couple of specialist subjects over the years. The main interest I have is in ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. It started when my mum allowed me to watch an episode of Most Haunted with her when I was around 9 or 10 years old. It frightened me at the time, but I also found it really interesting! I have done a lot of research into the paranormal since then, and have accumulated many books on the subject. I even did one of my GCSE English public speaking assessments on ghosts, and almost got full marks for it, which I was really pleased about :biggrin:

Another common characteristic of Asperger’s is difficulty understanding features such as metaphors, similes, idioms and other similar things. In short, Aspies tend to take things literally, and this naturally causes problems, especially when these kinds of features come up in conversation! Because difficulty understanding these figures of speech is so common in people with Asperger’s, a conversational style called ‘Aspergerese’ has been devised, for use by people without AS when talking to a person with Asperger’s. Aspergerese basically involves speaking without using figures of speech which Aspies often find confusing, and taking small pauses in between sentences to that the Aspie has time to take in what the other person has just said, as we tend to process information more slowly than non-AS people.

The final aspect of AS that I’d like to mention is problems with movement. People with AS tend to be physically clumsy, and walk in a slightly different way to other people. This clumsiness means that most, if not all Aspies, struggle immensely with activities such as playing sports, where actions like running, throwing and catching feature a lot. I definitely found sports difficult in school, but I will talk more about that particular nightmare in a later post!

So that pretty much concludes my posts on Asperger’s syndrome, I hope you found them insightful and now have a better understanding of what AS is! I think everyone should know at least a little bit about disorders such as Asperger’s, because even a basic understanding can make interaction with people with AS much easier for both the AS and non-AS (‘neurotypical’) person!

My next post will be about the relationship I’ve found between having Asperger’s and being bullied, and after that I will talk about my actual bullying experiences, to give it some context.

Thank you all for reading, I hope you all continue to read and enjoy my blog! Please let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like me to talk about too! :h:

Spoiler

Original post by Leviathan1741
Asperger’s Syndrome (part 2)


Another educating and insightful read! :h: I like your blog. :tongue:
What other specialist subjects have you had over the years?
Original post by aamirac
Another educating and insightful read! :h: I like your blog. :tongue:
What other specialist subjects have you had over the years?


Thank you!! :biggrin:

Other subjects I like are geology (I'm going to do a geology degree!) and the meanings of names. I have three name dictionaries :colondollar:
HEY!! I couldn't sleep! I'm too happy so I'm savouring the moment atm!! So nice!!
Great read! Defo helped me understand your condition a lot more!
Kinda similar to OCD in some respects!
I've got a specialist subject too! You can probably guess what it is haha!
But I understand the light switch compulsion thing! It's so irritating when you can't do it I agree!
I've got a few of those!!
Well done on you're GCSE public speaking assignment!!! Bet you were well happy with that!!

The speech things must get irritating at times? I think people need to be more understanding of people who experience this! Because I know people who would get pissed off with speaking to someone who has trouble with understanding certain things! I most certainly do not! I'm understanding and believe that you deserve to be treated with respect from everyone! You're no different from me or anyone else!!!

I remember you mentioning about how you hated sports at school!
But it must be relieving to know that you're never gonna have to do that again!!!?

After reading this, my understanding of AS is greatly improved! Thankyou for posting and tagging me too!!!
Original post by FireFreezer77
HEY!! I couldn't sleep! I'm too happy so I'm savouring the moment atm!! So nice!!
Great read! Defo helped me understand your condition a lot more!
Kinda similar to OCD in some respects!
I've got a specialist subject too! You can probably guess what it is haha!
But I understand the light switch compulsion thing! It's so irritating when you can't do it I agree!
I've got a few of those!!
Well done on you're GCSE public speaking assignment!!! Bet you were well happy with that!!

The speech things must get irritating at times? I think people need to be more understanding of people who experience this! Because I know people who would get pissed off with speaking to someone who has trouble with understanding certain things! I most certainly do not! I'm understanding and believe that you deserve to be treated with respect from everyone! You're no different from me or anyone else!!!

I remember you mentioning about how you hated sports at school!
But it must be relieving to know that you're never gonna have to do that again!!!?

After reading this, my understanding of AS is greatly improved! Thankyou for posting and tagging me too!!!


Thank you!! :hugs:

I'm glad it's helped you to understand AS better! I feel that it's not talked about as much as it should be, even a lot of teachers don't understand it, which makes things difficult sometimes.

Yep, I think I know what your specialist subject is :tongue:

The figures of speech can be a little tricky, but often I don't have too much trouble understanding them because my mum uses them a fair bit, and I usually ask if I don't. I actually quite like reading about them, their origins and meanings can be quite interesting!

Yeah! I was soo relieved and happy when I had my last ever PE lesson! I remember that we had to play a game called benchball, and we had 2 teams: me and my un-sporty friends, and the sporty girls that the PE teachers loved. My friends and I tried extra hard during that lesson, and we actually beat the sporty girls in every game! They were so mad :biggrin:
Original post by Leviathan1741
Thank you!! :hugs:

I'm glad it's helped you to understand AS better! I feel that it's not talked about as much as it should be, even a lot of teachers don't understand it, which makes things difficult sometimes.

Yep, I think I know what your specialist subject is :tongue:

The figures of speech can be a little tricky, but often I don't have too much trouble understanding them because my mum uses them a fair bit, and I usually ask if I don't. I actually quite like reading about them, their origins and meanings can be quite interesting!

Yeah! I was soo relieved and happy when I had my last ever PE lesson! I remember that we had to play a game called benchball, and we had 2 teams: me and my un-sporty friends, and the sporty girls that the PE teachers loved. My friends and I tried extra hard during that lesson, and we actually beat the sporty girls in every game! They were so mad :biggrin:


No worries!! :hugs:

I agree! It's defo not talked about enough! We need to spread awareness for it!!
The teachers really should understand it though! That's quite bad actually!

Haha! :tongue: Thought you might! :tongue:

Ah that's good then! It's good that it's not too much of an issue!
And it's good that you ask rather than not understanding!! That's very good!
Ah ok then! I've not really looked at that before so I'm new to all this really! But it does sound interesting!

I can imagine tbh!
I hate how the PE teachers love all the sporty kids! So frustrating!!
Ah nice one!! I bet that felt good!! They're just sore losers if they were mad!
I'm glad you won!! You deserve to win!!!

I'll text you in a minute when I get out of bed! Ok!?
Original post by FireFreezer77
No worries!! :hugs:

I agree! It's defo not talked about enough! We need to spread awareness for it!!
The teachers really should understand it though! That's quite bad actually!

Haha! :tongue: Thought you might! :tongue:

Ah that's good then! It's good that it's not too much of an issue!
And it's good that you ask rather than not understanding!! That's very good!
Ah ok then! I've not really looked at that before so I'm new to all this really! But it does sound interesting!

I can imagine tbh!
I hate how the PE teachers love all the sporty kids! So frustrating!!
Ah nice one!! I bet that felt good!! They're just sore losers if they were mad!
I'm glad you won!! You deserve to win!!!

I'll text you in a minute when I get out of bed! Ok!?


Thanks! Okay! :h:
Bullying and Asperger’s Syndrome

Hello all! In this post I’d like to talk a little about the relationship between bullying and Asperger’s syndrome in general, before I go into detail about my own experiences of bullying in the next post or two.

Many (but not all) people with Asperger’s much prefer to be alone rather than with people. This can be due to a number of factors, but it is mainly because of difficulty with social interaction, and subsequent difficulty with making and keeping friends, and so on. Because of these difficulties, many Aspies choose to be, or simply end up, alone, and often try to isolate themselves, especially when in social environments such as classrooms. This tendency to be alone and the fact that Aspies often have few or even no friends, along with a generally quiet and reserved nature, makes people with Asperger’s prime targets for being bullied.

For Aspies and others on the autistic spectrum, being bullied is often more difficult than it is for neurotypicals. Firstly, a lack of friends often means that Aspies have no-one to ‘stick up’ for them or help them to speak up about it, so they often have to face the bullying alone. Difficulty understanding tone of voice and body language, and therefore difficulty differentiating between friendly teasing and actual nastiness, can also make matters worse because Aspies may not always recognise that they are being bullied at all, until it’s too late and things have begun to escalate.

In my next post, I will talk about my personal experiences with bullying, and how I feel my AS has impacted on them.

I promise that many of my posts in future will be much more personal to me, and not just informative like these ones on AS. I realise that just reading lots of information like this may be a little boring, but I hope I'm doing a somewhat decent job of making things at least a little bit interesting! :colondollar:

As always, thank you all for reading! :h:

Spoiler

Original post by Leviathan1741
Bullying and Asperger’s Syndrome

Hello all! In this post I’d like to talk a little about the relationship between bullying and Asperger’s syndrome in general, before I go into detail about my own experiences of bullying in the next post or two.

Many (but not all) people with Asperger’s much prefer to be alone rather than with people. This can be due to a number of factors, but it is mainly because of difficulty with social interaction, and subsequent difficulty with making and keeping friends, and so on. Because of these difficulties, many Aspies choose to be, or simply end up, alone, and often try to isolate themselves, especially when in social environments such as classrooms. This tendency to be alone and the fact that Aspies often have few or even no friends, along with a generally quiet and reserved nature, makes people with Asperger’s prime targets for being bullied.

For Aspies and others on the autistic spectrum, being bullied is often more difficult than it is for neurotypicals. Firstly, a lack of friends often means that Aspies have no-one to ‘stick up’ for them or help them to speak up about it, so they often have to face the bullying alone. Difficulty understanding tone of voice and body language, and therefore difficulty differentiating between friendly teasing and actual nastiness, can also make matters worse because Aspies may not always recognise that they are being bullied at all, until it’s too late and things have begun to escalate.

In my next post, I will talk about my personal experiences with bullying, and how I feel my AS has impacted on them.

I promise that many of my posts in future will be much more personal to me, and not just informative like these ones on AS. I realise that just reading lots of information like this may be a little boring, but I hope I'm doing a somewhat decent job of making things at least a little bit interesting! :colondollar:

As always, thank you all for reading! :h:

Spoiler



Very good read!!!
I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through the bullying alone!!
You've got everyone on TSR now who will stick up for you!!!
If only I was there at that time! I was rather crazy at the end of high school. I would've tried my very hardest to help you and make those mother****ers apologize and leave you alone!!!
But please don't stop the blog!!!
Great read!!! :hugs:
Original post by FireFreezer77
Very good read!!!
I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through the bullying alone!!
You've got everyone on TSR now who will stick up for you!!!
If only I was there at that time! I was rather crazy at the end of high school. I would've tried my very hardest to help you and make those mother****ers apologize and leave you alone!!!
But please don't stop the blog!!!
Great read!!! :hugs:


Thank you sweetie! :hugs:
I've decided that I'm going to continue the blog, the next post is going up tomorrow! :yep:
My Experiences of Bullying in High School

Hey guys! In this post, I’d like to go into more detail on my own personal experiences of bullying. If you read FireFreezer77’s blog, then you may have read a lot of this already in my guest post. However, I have added a bit more detail to this version, specifically on how I believe my Asperger’s contributed to me being bullied, to give my previous post a bit of context.

The first type of bullying that I experienced in high school was bullying via intimidation, rather than verbal or physical harassment. There was a group of girls in the year above me, who, for whatever reason, would hang out in the girl’s toilets, so that I’d often encounter them whenever I went in there. Being a very shy and reserved student, I made for an easy target, and the girls would regularly make me uncomfortable in different ways, for example by giving me disgusted looks whenever they saw me, sitting on the floor and then making rude comments when I stepped over them, and deliberately putting their bags on the sinks, then whispering to each other when I asked them to move them. On one occasion they even went so far as to put soap all over the handle of the door to the toilets, so that when I went to leave, I got soap all over my hands, which I couldn't wash off because by that time, the girls had moved and were sitting in the way on top of the sinks!

The other type of bullying I experienced during high school was more verbal, but this time it was certain classmates who were responsible. Because I was so shy, I rarely spoke in lessons, and would generally only speak if I was directly asked a question by my teachers. My classmates knew I was quiet, but some of them decided to take advantage of that fact. They would often try to annoy me by taking my pens or books and not giving them back until I spoke or said a certain phrase (which was often rude!), and asked me questions like “Do you EVER talk?” and “What’s the matter? How come you never say anything?” It was this aspect of their bullying which irritated and upset me most. I thought, why can’t they just leave me alone? Why do they care if I don’t talk?

The way I dealt with them was by asking my teachers if I could move seats, so that I no longer had to sit near them. This worked in the majority of my classes, but there were still a couple of people who just wouldn’t stop picking on me. I didn’t think there was a whole lot more I could do, I didn’t want to risk making things worse by making a big fuss. In the end, I simply decided to ignore their teasing and deprive them of the reaction that they wanted.

I think that my Asperger’s was one of the factors which led to me being picked on, mainly because it meant that I was extremely shy and reserved. I didn’t have many friends either, which meant that I was often on my own a lot of the time, and spent many hours wandering the corridors by myself and sitting down to eat my lunch alone. Additionally, I had very little confidence during high school, so I was reluctant to speak up about what was going on for fear that I wouldn’t be taken seriously.

Of course though, bullying doesn’t just affect people with AS, but people with other conditions too, and even neurotypical people can find themselves being picked on, especially if they are quiet! If you’re currently experiencing bullying, then please remember that you’re not alone, even if it seems like no one else is suffering the same ill treatment. Make sure to tell your parents or whoever is looking after you so that they are aware of it, and try to get in touch with someone such as your head of year, and inform them of what is going on. You don’t have to suffer in silence, so don’t be afraid to say something, no matter how insignificant or unsolvable your problems may seem!

That’s all on Asperger’s syndrome and bullying for now, if I think of anything else I’d like to say, then I shall add it into a later post. Next, I’m planning to talk about my struggles with anxiety, specifically anxiety related to going out in public, to busy and/or noisy environments, and how I have managed to overcome my fears!

Thanks for reading! :h:

Spoiler

Hi I love this thread i have autism i was diagnosed a year and a hakf ago after a 7 year battle when i was in year 10
Original post by Elleee1234
Hi I love this thread i have autism i was diagnosed a year and a hakf ago after a 7 year battle when i was in year 10


Hi Elleee, I'm so glad to hear you're enjoying my blog! Would you like me to tag you for future posts? :smile:
Original post by Leviathan1741
Hi Elleee, I'm so glad to hear you're enjoying my blog! Would you like me to tag you for future posts? :smile:


please i would love to find others on TSR to talk about Asd as i havent told my friends as im not ready but school know and they support me
Original post by Elleee1234
please i would love to find others on TSR to talk about Asd as i havent told my friends as im not ready but school know and they support me


Okay then! That's understandable, it took me a while before I felt ready to tell my friends too :smile:
Original post by Leviathan1741
Okay then! That's understandable, it took me a while before I felt ready to tell my friends too :smile:


pm i'd love to talk to you more i feel like i should tell them because we leave soon :smile: year 11 is coming to a end
Original post by Elleee1234
pm i'd love to talk to you more i feel like i should tell them because we leave soon :smile: year 11 is coming to a end


Will do! :h:
@Leviathan1741
I've seen this before haha!
But I like the additions to it!
I can relate to wondering around on my own! On a Monday all my friends would go off and play football (I hate football with a passion) so I was left in my own.
I'd just sit in my form room and eat lunch on my own!
It's sooooo annoying that quiet people are always bullied! We are mysterious creatures and can be extremely interesting!
But very good read!!!!

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