I'd like to add myself to the "school made me miserable" list.
My parents felt that I needed to learn to "toughen up" and deal with the world; but, being exposed to unpleasant things all day just made me more sensitized and intolerant of minor discomforts.
As an adult, I've learned to respect my limits when it comes to emotional and sensory stimuli. Otherwise, my physical and mental health really suffer. Over time, I have found some social and work environments that are mostly comfortable, most of the time. These are my home bases. Now that I have these in place, I find that I am more and more capable of coping with challenges. I feel that the momentum has slowly shifted from downward spiral to upward spiral.
It would have been great to build in that direction from an earlier age!
