anyone else here never had a job?

Post Reply New Topic

im a 36 year old autistic male and ive never worked worked more than 2 weeks. i worked at a small grocery store at 19 years old, i struggled at it and messed everything up, and i quit, I now draw disability, anyone else here had experience like mine and never worked?

I think this is quite common, work means rules and interaction, often rules are not explained and expected to be known, sometimes people can get things wrong and not really know why - work does not like this and can lead to conflict followed by stress and anxiety.

I found explaining to the boss how AS can impact on a person and some of the things that may help - being prewarned of changes, being allowed quiet time when needed,writing down instructions so i can refer back to the notes next time i do the task.

Keep trying but try to find a friendly understanding person at your next place and explain things to them - most people want to help and will.

Best of luck

No, though Again I am Thirteen and probably couldn't get a job if I wanted to.

Hm, I used to work, a long while ago. Had one job after another, never stayed in any one of them very long. Always ended up fired. Too absentminded; I have enough trouble remembering things that happened yesterday, let alone keeping track of really amazingly boring things in a job that's about as mentally engaging as a brick and just as slow.

Now though, I'm 34, and I havent worked in.... er... some baffling amount of time. Gotta be at least 9 years now. It's unlikely that I'll ever have a job again.

Granted, things changed anyway, and that money simply isnt necessary anymore, so I got pretty darned lucky with that. If I was in the sort of situation where I *had* to get & keep a job... I'd definitely be in alot of trouble, that's for sure.

I've never understood how anyone can handle a REAL job, either. All I ever had was part-time, as few hours as possible, as I couldnt handle any more than that. But someone doing full-time hours? I've seriously never understood how anyone could do that without going mad.

I may be in employment now, but it is only part-time, and I have never done full-time work before. I have had the opportunity to work full-time at the place I work, but I took the part-time instead, even though it's less money but gives me more ''me time''.

I sometimes feel like I'm stupid or something, because all my peers work full-time and they seem to have the energy for it, some even work about 10 hours then go out that night with their friends, and then have another long shift the next day. I really don't know how they have the energy for that, because I wouldn't even have the emotional or physical energy to do 8+ hours every single day, without going out of an evening with friends then get up early again for work the next morning.

I often feel depressed, because I'm 26 but I feel like I'm over 40. Surely it can't be AS or ADHD that makes me tired and unable to cope with working full-time at my age? Or maybe it is?

Often minds are so so active with everything that is being processed, and other external stimuli that this will result in real physical exhaustion.

This is in additional to navigate an often confusing world

I work but I'm really curious to know how people with asd get disability.
Do you take a doctor's note that you have asd and can't work to a social worker?
I have no idea how you can get disability for having mental health issues.
Would like to hear your stories.

I haven't worked in a few years but I have had 3 jobs before (not at once). Each of them lasted roughly 9-12 months. Though the ultimate reason for leaving them varied, in each case I was quite burnt out by that point. I couldn't figure out how most people could keep working this much (or in some cases even more) for years on end. I also couldn't understand why it was so difficult for me but I always felt like I needed a significant break (more than just a few days or a week).

On the flip side, I think it's worth mentioning that, when I was allowed to do certain kinds of work, that was well suited to my abilities, I could be very productive.

You call and/or visit your local office. There is some paper work and they will eventually want a lot of documentation about your health condition. In this case more documentation is always better. If you have multiple conditions that are disabling you should document and mention all of them.
Before I applied I was being hospitalized 4+ times a year and one of the doctors recommended it and got the process started. You get some access to health benefits if your claim gets accepted so that's a big part of the reason to apply.

I've never been in paid work more than 2 days, and most i've worked unpaid is 2 months, i don't receive welfare payments and I am entirely supported by my parent who are about to retire and won't be able to pay for my food, rent and utilities. Coming up to 3 years unemployed if you exclude the unpaid work, on one hand I can't succeed on interviews and always given the feedback: presented well, wasn't successful at this time due to amount of applicants having better CV's, more experience and i'm saying my CV is top notch, my personality just doesn't match up.

I'm old enough to get a job now, but there's no job I know of that I would qualify for or be able to perform.