Disability benefits for aspergers?

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Hello, im 19 and ive been looking for a job for about 2 years, Im just now still getting diagnosed with Aspies, Can someone please tell me what are the advantages and disadvantages of being diagnosed? what kind of gov. support will i be able to get?

Hi guys,

I've been on the DSP for 2 years now.

Had terrible social anxiety/aspergers.
Couldn't barely go to the mailbox let alone walk around the block.

Parents tried to push me into working and it put me into a state of depression.
I was so scared I and thought about suicide for a while.

Since getting the DSP it was a big load off my back.
I can contribute to the household now and I have gradually made progress with things like buying an item from a shop or going to the bank.

I have no friends or contacts, no skills/work experience and a several year gap since leaving school so finding work would be very difficult.
Eventually I may try to get a drivers license though.

I was a federal government employee for 20 years, and left on a federal employee disability retirement. After 3 years of waiting, I won SSDI.

First, you have to have doctors and psychologists who are willing to help and support you. When you call a psychologist, you really don't know what you are going to get, because so many of them are preoccupied with fighting their own demons that they aren't interested in helping their clients. Be up front with them and clear about what you need. If they won't help you, find someone who will.

Second, find a lawyer who specializes in SSDI. They will give a free consultation, and only get paid if you win, based upon 25% of your past due amount (capped at $6000).

I think that one catch might be that you have to have worked for 2 years prior to becoming too disabled to work (for SSDI).

I think it is difficult to get disability benefits based on the diagnosis of Aspergers, if it is a first time diagnosis in middle age, and you have been able to function with it in the working world. If you have the insurance or means, the diagnosis is helpful in preventing discrimination, making adaptations in the work environment, and getting assistance in job placement.

I refused to believe that any of my social, sensory, or cognitive challenges were a disability. I felt like my coping mechanisms (taking notes on everything I did, exercise, good diet, positive outlook, etc.) would always keep me above water.

I see the working world as much more complex than it was before computers and related technology came along. In my area of employment, working as a government employee on a military installation, computers replaced secretaries, clerk typists, accountants, personnel specialists, file clerks, inventory specialists, warehousemen, and supply clerks. Now one person may be expected to accomplish these duties, in addition to their area of expertise, to fulfill the mission at hand with enhanced efficiency.

Eventually, I could not turn my adrenaline off, and I found myself moving into the world of the character in the movie "Rainman". How can you make another person understand that the world and your environment is attacking your senses? How can any Doctor or Psychiatrist understand the effect this can have on someone's functionality? The problem is another individual can't measure it and there is no test that I know of that can prove it. Yes, I was diagnosed on the AS, but it was not considered to be a disability, in itself, that would keep me from working.

Sress related disorders often reported by people on the AS like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Dysautonomia, Adrenal Fatigue, etc. are also hard to get disability benefits for, even if your Doctor agrees they are permanently disabling.

In many cases, it is the associated, severe depression, that rates someone as permanently disabled for Social Security Disability. A person who does not have the required working history can qualify for SSI, if they have chronic severe depression.

From what I have read on many of the posts, I see many young people reporting symptoms of chronic stress, that seem to be a result of their condition along with the difficulties in adapting in today's world. I think it is important to get a diagnosis as soon as you can, if you have the means. The diagnosis may allow you to get accomodations in the work environment that help keep your health intact.

Many of us like cats, including me, and understand them quite well. If a cat was put in a cage and subjected to a lightning storm day after day after day, do you think the cat could find a way to adapt and recover each day? I don't think so. A diagnosis may help you to avoid this kind of situation in the workplace.

Ain't that the truth. In regard to mental health professionals, I heard someone use the phrase "the people who gravitate toward the field." And unfortunately that phrase explains a lot.


Solid, solid advice.

And of course a list of Aspies or potential Aspies includes:
Steven Spielberg
Bill Gates
Richard Feynman
Bertrand Russell

That it, people who have been extraordinary successful at their fields. We seem to be attracted to high-risk, high-reward fields (I know I am!). If just plain luck had turned out a little different, Bill Gates might well be living in a garage apartment. And especially Steven Spielberg, I mean anything to do with the arts is very high risk. Or alternatively, there might be some very talented graphic artists and visual artists currently living low-income.

And I want to make this point, a job like working in a grocery store is a harder job on any kind of meaningful scale than most professional jobs. And I'm not talking relative terms given income or given responsibility, etc. I am talking absolute terms. See my post on the dept. store.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt145558.html

As an aside, if you read There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, Feynman's famous lecture which introduced the concept of nanotechnology, you'll find that he was probably faceblind.

to say that you cannot work because of being on the spectrum is simply not true. Sure there are many places you cannot work but there are places you can. The fact is while it may be harder to find work it is not impossible. I am not employed at present but I have in the last year began doing Voluntary work in the most brillant organisation and I have finally found an employment service and worker who will work with me at my pace, on my issues to find a job suited to me. Like finding a decent psychologist or doctor, the same is the case for anything else. But I for one will not give up on my dream of one day being employed and I have no intention of saying this condition says I will never be able to do anything. I do get a disability pension on the basis of multiple conditions, but I have ever intention of still trying to do all I can to have a full and active life as a person with autism. A diagnosis alone will not qualify one for benefits in any country as the fact is the diagnosis does not disable you. There are as we have read and seen hundreds of incredibly highly capable people who have had amazing jobs and still been on the spectrum. There are very high and very low functioning people, but with the right people and support people can work.

This is a link to a website about a business run by a person with a profound intellectual disability, who cannot shower, toilet himself, feed himself or do anything else. His mother set it up. He could walk and he could hand things to people. Hence he has a job in which with a full time support worker he goes to different offices and collects there outgoing mail and delivers them there incoming mail from the post office. He has no idea of anything. The support worker opens the bag on his shoulder gives him the envelopes to hand to people and then tells him to place the other ones in the bag. One could say he does nothing, but the fact is we all need help with something. There are CEO's who have never sent an email in their lives, etc. This young man recieves no disability services as the income from this business is enough to fund all of his support needs. Google search Jack's Mail to read the story, as I can't past links yet!!

But the morel of this story is that with the right help and support anyone can find something they can do. Sure the system of benefits makes you look at what you can't do and that is hard, but at the same time you need to look at what you can do. If you want to sit at home and do nothing for the rest of your life then fine, but from my viewpoint do not ask for handouts for it. I am more than willing to support people who are willing to try to be a part of the community in whatever way is possible for them, and the reality is that there is something you can do, you would not be able to post on this site and complain about things if you couldn't .

I know of people unable to leave home who are doing voluntary work from home and looking for paid work they can do from home. The fact is there are things we can all do. My disability is incredibly diffciult to manger and I hate most social places and could not work in 99.9% of places but to say that I will never be able to do so anywhere is not something I will sit at home and accept. I am going to do all I can to live a full life, whatever my disabilities.

In regards to Autism, verses Aspergers, in order to recieve the diagnosis of Autism you need to have had signficant delays in laugae aquisition and ongoing problems with language, and not just in social ways. You have to be able to provide evidence that the language related problems existed before the age of 3 years and that there are still major ongoing problems today.

In terms of getting disability benefits and the like you are going to do best if you have the support of adaptive behaviour tests like the Vineland. It is also helpful to show what other supports you need to function and the like. If you are honestly not getting any services or supports then they are going to question how you can look after yourself, but not be able to work?? How can you be married but not be able to work?? What support did you require at school, or what were the issues at school, school reports can help there. Why is it that if you have a lifelong developmental disability you have never needed any help at all from anywhere? It is all well and fine to say you hid it, but they will ask why you can't keep hiding it??

Depression is not always curable. There are people who die of it, ie. suicide. The fact that for MOST people it is a mild condition that can be cured does not mean it is that way for everyone. Most people who have epilepsy can function perfectly well without any issues, others have seizures up to a 100 times a day. Just because one is disabled by it, does not mean they all are, and nor does it mean that just because most people are not disabled by it it is not impossible for others to be disabled by it. If you don't want people judging you by your condition then don't judge others for their condition. That does not mean that people with any conditon cannot bludge or be lazy, and may be receiving benefits they shouldn't be, but base it on the person and not the condition. Having a condition does not and never will mean you are identical to every other person with that condition, there are high's and low's of everything.

I believe the US does not recognize AS as a disability by itself. You need to have a skull fracture with your colon sticking out of it for those bureaucrats to understand there may be something wrong.

The problem here is that I dont believe that there really are proper support systems or programs to assist people w/Asperger's (not in the United States at least) and I think the reason for this is because Asperger's is starting to be portrayed in our society as a textbook condition and what these "textbooks" are saying about AS do not apply to the majority of people who have it. In essence, we're being seen as a stereotype of weirdness without regard to the various emotional, social, mental, and sometimes even physical difficulties that vary from one Aspie to another. It's easier for the Government to shove us all into one category and determine our social security needs in that matter. I'm fully aware that there are Aspies out there who go on to do great things but I have to believe it's due to having competent people guiding them in the right direction and making their talents and weaknesses work in correlation with one another. Not all Aspies receive that kind of support growing up and it really messes up what kind of potential they have to the point that it becomes impossible to find and that leads into the problems that some Aspies may need disability benefits for such as severe crippling depression.

People are saying that Aspies are just trying to cheat the system and yet there are far too many jobs out there that are now turning people away if they have the slightest inkling that you might have AS. It's become a complex no way situation for Aspies. Asperger's Syndrome itself is slowly becoming a buzz-word for motivating discrimination almost like it is for those who are homosexual. It's very disheartening to say the least.

Or... uh... maybe he decided to do something rather than just give up? I can't get a job. When I do, I can't keep it for more than a couple months. Fine. As I've pointed out in another thread, though, that's not the only option. I'm building my poker bankroll online playing 5-Card Draw poker, and working on my Limit Hold 'Em abilities. Keep in mind, that's ONE option. Another would be, for the artistic autistics out there, to work on commission, or else to sell work they do on their own time. Creating a useful website and advertising it. Consider what your abilities are and think of ways you can make money with it. There's almost always a way.

I have nothing against people getting disability for autism. I plan on applying myself (to help speed the process of self-sufficiency), but it's not the only option.

In fact, the only reason I support autistic disability payments is because of the fact that there are no discrimination payments.

...Actually, this is a good argument for why we need an autistic version of Zion. Or, heck, better yet: A company run by autistics that hire autistics to produce things that fit to their special interest. For example, an autistic interested in computer programming would get hired on as a programmer. Preferably, a college degree would not be required.

Of course, the problem comes in raising enough capital to start this venture.

I'm sorry to he harsh, but what you're doing is horrible. You do not need to be on disability! Social security is looking monet because of people like you who go on disability without needing it! I have all your problems, and i would never take the governments money like that! Shame on you!

i've never been on disability, but it gets so hard! i used to work as a typist and was excellent in it. but i got fired because they had some problems and were laying many people off. then it went downhill. the computer now does the typing, they have a program in the computer that can do that. i used to type words, but now there are only numbers and i keep making mistakes. also they ask for filing and i got fired because i got confused. the only jobs that i can get now are doing surveys over the phone, a terrible job for a aspie, no doubt. that, or selling over the phone. yeah, right, like i can do that.
can't even bag plastic bags at the grocery store. i used to work for mcdoandls and places like that. loved it, because i was super hyper till my supervisor thought i was on drugs (wasn't). but now i'm 45 and exhausted and can't do that anymore. i've tried...
so i'm stuck in a survey job i absolutely hate and life sucks.

takes years here.


be prepared for a looooong wait. you need two docs to say it.

I chose to go on disability once I got diagnosed because I was on unemployment benefits anyway, but disability was a few extra $$$. And it meant I didn't HAVE to look for work.

BUT I want to work, though going on disability bought me a little time to come to understand AS and how it impacts on employment. Once I got all that worked out, I voluntarily joined a job agency, and might, apparently, have a job interview in the next week or so for filling shelves in a supermarket.

There's talk in the Australian media that our current gov is going to re-assess Disability to get those who have shown they can work off of disability and back looking for work (whether there are jobs or not).