Hi from The Netherlands

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Hi everybody!

Let me introduce myself. I am in my early 30's, I live in the Netherlands and I am currently unemployed. I have worked part-time in IT for several years but it always felt like a struggle. After a few years I couldn't manage it anymore and then I found out that I had Asperger's. I tried to keep working with less hours but then got physical ill and stopped completely. At the moment I only do some charity work for a couple of hours each week.

I believe I am a highly sensitive person. I don't function very well in environments with all kinds of different stimuli, which is one of main reasons why it's hard for me to find a normal job or to do more charity work. It also makes it harder for me to meet new people, start new relationships and to commit more to my current relationships.

Now I've decided to try out this forum as a means to come in contact with people who possibly can relate to my personality and the way that I view the world.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

My ancestors on my mother's side are from the Netherlands.

Welcome. Is a lovely forum here.

Welcome!
I had a lot of Dutch friends, and some I had who I lost contact with. Feel at home.

Hello, welcome to Wrong Planet.

Hi and welcome to WP ! Sounds like you’re having a tough time of it with the work/health balance. It can really be crippling for some. I found that being self employed really helped, and creating an environment that I had complete control over made quite a difference.

Hi,

I gave up the whole full-time work thing about 3 years ago as I was constantly exhausted and I my body and mind couldn't take the beating like I could when I was younger

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

Being self employed can certainly be benificial to some people. The problem with me is that I'm not very enterprising. I have a few passions, for example photography, and I'm interested in alot of different topics, like (art) history and foreign countries and cultures, but I just don't know where to start doing something professional with it. I do feel like I'm better in control of my environment since I stopped doing payed work though.

Hi, I can relate to much of what you said. I struggled to work full time too, and eventually had to stop working and I was just volunteering a couple of times a week. I found taking really small steps back to employment was really helpful for me, when I was allowed to do this in my own time. I work in a school now, which is great for me because there is a timetable and it's (usually) very predictable. That kind of environment may not work for you (and I have to say, it isn't ideal - sometimes it gets noisy!) but I hope you can maybe follow one of your passions and see where it takes you.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Do you think you would do better over the phone? There are plenty of I.T. and other jobs that consist of just being on the phone all day or even in chat. You control your immediate environment, that is, your cubicle, and your interaction with coworkers consists mainly of just asking or answering technical questions. In other words, strangers are separated from you physically and eye contact does not come into play. They can't see you, you can't see them. Rather similar to a forum.

I did some customer support work when I just started in IT, which incorporated quite a few telephone calls, but that was really hard to do for me. I guess the hard thing about it was trying to find out what the customer exactly expected from me or the company I worked for and negotiating a good solution that worked for both parties. In short, the communication itself costs me allot of energy and doesn't feel naturally for me. Just not my strong suit I suppose.

Well, if communication is off the table, that still leaves repair work and assembly, which require little or no communication. You can work in a repair shop, factory or even retail store repairing computers, assembling furniture or bikes.

I also know I can't take full time work. My hope is in a few years I can get a part time job with maybe 25 hours/week. I can live with little money, I don't find joy in material stuff and have no material wants. I would rather kill myself than work full time until I'm almost 70.
I can't take it physically and mentally.

Don't work in a factory, please. It will kill your soul. At least my factory jobs were painfully boring. Made me want to jump out of the window. Don't waste your precious time spending whole days or nights in factories. In there it can also become very crowded and noisy and hot from the machines - bad if you are physically sensitive.