Do You Ever Feel You're Not Part of Society?

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CRACK
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17 Feb 2006, 6:16 pm

I feel like I am "not really" a part of the human race, but was invited into human society anyways, and reluctantly accepted the invitation. Partly out of not knowing where else to go. Yeah, thats how I feel



Johnnie
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17 Feb 2006, 7:22 pm

professinal sports & hollywood is of no interest to me.

It further puts me out of the conversation in any social situation. I haven't a clue what people are babbling about when they go on and on about their hero's on the TV or big screen.

I watch some movies on TV and listen to music,but could care less about the people personal lives that are involved in the production of the stuff.

Going to the movies or a ball park or to a concert isn't my thing at all. Why pay to be unconfortable :?:



Cyberpunkwriter
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17 Feb 2006, 7:27 pm

Quote:
Going to the movies or a ball park or to a concert isn't my thing at all. Why pay to be unconfortable


Totally agree with you there, johnnie (Spelling?)

I am not into celebrities - sport, movie, otherwise either, and that does make it awkward sometimes.

I got some truly odd looks when I went out Superbowl sunday because I did not know it was being played, did not know who was playing, and defininately did not know the score.

{sigh}


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Kiss_my_AS
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17 Feb 2006, 7:32 pm

I'd rather say that I have my own special role in society.



Sophist
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18 Feb 2006, 12:26 pm

I have never really felt part of any society, though I know in reality I am. Not even the autistic community. I usually feel like there's me... and then there's the rest of the world. The closest I feel is on the periphery looking in.

I used to have dreams of being part of the Rat Pack, hehe. I used to day dream about the idea of being part of a group of good friends, just joking around and having a good time. It was a nice day dream. But I've never felt it irl.


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CockneyRebel
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19 Feb 2006, 9:01 am

I wouldn't say that I don't feel that I'm not a part of North American Society. However I would say that I add a bit of Piccadilly Circus to North American Society. I'd feel more like I was a part of Society, if I was living in England, for sure.



LowShoe
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19 Feb 2006, 12:22 pm

The personal/societal dynamics discussed in my college classes, and the literary themes to which NeantHumain alluded, are beyond the experiential reference of many other students too; point of studying them being to encourage expansion of one's viewpoint. I too felt light-years behind other students sometimes in understanding, and performed miserably in some classes... reducing my participation to rote memory & regurgitation.

I think it may take considerably longer to do the same things others are: Clarifying identity and aspirations, and developing enough rudimentary theory-of-mind to comprehend things similarly to others. In time it becomes easier.



Klytus
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20 Feb 2006, 11:19 am

NeantHumain wrote:
Alone, friendless, single, I feel I don't belong as a part of society sometimes. The day-to-day happenings of life, the things that people value and aspire to, all seem out there, beyond my reach. In sociology class, the professor lectured about how people define their identity by doing or not doing certain things, the ways they can retain an identity despite doing certain things, etc. In literature classes, "universal" themes are discussed. It all seems so alien to me, something I'm not a part of. I've never or hardly ever experienced the social interactions these "universal" strivings are built upon. It's not that I don't want to, but I haven't had the opportunity.

It feeds such an indifference, complete apathy.


I don't feel part of society either. I am reminded of it in each new place I visit: each new city, each new workplace. I don't see different regional attitudes or different corporate cultures or any of that; first and foremost I see neurotypical society with me on the outside. I should be used to it by now. But I am still often taken aback by how similar people are from place to place.

I sit on the train and hear people chatting about their social circle, and about who's going out with whom, and how so-and-so is settling down, and all the rest of it. And I realise that I've never had a social circle, and that there is no one out there who spends their time discussing me, and there is no one out there with whom I spend time discussing other people.
In fact, I am barely able to get beyond the "hello" stage with anyone. In contrast, friends, relationships, "normal life" just seem to happen for other people quite naturally.

I see literature critics on the TV discussing "universal themes". I sometimes get the impression that these people would view someone like me with horror if they knew how little these themes meant to me.
People can write books about kings or about paupers, and these universal themes would still apply. But it seems that if anyone writes a book about an autistic person (Mark Haddon for example, regardless of how well his book was written) its main purpose is to allow people to read it and think, "how sad. Thank God I'm not like that!"



PrisonerSix
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20 Feb 2006, 12:23 pm

mikibacsi1124 wrote:
Definitely. I spend most of my days being by myself doing my own thing, and when I'm doing something with people (such as attending a class or even "hanging out"), I almost always feel somehow detached. It's not that I don't care, or that I want to feel detached. I just do.


You've described my feelings perfecly. I used to spend most of my days alone with my own thing and even when I'd do things with others, I always felt like I was not really there. I don't like feeling detached like that, but I do.

Even though I'm married now, I still have those feelings alot. I don't know what to attribute it to. I used to attribute it to my somewhat isolated upbringing, but the rest of my siblings aren't like I am, so I wonder it's something else, like AS. Knowing others who have AS feel that way is something else that tells me I really am different.

I always identified with the song "Alien" by Atlanta Rhythm Section, "A stranger out of place, a number not a face, all day along, all alone. He's feelin like an alien, feeling like he don't belong, have mercy cried the alien, help him find his way back home."

I've posted the lyrics here before if you search they should come up.


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aspiegirl2
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20 Feb 2006, 12:55 pm

I feel sort of detached in society. Sometimes when I'm hanging out with a group of friends, I have slight feeling that I may be a part of society, even if it's a quiet part in it, but then that feeling is sometimes replaced with a feeling that I'm not truly part of society. I sometimes have a detached feeling, that I'll always have to live "alone". Luckily I found God, because I have a hope of Heaven, which will be awesome because there I definitely will be a part of that society. But then while on earth I still don't like that feeling of not being a part of some things, because it also brings along a feeling of sadness, and sometimes even hopelessness, at least to me it does. I mean, there are times that I feel detached in certain groups, but then there are a few groups that I actually do feel a part of (although sometimes even in those places I still have that feeling of aloneness), and those few groups of WrongPlanet, my family, and my school's band program make me feel at home, and it makes me feel like I belong even with those feelings of being alone. I'm not saying that I'm completely detached from society, but that I'm just different to most groups, and I think that maybe we have our own society that we fit into, and that lots of the time it takes time to find a single group that you at least seem to feel a part of. I think for me this feeling of detachement is a mixed feeling, or that I feel it, but then in certain places I don't feel it quite as often, or maybe it's just that I'm confused as to which feeling of detachment you guys are talking about.


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