Comments on: Life as a Child on this Strange, Strange Planet

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:22:41 +0000

Hi Cecily, thank you so much for your honest and insightful reply. I am now remembering a time when I was cruel to my brother because I was so hurt and overwhelmed by our parents and by life in general. I apologized to him later on in our lives, wondering whether he even remembered. He said he definitely remembered, so I was glad that we were able to talk it over.

By: Cecily

Cecily — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:58:50 +0000

I can only speak for myself, and the times I inflicted cruelty upon my brothers or upon smaller kids was because I was bullied and manipulated by my smarter NT classmates, and I wanted SOMEONE to feel how I felt. I had no friends in elementary school, I was merely tolerated.
I also hung out with this weird girl who was very anti-male and filled my head with ideas of how girls are better than boys and we should be mean to them… so I acted like a bitch towards my brothers and all the boys in my class because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. I also think I used verbal cruelty to keep the other kids at arm’s length because they totally confused me all the time and left me feeling overwhelmingly ashamed of myself for reasons I could feel but couldn’t cognitively put together.

By: LizzieK8

LizzieK8 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:29:48 +0000

The comments above are explanations but they still don’t make sense, are not logical. I guess a reason is all we’ll ever have.

By: John Dale Lyons

John Dale Lyons — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:20:30 +0000

When I was a kid, I became hysterical because one of my mother’s friends was fired. I thought they meant they set her on fire! Studying literature, especially poetry, has taken me beyond the literal into the richness of language, but I am still too literal in social situations. Sometimes I wonder if there’s intelligent life on this “strange planet.”

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:00:27 +0000

Yea. Never made sense to me either.

By: Stat Mama

Stat Mama — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:33:25 +0000

Power and control. Boys try to achieve it by knocking other kids down. Girls try to achieve it by way of destroying another girl’s emotional well-being. Most NT kids find their place on the hierarchy, and mostly accept it. People on the spectrum are rarely aware of the social hierarchy, much less our position on it. Personally, I think socially constructed hierarchies are ridiculous, petty, and a pathetic waste of time. It results in hen-pecking, bullying, and just plain caveman-like behavior from people that should be civilized.

So, I don’t get it either. And it disturbs me equally as much.

By: Samuel Sandeen

Samuel Sandeen — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:20:04 +0000

It really is quite simple. Many people find pleasure in being more powerful than others and if any of them has succeeded you would have been temporarily powerless. In my opinion it is a variant of sadism.

By: misfit

misfit — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:08:33 +0000

I can really identify with this too. I never understood why someone I have never seen before would go out of their way to be so darn nasty. Me, if I don’t like someone, I just stay away from them, total avoidance. I tell my (quite probably NT) kids to do likewise. If someone did something bad to me, I could maybe understand doing something back. But that’s a reason. Doing mean stuff “just because”… nope, does not compute.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:29:58 +0000

It doesn’t make sense. I’ll never understand it either.