When I was in middle school?

Because you had Autism, that's why. And your disability (which the other kids and adults could sense, even if they didn't know what it was or why you were acting as you were) made you stand out and turned you into a target for bullying and abuse. I'm not surprised that you experienced HELL growing up and while you were in school. That's what happens to most people with Autism spectrum disorders. It happened to me, too- and I have mild Autism. It's dangerous to be "different" in American public education. Those who are, or who have had that label pinned on them, inevitably become targets for abuse and mistreatment, often with dire and sometimes, fatal consequences.  Although most Autistic people aren't violent by nature, there is a STRONG association between abuse (such as the peer abuse you experienced) and violent events like school shootings and student suicides.

Middle school (which was called junior high when I was growing up in the 1970's and 1980's) has always been a horrible time for most American children. That's because schools and the people who run them seldom if ever make any effort to teach kids NOT to hate on or pick on each other. Instead, they cultivate an atmosphere in which even the most MINOR "differences" are heavily stigmatized. NO ONE ever learns well in a morally bankrupt environment like that, regardless of whether they are disabled or not.

There are simply too many people in American society who view Autism as a threat, and treat those who have it like they were dirt, just because they have a different mindset than those who don't. And that's sad, it really is.

PS: For Silverback: Autism was originally viewed as a type of childhood Schizophrenia, NOT as ADHD or OCD, as you believe. It wasn't until modern research methods, along with modern diagnostics, were developed in the late 20th century that the two conditions were finally identified as separate from each other. It's interesting that the gene or genes which are suspected of causing Autism and those which have been identified as the cause of Schizoaffective disorders are actually very close to each other in the human genome. When we finally understand the chemistry and structure of said genes a little better, there will be some big future advances in treatment and prevention of both Autism and Schizoaffective disorders. But that is a ways off yet.

Because you had the tism

Hopefully this is the answer you’re looking for. The autism spectrum was not readily understood until the last few years. Consequently people with autism, or autism spectrum type conditions were often misdiagnosed as hyperactive attention deficit disorder OCD, or any combination of these symptoms. Many treatments were ineffective, because Dr. simply didn’t know what they were doing until recently. And of course in school children and young adults are the worst at excepting any abnormality from their peers and treat others who are different very poorly. I am sorry you had to go through this difficult time. But autism and the autism spectrum symptoms are better understood now. In fact some of the aspects of it are considered Advantageous. You are not alone. There are plenty of people out there who are misdiagnosed miss treated; there is counseling available and there are support groups for those people who Suffer from this complex syndrome. If you’d like and you are brave enough seek these people out, Or others like yourself and start a dialogue. Talking about it is the best way to realize you are not on your own; there are others just like you. Best of luck.

Yeah...things like this...when kids say they had a rough time as a teen i can not relate.  Tough for me was physics.  I was the most popular guy in school and i was top of the class and an athlete and president on the student body.