i graduated high school and i notice that everybody keeps referring to interpersonal hatred as ”high school behaviour” but i think that this lasts forever and you have to actively work against being bullied like for the rest of your life. it happens in the workplace, in college, in nursing homes, on the internet etc. its inescapable. working against being rejected/harmed is as repetitive as bills are for most adults
i feel like we neurodivergents are especially burdened with having to be self aware and think about every social interaction. you have to be self aware if youre ugly and not post certain things and not talk to certain people and not do certain things.
its so exhausting and i barely feel like a human being anymore. so much of my energy goes towards getting smoothly through social interactions. i feel like ive lost contact with myself.
and now with the internet neurotypicals are even more furious about this. they have rules about what to post on tiktok and what to post on instagram and how to respond to comments and what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do what to do. the internet used to be a place where i could talk to people without social rules i didnt understand but now both here and IRL you have to deal with endless social rules that you get no relief from ever.
“High School” Interpersonal behaviour tends to happen after high school, it manifests in many ways long after you’ve left and it can include neurodivergent and neurotypicals. It’s not exclusive unfortunately.
There’s still a tendency with people to form groups and operate in a cliquey fashion which is pretty prevalent in society. If you don’t fit into specific groups you can be ostracised for any number of things. It’s not really any specific reason, could even just be how you talk or how you exist. A lot of this can go unsaid, you can be oblivious to it happening too. It’s not always clear what is happening in these situations. Unless you get someone who likes to bully people after they left school and then it can be more obvious. Sometimes it’s not even malicious with this stuff either, they just don’t like you.
Personally I give off an aura that people don’t want to fuck with. so mostly people will do this kind of interpersonal bullshit on the sly though a lot of the time because of my cptsd I can tell or read them so it’s not really going unnoticed.
You can be the nicest, most friendly person and still be treated like shit or ostracised, you’re best accepting that’s how people operate and try to find people who accept you and like being around/interacting with you.