Double whammy day- diagnosed with AS and denied unemployment

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Ugh... intense day.

I was finally diagnosed as *without a doubt* having AS, which was one part relief and one part WTF?!? why did this take so long (couple decades) and multiple shrinks to figure out?! Going through all the emotions and I come home to find that I have been denied unemployment because the judge didn't consider depression as being a valid medical illness (quit to prevent an episode, but it happened anyway progressed to Major Depressive Disorder that I have been struggling with for months). Intense news arrives- same day.

What is the universe trying to tell me?

Ugh... Ugh... just want to pound my head against a wall right now. Can I have an ounce of warm fuzziness right now?

Hugs to you, azurezebu! I'm sorry you're going through all that . Is there a way to appeal the decision, now that you have a diagnosis of AS? Or now that the depression has progressed to a (I assume) diagnosed Major Depressive Disorder? One of these diagnoses should swing the unemployment people - after all, if you're in the US they know finding employment is tricky these days. I assume it's like that in every country but I don't know. Maybe ask unemployment if a letter from the person who diagnosed you verifying the diagnosis will help in that regard?

Anyway, I'll be praying for you. Are you living alone or do you live with family that could help you with food expenses and not charging you rent? If you are living alone maybe you could get other types of assistance now that you have no income? I'm thinking of a food pantry or something, so you don't have to spend your savings on groceries. If you're in the US, how about SSI? I don't know about that, I've only heard of it.

Where are you? I know depression takes your get-up-and-go away. If we know what state & city you're in and what kind of things you need (including what type of job), people in the aspie army who live in your area will surely come up with ideas/info. I'll try to look some stuff up this evening myself.

You're not alone.

{{{{{{{azurezebu}}}}}}}

thanks for the support I used the intensity of the day as an excuse to enjoy some simple comforts (mac and cheese, dark chocolate, extra snuggles, time walking, tai chi in the park, etc...). After the emotion ebbed a bit I took the combo of both happening on the same day as being one of those weird cosmic quirks that I should pay attention to. I filed my appeal today, with the AS diagnosis attached, and argued that this contributed to why so miscommunication happened with my boss and that the situation really did cause beyond normal sadness. I did some research on other court cases like mine and found zero examples of AS and employment law. Most of the examples were from parents against schools, custody battles, or criminal investigations. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not in terms of legal bias. The pro side of it is that it will be more up to interpretation of the case rather than on prior precedence, the cons are the judge might have no idea what AS is or might have a very odd perception based on media (Rainman?) or newspaper reports (vaccine scares, not so functional folks). I just hope they won't discriminate against me based on the stereotype that all folks with AS are incapable of working (true some of the time but far from all the time). Right now i am living with my longterm partner. Fortunately I still am ok on savings (not great, but not totally screwed either). I think i am going to switch careers for a while, do something totally different like painting or paralegal stuff. dunno quite yet, but I have been pretty resourceful all of my life.

Thanks again for the encouragement.