What does the job centre lady mean?

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this lady said too me at the job centre "i would recommend you do this job skills training course at a residental college for people with health issues"

What does she mean by health issues?

I think she means autism/AS, if that's what you have. She probably thinks autism/AS = a health issue.

Why would people think its a health issue? i know some successful people with aspergers

Because your neurological makeup is considered to be part of your overall health. Health issues is probably a catchall term to cover anything that a person would see a doctor about, whether it's for a dx or for treatment.

More specifically it's a Mental Health issue. Depending on how she said it, she may have been being rude, but more likely she was just being matter of fact and using "approved," language to maintain some level of professionalism and political correctness.

Maybe she assumes you're lower functioning than you are & the course will be a waste of your time. Maybe not and it could turn out to be the best thing you ever do in terms of honing your job acquisition skills. She may actually know what she's talking about and could be directing you towards an excellent opportunity to do some highly valuable learning.

Even if the content of the course is stuff you already know, there could be value in just doing it for the social interaction practice - listening, learning, asking the right questions, picking up on body language and facial expressions, having proper conversations - which would all help out in a job search or interview situation, anyways. If you go into it with a positive mindset that you're at least going to get these things out of it, then no matter what it'll be worth doing.

Society can't tolerate difference

Many people can and do tolerate differences.

We also have to make an effort to try to fit in. Our struggles are so similar to new immigrants who don't speak the language or know the culture.. yet they've got to just try their best to fit in and find employment in a new economy, because if they don't they won't be able to eat. Sure, it can be difficult and stressful to fit in.. but we can't expect everyone around us to bend over backwards to accommodate every one of our differences vs. make an effort to try not to be so different from the others around us all the time. Especially when it comes to annoying behaviours or social mistakes. We can't expect to just be given a pass on any and all inappropriate behaviour 100% of the time forever. We should expect more of ourselves, IMO, and make an effort to improve ourselves and our capabilities at all times, and thus should be better and better as we age vs. giving up on ourselves and acting like as*holes and expecting others to just tolerate us being that way. Yeah, life happens and we make mistakes, but so long as we're making an honest effort at continuous improvement then people are much more likely to tolerate the odd mishap here and there.

True but NTs can be hostile towards us as well because of stigma and myths about autism.

Some people cannot even tolerate the smallest difference in a person

That's true of some people, yes, but not everyone. So keep changing jobs until you find one you like with people you can work with. As much as that doesn't make for such a nice looking resume, who cares? If that's what it takes is trial and error to find where you fit in, then keep trying and keep making mistakes and learning from them and moving on.

I am 23 and fustrated about living with my parents becuase i have never had a taste of indpendance

Any advice goldfish?

Yeah, get over yourself & deal with it.

I'm 30 & back living with my parents for a while so that I can my life and finances in order before taking off on my own again. I get frustrated with it from time to time, but by and large I see it as an awesome opportunity to focus on self improvement with as little financial pressure as possible. It definitely has its perks.

Try looking on the positive sides of it vs. the frustrations. If you were thrown into the pool independent life right now, at this moment, would you sink or swim? Chances are you'd drown. Maybe slowly, but I doubt you're in a position to swim just yet. Take the opportunity to work yourself into that position while you're still living at your folks' place with likely far fewer financial obligations and life stresses that most adults have to deal with on a daily basis. Focus on self improvement & consistently persisting towards your goals, then bit by bit things will come together and you'll have your s**t together well enough to peace out of mom & dad's house and swim up river like a spawning salmon. Sitting around and get frustrated by not being who you want to be at this stage in life isn't getting you any closer to it, and in the long run will frustrate your parents a whole heck of a lot more than seeing you make an honest effort at self improvement ever will, even if you make mistakes and come up short or it takes longer than anticipated. Just keep moving forward.

Its defenintly harder in the 21st century for independant living than it was back in the 80's.

would u not agree?

Yes, but mostly due to finances & economics. Costs have soared while wages have not, so it's a lot more challenging to earn enough money to get by (or better yet, thrive.) than it's ever been - however - it's no more or less challenging to anyone else that's here & now. We're on an equal playing field in that sense. We just have the AS things to overcome that most don't, and overcoming AS things isn't any more difficult now than it was for someone with the same problems in the 1980's.

It doesn't matter what she means by health issues. What matters is that she's having a hard time finding a job that would hire you with your current skill set. She thinks you would be more employable if you took this job skills training course. The job skills training course is held at a residential college for people with health issues. What health issues do they have? I have no idea. Possibly she has no idea. What health issues the people at the residential college have does not matter. What matters is that they are offering a job skills training course. Take it and maybe she can find you a job.

The 80s would have been easier for me. Back then I thought the only thing wrong with me was that I had been weird, awkward, and very shy when I was younger. I didn't know that I had problems that supposedly would be almost impossible to learn to work around, and I didn't know that I required special accommodations at work because of issues which I had already learned to put up with. I probably wouldn't have been able to get a job because knowing I probably couldn't do any of that, I wouldn't have tried as hard as I did and there is probably about a 0 chance of me succeeding back then.

In other words, I do believe very much in mind over matter in my case. I think it may work also in other cases of mild AS (I'm assuming mild, nobody ever assessed me as a child) but I also know myself well enough to know that if I know there is a big obstacle in the way of something I want, something that says scientifically I probably cannot do this because of my issues, then my mind will believe that so much it will prevent me from achieving anything.

I was able to work and make a living because I didn't know I had AS, or what AS was or that it even existed.