Who else here underachieved in school and work?

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When I was in school, I could not bear the stress of doing all the homework and attending every class, so I often did not do it and often skipped class. Whenever I tried to force myself, I would begin to panic. In work, after graduating college, I could not bear the process of networking and generally got low-wage jobs. However, jobs like working as a cashier I could not do, as I was very slow in doing them, but I could do call center. Call center is very simple, very scripted, and you tend to have free time in between calls. I would work the late shift and could do it, and it paid somewhat better than the cashier jobs and also came with benefits. I am somewhat successful now in workforce management, which is somewhat less scripted, but perfect for what I'm doing. Nevertheless, I get the sense I am underachieving still, but I wonder if I've always needed to underachieve.

When I was 14, I developed psychosis in which I did some pretty effed up stuff and got hospitalized for 6 months. I wonder if this underachievement in a way has been a sort of self-preservation, as pushing myself too hard for too long might have triggered another psychotic episode.

Some evidence of this would be more short stint in the U.S. Air Force, in which I made it to the 4th week of BMT before being sent to 319 TRS to be processed out (where I stayed for 2 weeks). Toward the end, in retrospect, I started delving deeply into fantasy (kinda like what happened before I became psychotic at 14), thinking I was about to be selected to save the world, or dreaming of going AWOL and joing the Communist Party and overthrowing the government. I hardly functioned at all in BMT and I'm surprised I lasted that long. In the reasons given for separation, they cited problems with social skills, attention, and organizational skills. I wonder if I had managed to fake it till I made it in BMT, would my experience in the Air Force had led to the development of another full-blown psychotic episode, as those fantasies would have again turned into delusions?

I am quite the underachiever. I only go to class in the afternoon and I'm often late for class, skip class or procrastinate in class. I sometimes make myself late on purpose if I know the teacher will be talking a lot. I can't stand when teachers talk a lot. It makes me so sleepy and I hate being sleepy in school. When I'm sleepy I act funny and I really don't want to stand out. I often skip school on days that I'm too tired.

From what you describe, I think you need to be in a position where you underachieve a little, as you can't handle the stress of a higher achievement job. I've noticed that we on the spectrum don't handle stress well. I myself do what I can to avoid it when possible, and yes, I am a lifelong underachiever.

It is not a bad thing to take a slightly lower level position, if the trade-off is less stress. When you pick a job you need to consider a number of different things. Rank is only one of those. There is salary, your ability to perform the job, opportunity for advancement, level of responsibility and your willingness to accept that level, level of stress, dress code, distance from home, benefits, etc. So don't let the rank level of the job be a point of aggravation for you. If the over all situation is good, then that shouldn't be an issue.

I was too scatterbrained to be successful anywhere. the more tedious the task, the sleepier and daydreamier I got. my last job was a coder in a hospital, that was the perfect job for me or would have been were it not for the fact that I had to do at least two other jobs on top of that. I am very thankful I got to escape the rat race.

Me! I did in elementary and middle school and most of high school but I got my act together for grade 11 and my last year , grade 13. I had major depression and temporarily dropped-out in grade 12. Until grade 11, I think the system just kept pushing me through to the next grade because I don't remember doing any homework at all and very little of the assigned school work in class. In elementary school my report cards describe a kid who twirled bits of paper in front of her face and made noise all day and wandered out of the classroom and in the halls often.I spent most of my childhood school days daydreaming, and I mean this literally as in replaying scenes from my favourite novel series in my head and pretending to be one of the characters, living in a fantasy world. How on earth I even graduated fifth grade and later eighth grade is a mystery to me.

As for university and work it varied depending on my mental health (I have episodes of depression), levels of energy and motivation etc. When I try hard, I try really hard though. Usually I'm an all or nothing girl. I either don't try at all or I work my ass off. My four year undergraduate degree took me NINE years but I graduated with really good grades in the end. However, I've had no success at work so far despite my efforts. Too bad I couldn't make a living doing undergraduate level multiple choice exams.

Me.
Am below grade level in most areas.
Can only handle a limited homework load.

Yeah! For an Asian at least.

Sometimes with school I would skip some homework, because I could still get passing grades in most classes if I did but yeah I think much of the time it may have been out of stress like having too much homework and other stuff to deal with...and sometimes I just wasn't able to complete math homework because I am terrible at it and would just get frustrated and headaches trying to complete it. Aside from that I did put my best effort into things but I commonly got lower grades than I expected based on the effort I put in. As for work for the few short jobs I've had in my life(one being college work study which isn't really a real job) I did my best not to underachieve, but I was still too slow, had difficulties initiating tasks like maybe there was something I could be doing but it didn't occur to me so I'd be waiting for something to do and I have trouble remembering verbal instructions and had other issues so to them I was underachieving.

Aye, same here.

In school, I was a terrible student. Couldnt remember homework, couldnt remember stuff learned previously, couldnt remember special project days, couldnt remember.... much of anything. Always a persistent problem with me. Didnt help that I was bullied pretty much nonstop all the way through, exasperated sigh.

It got derpier though. One thing I was really bad at was making it back to my locker to switch out books for the next class, and then actually making it to the class, in the silly FIVE or so minutes they give you to accomplish this. How was I supposed to do that in such a huge building filled with crowds? So I had the brilliant idea of just carrying them all at once, in my backpack that I dragged around.... likely this was the true cause of the back problems I would develop much later.

And then there was gym class, or P.E. to some of you. Oh man, I am NOT the athletic type. I aint the fat type either, being relatively thin, but.... ehhhh. I've always been kinda feminine and my build tends to reflect that. Not very muscular at all. AND, I also hate sports.... always have, always will. Me being the way I am, this led to me absolutely refusing to do certain things. Time to play football? Hah! I'm gonna stand there. Better not try to get the ball to me, or I'm just going to punt the damn thing in a random direction as hard as I can, forcing someone to go get it. Basketball? Hah! I'll just swat the damn thing if it gets too close. Time to do the mile run? Hah! Try the mile slow walk.

Fortunately my teacher that I had pretty much all throughout highschool for gym class was a bright guy who actually, you know, cared, and he caught on to me pretty fast. He had the idea of giving me alternate things to do each time. During any sports, I'd just walk loops around the big track nearby.... no stress or jerks to deal with. The school also had this funky "alternate physical ed" thing that they'd do, which involved certain groups of students actually leaving the school via bus every tuesday and thursday to go hit golf balls down at the local driving range. Golf being the one and only sport that I dont loathe. Heck, I'd actually taken lessons in it.

This also led to something that'd never, ever happen today, because it'd go against like 20 security rules, which is that on those 2 days I'd carry the golf club (we each brought our own) with me throughout school the entire day. Others might not have gotten away with this, but the faculty at the school pretty much all knew me and knew I wasnt going to wallop someone upside the head with it. Back then (I graduated in 2000) there werent shootings at random schools every other damn week, so major security issues werent thought of much.




Ahhhh, and then there's the jobs I had. Good grief, I had so many. So many! I cant remember them all, but I remember being bloody terrible at most of them. Again, couldnt remember most things. Wasnt organized at all. And worst of all, is my warped perception of time.... an hour at one of these hellholes felt like a damn week. That the work was usually utterly mindless didnt help. And unlike many here, I'm not good with forced routine or too much organization. The times I'd do best were the times when things were chaotic (like around Christmas), which is pretty much the norm for me in any situation. And, well.... cashiering and stocking tend to be very, very dull most of the time, so that didnt work so well.

Aint had a job in many years now though, I dont work anymore. Cant say I miss it at all.

School though.... I've had a bit of college since then, and that's not too bad... at least with those you often take the classes you actually CARE about, as opposed to them trying to jam totally useless info about boring topics into your head. Particularly if you're not doing the classes for credit, but are just doing them because you wanna learn something. That, I can do. But anything else..... yeesh, no.

I underachieved, then I went to a school where they taught me better, and got me involved with sports and people.

Everyone agreed (agrees?) I'm a underachiever.

But I didn't care.

At the age of 7, in the 2nd grade, I decided my life was sh__ and my life would always be sh__; that I would NEVER have any friends, or a "life."
I stopped doing home work, I wouldn't read my school books. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY...........I don't know how many times I heard that.

I guess the simple answer was: depression Seems simple now but back then it wasn't recognized.

But I was wrong. I never guessed I'd be a husband or father and need to provide for others. If I had it to do all over again I'd do it differently.

Kinda' makes me wish they'd known something about Asperger's back in the '40s and '50s. Oh, well.

denny

Yes I was a really poor student. Couldn't focus, got overwhelmed - school was a nightmare.

High school is a social game that I wasn't good at. Half of the teachers were bullies which instigated in me an adversarial attitude towards all teachers. The whole thing was a waste of time. I think students who have a similar experience should be pulled out of high school, and enrolled in mature age education as soon as possible.

I did better later as a mature age student.