I've been dealing with this recently, so I wanted to give my support to those who are dealing with being an "outcast." I can understand where you're coming from, Shadix, and those who also have felt angered and bitter about the way they've been treated. It's true that some are treated much worse than others by the majority of society, especially depending on what region they live in. I remember watching children my own age being bullied for the most shallow of reasons, and no doubt many of those bullies have grown into selfish adults. Some towns are closed-minded to others, some places are full of racist or homophobic people, and if you fit into a minority group that is looked down on, or are different in a way that most people don't like, you're probably not going to enjoy yourself socially as much as mostly everyone else. Sometimes you are just different enough to the point that you can't make any friends, and people avoid you. And the sad thing is, since you're in the minority, everyone will probably put the blame on you. "You're just gay, and gays are weird." "You're super ugly." "I don't want to be around someone who can't even walk right." "You're a loser with no job." "You have no friends, what a loser." "You're an unhappy person, and I don't like unhappy things." You can become defined by your issues, and then you're no longer relateable as a human being. You become some lesser being to most people.

I can understand why you'd be angry for so many people in society not accepting others. But, I think it's right that you need to accept others for who they are before most can really start seeing you as a human yourself. If someone's unnecessarily cruel to you, or tries to put you in that "special" box, call them out on it. Let people know you are a human with normal feelings. Remind them of your own life and hobbies, and even your dreams. Look at the movements that have overcome the shaming of certain groups. Did society as a whole just up and say, "You know, this is wrong. Let's accept them now!" No, that never seems to happen. Instead, acceptance came from those minority groups fighting for acceptance, even against those in that same group who agreed with the rest of society and gave up on themselves. Yes, at first they were rejected. But look at today. Look how many people are accepted, even for "problems" people previously associated with them. If you can understand why people outcast you, you have a chance to change their thinking, or maybe at least show you're a real person.

When there's some good reason you're an "outcast," such as being very aggressive and dangerous, or you act in a way that makes people scared, or something something similar, there's still things you could do. When you understand where people's reasoning for rejecting you comes from, you may be able to change your behavior, or at least feel some solace to know it's not because of who you really are.

For better or worse, when people tell me that I need to act like an adult for feeling a certain way, like when ~Christina said to act like an adult and get over it, it can make me feel like they are part of the group who has shoved me into a small box hidden under a desk, metaphorically. But they aren't trying to do that. They see you in their own shoes, and how they themselves acted to get out of similar situations. However, how do we know that others understand what we do experience? How do we know what they've experienced? If advice seems reasonable enough for a try, and not dangerous of course, than it's worth it, even if the person had it much easier, or much harder, than us.

Are we actually rejected much more often then the average person, like the little kid with funny glasses and a limp in a crowd of school children, or the adult man who's "terribly ugly," or the person with asperger's syndrome who acts strangely? Or are we just not getting out enough and need to spend more time in public?

I think like all problems, you start at the most likely sources of the problem, and then work your way down to the less likely causes, like a mechanic would.

I wondered what was wrong with me because people seemed to treat me so differently than everyone else. So, I started at the most likely problems. Maybe I did something stupid in public I was unaware of, or maybe I just needed to talk more to people.

However, dealing with people more often, that didn't solve my problem yet, so I think it comes from two sources now: my own paranoia, and that I don't "think" like most people, for better or worse.

I wish you luck, Shadix, and everyone else with this problem. I can understand how wrong it is for so many "normal," accepted people, to treat you like you're not worth anything as a human. And it makes you think society is in the wrong for making you feel guilty for not fitting in. "You must be doing something to make people angry." "You're not worth the time to feel sorry for yourself." In the end, selflessness is always your own choice, and it can make you feel angry for people to force you to be that way, as though for their own benefit, or to satisfy their own bitterness. But I think in the end, they just don't understand you, which can be a relief to know. But I really do think accepting the way they are, the insecurities they themselves may have, and their own feelings they need to protect, might help make sense out of their actions. Plus, when your own happiness takes priority, being positive and accepting can come naturally.