Living with Neurodivergence

Over the next few months I looked for accomodation in Edinburgh. I wouldn’t have minded staying at home as it was a nice area they had moved to and I knew some people there but it wasn’t worth the arguments between me and my dad. Before I moved my friend from the previous flat messaged me asking me to go for lunch in one of the village pubs as she was going away travelling soon.I went and she said she would pay, then she started talking about how she knew we would always be friends even if we didn’t see each other that often. I thought it was a bit strange as we didn’t see each other that often anyway and didn’t really see the point of mentioning it but I thanked her for lunch and we went out separate ways. The first flat in edinburgh I found was quite central and I had some friends living close but it was only meant to be 3 months initially. The other girl was really quiet and I barely heard anything from her. We did speak occasionally but definitely weren’t the best match for housemates. I knew the rent agreement wouldn’t  be extended. I just made the best of my time there and met up with one of my friends for a swim sometimes as there was a nice pool close by. During this time I made contact with a friend I had met in college. We had been on holiday together to Greece and I seen her on Facebook. I don’t know why I felt the need to reconnect as she had caused me some problems but I felt she might have changed. We met up at a bar for some drinks and food and it was quite nice at first but it became apparent she was still the same, making comments in front of family members and deliberately turning up late and ignoring me in front of other friends. We hada big argument over a social networking site and we both said things we couldn’t come back from. I knew I wouldn’t see her again. The job was going okay. I mostly just worked with the elderly at first as it was a condition of the job that I did 6 months with the elderly before I could do anything more specific, as I wanted to work with younger people in mental health situations as it was relevant to the degree I did but I didn’t mind starting there. I found another flat in town. This one was for 6 months, which was a bit better ( I thought) the flat was nice and the two other girls seemed friendly but it quickly went wrong when one of them started turning on me for no reason. She just started making snide comments and ignoring me when I came in. I didn’t know what I had done wrong. She had an issue with the music I played, and cleaning around the flat, also that the dishes weren’t washed properly and still had marks on them.She even commented that I had woken her stirring my tea really loudly. I don’t know how to quietly stir sugar into a cup of tea but that’s how petty she got. She ended up drawing up a rota which I tried to follow but she still had problems. One day after completing what it was my turn to do I put a massive tick in the box. I found it quite funny at the time but she wasn’t amused. She said I was being “bitchy” which I thought was a bit hypocritical considering. I had written a letter during this time about something separate. It was to the education secretary about some unfair treatment by a teacher in school. I had never done anything like it before but someone said I should when I told them about my experiences. I left it in a pile beside the computer. It wasn’t visible but I’m convinced she seen it as the comments got worse about me living there and the effect it would have on them. I knew what she was and when the landlord asked that I meet him I knew my time was up. I moved out and got a bedsit quite cetrally. It was closer to my work so that was a silver lining at least. It was very basic with a double bed a kitchenette and a separate bathroom. There were about 3 or 4 people living there and I never really had any problems with any of them except for one of them nearly setting his room on fire. I was there a year. I just tried to make the best of a bad situation. It was closer to work and very central if I wanted to go out anywhere, which I did occasionally but I didn’t see many friends during this time. I also had a problem with one of my sides and I kept noticing it while walking to work or at work while doing certain things that involved any stretching. I went to the doctors and they referred me to physiotherapy. I seen someone at the hospital a few times and they gave me some exercises to do every day, things like standing with my back against the wall and squatting a bit. I did that one but others were more difficult to do It got a bit better so they must have done something. I just carried on like that until I got a 3 month job overseas working for Camp Anne with adults and children with special needs. I had decided I needed to get away from Edinburgh and Scotland for a while and couldn’t wait to go. Before I went I did some extra work at the hotel that my mum and dad were running outside Edinburgh. I was just doing some kitchen work as I didn’t always have a lot of shifts at the nurse bank. I had met some older people that worked there behind the bar and serving food and I had sometimes went back to theirs for drinks. During the time before I headed for the states I fell out with my dad quite a bit as he was behaving aggressively and throwing things about the kitchen while I was working there and encouraging his junior chef to do the same. I was raging. I told them they couldn’t throw things about. Eventually I just walked out and said I couldn’t work alongside him. The people I had met and worked alongside heard it all. I knew he wasn’t happy about me going to America and had said why couldn’t I wait but I was 27 years old and I wasn’t going to wait to do that kind of thing. I went back into Edinburgh with the extra money I had made and avoided them for a while.