Still Finding Out About Asperger's

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I just found out in July that I have "severe Asperger's Syndrome". I have read many things about Asperger's since then. I am looking for a definitive source of what exactly Asperger's is.

I have held a couple of jobs not suited for people with AS. I spent five years in retail. It wasn't the people that annoyed me as much as the management I worked for underestimating me and dismissing anything I thought as coming from "me."

I went to college a few years ago to get a degree because I saw what a lifetime of physical labor did to my father and I did not want to go the same route. I graduated in 2005, but the only job I could find that resembled what I went to school for was being a tax preparer. The other nine months (until this year) was physical labor jobs.

My problem lately is being interviewed for a job. I try to look relaxed and confident, but there is a disconnect between what I am thinking and what I am showing.

I have been on here for almost two weeks. I appreciate that other people can relate what I have gone through.

To WrongPlanet!! !

Welcome!

Greetings, Maditude, and welcome to Wrong Planet.

I interview very badly, myself. The thing that has saved me is that I did get a chance at a job once, and did very well in it. I did everything I could think of to do well in it. (Translation - I asked and watched and gave the employer 110% of what they seemed to want. What I thought was secondary to what "the boss" wanted. After all, they were paying me to what they wanted, not what I liked/thought best/wanted at that particular position.) That gave me good references. Which got me another job. Which, once I got into it, I did very well. I've had over a dozen jobs in my life now. If I'd have had to interview for the one I have presently, I'd never have been hired. My references got me the position. At which I excel and have gotten commendations.

The university where I work regularly holds workshops for their soon-to-be graduates where you are put on-camera and recorded doing mock interviews. They do this for ALL the graduates who ask for the service. Then they sit with the person and work through the tapes, pointing out what to do, what not to do, how to do things "better" (with the definition of "better" being successfully). I did a mock interview one day to help them set up the camera and sound system and was amazed at what I saw and heard when the tape was played back. Nothing like I thought I was....

If you could do that, perhaps it might help? If I'd had the chance, things might have been so much easier, earlier on.

Something else to remember is that less than 40% of college graduates in the USA actually end up working in the field in which they study. You'll have to be flexible, take what you can get that you can do well, and use that job to work into another more to your liking. After a few years in that second one, use what you can learn from it to get into another you like better... etc.

Good luck.

Welcome! Been there, done that. I'm in a job situation right now that's very badly suited to my condition and stressing me into a round-the-clock panic attack, unfortunately, I have another couple months to ride out before I can move on.

I don't have so much trouble interviewing, I can charm their pants off in a short meeting, it's after I've been on the job for six or eight months that management begins to have issues with me, when they decide to alter my routine, or I make creative suggestions on how business might be improved. Alphas haaate being one-upped, no matter how diplomatic you try to make it.

As for what AS is, well, that's the thing about a syndrome - it's not just one specific thing - it's a bundle of symptoms and behaviors that tend to exhibit together, and in many ways, feed off each other. You may have more of one than another and the Aspie to your right may have a slightly different level of each, or exhibit a slightly different combination. At it's root it's a disability in recognizing and interpreting social cues, which tends to lead to social discomfort and internal anxiety, which often leads to depression - over the inability to connect with others in a mutually satisfying manner, or, as you're finding, difficulties in functioning adequately in a social workplace, and so on.

I am starting an Asperger's Syndrome meetup a week from Tuesday (January 6).



The meetup is scheduled for January 6 (Next Tuesday) from 7-8 PM. It will be at the Dorothy Henry Library in Vernon, NJ.

Address:

66 State Route 94

Vernon, NJ 07462

For more information or to sign up, click here.
Northern NJ Asperger's Syndrome Meeutp Group

Nice to meet you, Maditude.

Welcome to WP!