I read your post and can empathise. I had a job which I held for ten years. I got my first write up at about ten years in because I accidentally shut down a machine the wrong way-- though it was the way I always did it. To this day, I do not know what happened. I was blamed. I was punished by being laid off for a while. This caused me to get behind on my bills. I was already way behind because of a broken leg and inadiquate insurance. I was finally fired because I got a really great raise and a coworker made a public scene.
The job was okay. It happened at night and all I did was monitor a few machines and do some more incidental paperwork.
I lost the job and within 3 months the economy collapsed. The bank refused to help me make my payments and I go a letter saying they were taking my house. I was jobless and homeless and found someone who agreed to allow me and my 2 dogs and 2 cats to live in his basement.
In that time, I started and lost about 7 jobs. It was horrible. I was constantly taking jobs out of desparation that just did not work for someone with aspergers. My landlord was also taking nearly half of my meager income. It ended up that he had cancer, and I spent a lot of time caring for him, and then, he got to the point where he was falling down a lot and losing consiousness, and I just stopped working. I realized that I actually did like keeping old dying people company.
He died. I was homeless again. I was allowed to live at one of his friends house for a few weeks. A job I thought I had did not materialize. I gave the poor cats away. One of my dogs went to a friend, the other went to a kennel. It cost me more than I made.
In desparation, I called my brother who always said under no conditions could I ever ever live in his house. Everyone in my family hated me because of the mood swings, the tantrums, the shutting down. I drove down there with the last of my money. 80 dollars. I got there totally broke. Like your sister, my brother does not believe in aspergers syndrome, even though he exhibits a lot of sighns and has tourettes syndrome big time.
I ended up sleeping on my brothers couch. I am in my second year of couch living. I have become a part time substitute teacher, due to mycollege education. I only sub for he younger kids. I love doing it. Kids are great to work with. I never get board. I also make some money doing some art and selling at a gallery. Recently I am having very good luck with my artwork.
So, working with kids and doing my art. It could not have worked out if my brother did not help me. I am hoping in a few years to get my own place, pay off my debts and so on.