Originally Posted by innerspaceboy

I was struggling with depression from age 14-18, so my parents dropped me off at an institution and I spent the last 5 years of my adolescence living in hospitals. The most regrettable element (pure cultural isolation aside), was that patients of all ages were huddled together in one room for schooling and the teaching volunteer "taught down" to the slowest student in the room. Still, I managed to graduate valedictorian of my district (having self-taught my way through high school), which was honestly preferable to the nightmare it would have been to attend it in real time.

I like to think that I'm stronger for it. But indeed - I've much culture to catch up on.