looking for the right career

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I'm 27 year old woman who has aspergers, depression and anxiety. I have found it hard to hold down jobs. I have done allot of courses and have trained as a chef. I have work in a few kitchens and it is really hard work. I just release chef career is no longer suit to me. The stress and tension of a working kitchen is too much for me and i needed to pick a different career. I don't know what career to choose. I have been thinking of training to become a veterinary nurse. I love all animals. Is this a good career for woman with asperger's. I am stick of be unemployed and doing course. I am scared of not finding a career that will suit me. Any advice will be helpful?

vet techs don't make much money and must deal with the animals' owners.

I can relate to your age and situation. I am 27 and have a history of not holding down jobs, as well as two college drop out situations, all of these have been caused by my ASD symptoms and struggles to socialize.

I believe jobs with animals are kind of a trap in disguise. They often sound good and I know many people on the spectrum who feel an affinity with animals, but these jobs are rarely as simple as working with and helping animals, in fact they are the opposite, one needs to detach themselves from their love of animals in order to succeed. If you love animals, especially domesticated pets like cats and dogs, but you get into vet work...you will be putting many of them to sleep and seeing a lot of situations where animals have been abused. It is a soul crushing career field unless you can detach yourself.

The sort of job I assume someone like you may be good at would be something in biology where you are studying and writing papers on animal behavior. Unfortunately you will need a lot of college to do something like this and if you are afraid of being out in nature, it will not work for you. Sadly it is the stark reality of many career fields which holds aspies back from success, because we find fields which suit our special interests, but rarely are the fields designed to allow us to enjoy and indulge our interest, there is a lot of arbitrary "fluff" involved which makes these fields ultimately boring or stressful.

For example, an aspie might have a special interest in rocks and minerals, but geologist is probably a bad career for an aspie, you would need to hike a lot, be in nature a lot, you may need to study rockfaces in the blistering sun for a long 12 hour day, which ends with you going back to a campsite instead of actually going home, only to do the same thing the next day. So yes while a rock loving aspie would have an interest in the core area of this career, the difficulties surrounding the real life execution of these studies may keep an aspie at bay.

Unfortunately it seems the difficulties of the real world often make aspies take boring and mundane jobs, which in and of themselves can be difficult for an aspie since we tend to need certain stimulation in order to help us maintain any sort of focus.