Things not affected by ASD

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I'm in the US. Our Social Security System doesn't pay disability for AS either. Too many are high functioning and can hold jobs some of the time.

The standard here in the US for getting it is you have to be unable to be gainfully employed for 12 months. (You can go to ssa.gov if you are interested in the details)

I have severe chronic depression and tried to kill myself. I cannot stand to deal with social welfare systems like housing, food, etc. Self committed 5 times, and not able to work at all. I lived in a tent in the woods for a year. The only reason I got help getting Social Security is the hospital I kept going to wanted to get paid, so they had somebody get the Social Security for me. That pays my medical bills, and $785 a month.

So, if you don't cause yourself more harm; be a major pain in the ass to the system. Cost them money. LOL LOL LOL I did not consciously plan to do that, but that is what happened. You don't get help here in the USA unless they have your disability well documented for a year. So, go do what you have to do to get noticed and be a financial pain in the ass. Unfortunately, that is how our system works.

You have to get over the penguin thing . I have been an 'outsider' in every job I have had, every group I have belonged too, etc; that self-awareness is how I have survived and indeed in some circumstances thrived (relatively). Until recently I did not know about AS - I thought the rest of the world was out of step with me! What I have spent my life doing is acting as an observer of the strange beings that inhabit this planet; to observe more closely I have learned to don a penguin suit and sneak into the back of gatherings and at least act well enough not to stand out too much. Whilst you may never be accepted by the penguin society for what you are, they (the penguins) do not notice you if do not draw attention to yourself, hence you can be pseudo-penguin if you are willing to play by penguin rules whilst in the penguin world.

If you wish to be an eagle in the penguin world, you better get used to having to fight the good fight. Just like any minority group or individual with a difference (e.g., different cultures, colour (or color), religion, left-handed, sexual orientation, physical or mental disabilities, etc ) the dominant main group (in this case the penguins) will to a greater of lesser degree not accept you because eagles do not fit the genetic profile of a penguin, and whilst you can argue equality for all on a moral or ethical basis, the very process of evolution is the most overriding force and any group will want to 'regress to the mean' rather than accept outliers unless the outliers offer huge advantages that lead to the production of large numbers of like off-spring (not sure a penguin x eagle will have an evolutionary advantage ).

So depending on where you sit on the AS continuum you have to learn to play the game that the penguins play when you are with them. I have learnt to emphasis my penguin useful strengths and downplay my eagle-like tendencies, hence even if I am not accepted by the broader penguin society my strengths are useful to them, hence they allow me to play (whilst I still watch and record their strange behaviour!).

When I really think about it, it is not unlike the gay society of the 1950-80s when most gay people were in the closet, whilst some of that still exists, by and large that group has forced some changes that allow them to be seen as penguins, may be because of sites like this in a generation Aspies will be seen as penguins too.

Yeah, the job thing is bad. I have to go to work right now at a very part time job. 8-12 per week. I go in from 9 until 2 and I am so depressed when I get home I can't function for 2 days. The people I work for are so nice, the best, but . . . unfortunately they are human. I don't know what it is about human contact but it irritates me and seriously depresses me. The longest I ever held a job was 6 years. I had major bouts of depression. Mostly, I held jobs for 6 months. I have done everything. Everything about me when I have contact with the world screams "reject". So, I isolate. I can't stand the support systems either. Social Workers make me crazy. So, I really really understand your problem. I don't know what the answer is. I wish I had one for me and for you. The "helping" people really have no clue what they are doing either. Off to work and agony. You are not wierd, either. You are just on the "wrong planet."