Work Alleviates AS Symptoms

Post Reply New Topic

For those of us who have full time jobs

Does your work help take your mind off your aspergers? I recently had the opportunity to work in a different division of my company. I still work at the convenience store three days a week, but ive taken on a new challenge in the heating oil division, dispatching drivers, scheduling deliveries, answering phones, taking payments, mailing out invoices and so on.

As it is right now, i have saturdays and mondays off, and i generally work 9 hours a day (12 if it were up to me). I find on my days off, my mind starts to wander and i start thinking about all the time ive wasted since i graduated in 2005. I get "down" thinking about all the times ive "stuck my foot in my mouth" or said/done something i regret.

Im starting to find that i cant stand days off, at the end of the work day, i dont really want to go home and face the fact that im in my mid 20s and still living with my mother. In my personal life i find i lack the motivation to do something new, i prefer the status quo. At work its a whole different world, i constantly want to take on something new, in fact out of 14 stores with 6-8 clerks each, the district manager specifically chose me to help out in the heating oil division because of my drive and work ethic. I feel like my AS just plain isnt there when im working.

So my question to the community is this:

Has work become my special interest?
or
Can being "busy minded" push AS traits aside?

I don't have a full-time job, but i have a few part-time jobs, and yes, i find that having a job to go to--or to look forward to- does alleviate worst of Aspieness. When I was young, I didn't know I had the option, but under current rules, i could probably qualify for disability. My therapist has actually suggested I apply for disability now. However, that's all I would need. i already feel isolated enough, and I have a difficult enough time dragging myself out of bed in the morning. If it weren't for work, i'd stay in the house 24/7 and feel sorry for myself. The people you work with might not fully accept you and might not want to be buddies, but they will usually say hello, and how are you? and discuss work issues with you. If you 'll listen to their boring stories about their perfect children and understanding partners and their mortgages and vacations, they might return the favor at those times that you really need someone to talk to--like after my Mom passed away -- they offered me a shoulder to cry on.
Therefore, i would say, yes, work, some kind of work, outside the home is good as it ameliorates Aspie feelings of social isolation and consequent depression and anxiety.

School and Work kept me in flow, structured, organized, moving ahead, always moving ahead. I was often lost on the weekends, but my wife to guided me around stores, etc. It was if my mind shut down. I could hardly pay attention to writing a check at the grocery store. Work and school were the places I had laser focus. I was also obssessed with exercise; this enhanced focus and motivation for me.

I had to stop working because of health issues. Ever since, I have felt lost, trying to get back a routine that I cannot establish the way it was established for me by school and work.

Work and school were my major special interests to the exclusion of almost everything else in my life. When relatives asked what have you been doing, I looked for a different answer, but all I could come up with is "working, working". I'm bad about repeating words, but saying this twice made it seem like I was doing more than one thing.

Additionally, my social connections were limited to work, and completely lost after I left work. When the routing was gone; it was like most of my life disappeared. I quickly lost the ability I had through years of connection, to connect to others.

I recently read a scientific article that stated Autistic people have a problem with self that is hardwired in the brain. Kind of a difficulty in separating themselves from the world around them.

Everyone needs a purpose in life and the ability to stay active and busy, but I think it is extremely important for people with Autism to stay busy with a special interest of somekind. Work is a great motivator becauses it challenges the comfort zone and can make it broader at times.

I don't feel like that's quite the way to describe it for me. Although, even though I have fewer people around me than ever before, I don't feel any social isolation. I just don't care. I even get irritated when I'm asked to work on-site, because I feel so much less productive with people around making noise and interrupting me.

However, work does keep me focused. If I don't have things that I absolutely have to do, I have a hard time doing them. I have a million things I really want to do, but I can't manage to do them. But work, I have no trouble with that. I can focus on that to the point where nothing else exists. What I do was always a special interest of mine though, which is why I don't see it as alleviating my symptoms so much as giving them a productive outlet.

Having to polish countless amounts of parts that the machinists screwed up would put me in a near dream state from doing the same action again and again for hours at a time. I would be disapointed when I finished the stack of parts bringing my day dreaming to an end. But all things come to an end the company went from the manufacturing of aluminum to titanium parts so there were no more parts for me to polish so they booted me in the ass and away I went.

Having to work around my co-workers however would drive me insane having to be around them.