Can you get disabilty for Asperger's?

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I am 21, live at home, go to school, and have a part time job only working 11 hours a week. There is nothing out there that I really want to do. I couldn't handle a job where I have to interact with people or fear of making a mistake. I have a hard time processing information and I work slower than most people. I work at a grocery store doing maintenance and janitorial work. I work in the lowest position at the store while everyone else works the cash register and do other higher level work. I don't mind my position, but I feel like I can't rise above what I currently do. This is the only job that I have ever had and I have tried to get other jobs, but no other places will hire me. They either don't call me or I am not what they are looking for. I possess no skills and I don't know how to interact with other people. It is hard for neuro-typicals to find work these days, and it is even harder for people on the spectrum to find jobs. I just don't see much hope out there for me. I can't imagine what I would be doing career wise or what I want to do. I have very few interests and I could not handle the stress of holding a full-time job.

Have you gone to college or thought about it? I'm only suggesting it because for the most part you can go for free and study whatever you are interested in and ultimately if you graduate you will have the basic employment credential in the US (at least).

I wouldn't think of cashiering as higher level as much as requiring a different skill set. The key for people on the spectrum is to find something they enjoy doing and become good at it then possibly make money from that or pursue disability if found to not be able to work.

Disability process in the US is difficult ; however I think it's easier to get on SSI at your age , since SSDI is based upon how long and how much you've worked.

Obviously if not in US disregard previous about the process.

SSI is not usually granted in your circumstances unless you have quite a few years of being under treatment and have a psychologist's endorsement that you need the disability. Why? You already work. That alone is the only 'proof' a bureaucrat needs to deny SSI.

If you live at home plus have a job it's extremely unlikely [see probably not a chance] that you will get SSI- it is based on financial need.

Also, as stated, SSDI is based upon work credits-since you are 21 you may have sufficient credits to qualify for that requirement, but there are other areas for approval.

This is a pdf of the work credit pamphlet that can give you a run down on work credits: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10072.pdf

Dantac is absolutely correct in that you need an MD [regular doctor or psychiatrist- though sometimes a PhD will be sufficient] to support your application. This is ideally someone you have been seeing for some time. You should have been pursuing long term treatment/support as well. The idea behind that being that you should have been trying all avenues of pursuing self-support before exploring Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income [which are actually two distinct programs based some different eligibility standards, also offering different benefits and logistics].

However- if you are only working 11 hours, and have a doctor state the case that you are unable to work anymore, you would have a decent chance at being approved- the standard is that one needs to be unable to support oneself not merely be unable to have any job at all.

I would recommend exploring your state's vocational rehabilitation programs though, if you haven't already. If you are having these difficulties you would likely be eligible for these programs, and really benefit from them considering you are so young.




...go to college for free [for the most part] in the United States? Really? Do tell.

Pell grants could be used for this although it'd take a lot longer than normal to graduate. Normally you can pull it off with a Pell grant plus some college-based scholarship/grant (aka its offered by your university or only at your university by the local community).

It's not easy though.

You'd have to have great grades coming out of highschool and then keep up great grades- usually full time to qualify for the larger scholarships that would cover enough to cover all the tuition. The community colleges don't usually have such scholarships or enough financial aid available to cover all the tuition, though the tuition is much less, and the residential colleges have greater tuition so even though you can get pell grants that are greater there are usually not very many scholarships available to cover the rest and the ones that are available often require fulltime students that also excel in athletics [which can be difficult to pull off] or full time students that excel in grades- which can get competitive- since these are not fullride scholarships unless coming out of highschool with amazing grades either there's often a hole.

It is not a usual case to go to school for free or even inexpensively in the US. Actually it's really difficult to go to school for free in this country and it's a constant issue that comes up again and again. My generation, the one above me and all to follow are and will be in immense debt [generally] if they have or will choose to pursue higher education. There are exceptions, as always, but generally, we are screwed if we want to go to college.

It's not easy to get scholarships that pay your way, so giving that impression is not very kind. It's just not.

Heh, The Squid has been working since we turned age 15. We are now 24 and just signed up for college last month. We are happy to say we can work 55 hours a week, and go to school. Unfortunately our Pell grant only covered half of our tuition. $600 out of pocket to get started hurt a bit.

I have General Depression, PTSD, and Asperger's. By far the most debilitating is PTSD. I was surprised to see that my psychiatrist had put "General Depression" on the form. He explained that all 3 of them are true but the one the gov't is used to seeing (and granting) is General Depression. If he added PTSD and Asperger's it would spook them, slow it down severely and maybe get me turned down because PTSD is controversial. We did it his way and the Disability came through.

Glad it got approved, and that he was experienced enough to keep it moving.

When my Mom got a raise at work when I was a teenager, I lost my state-provided medical benefits. She tried to get me some disability benefits (because Myasthenia Gravis is a very serious condition), but, no one we talked to had ever heard of it. They brought me in for interviews and just go 'she looks fine, no.'
So, I had to go a few years without medication I should've taken 3 times daily, and very few doctor visits. Shameful, but, if we'd had a good advocate to explain things to us, my life could have been much easier.

How many times I have thought exactly that - what we need is an advocate!

I think/hope the little children get advocates but there's absolutely no help or guidance - or somebody to go-with! - for us advanced in years.

For the pell grant the minimum grade you need to keep is a C (yes, astonishing). Scholarships and local grants do tend to have a higher grade requirement but you have to be real here...if they're giving you money you better put it to good use or you wont get more. Its not a right its an earned privilege to be given funds for your tuition. Not all scholarships are based on existing high grades though... you can get many based on economic needs too.

I had 3/4ths of my bachelor's degree paid for by grants and scholarships. I never took a loan. I had to 'game the system' somewhat to do it (all legal though!) but you have to do what you have to do. The 1/4th remaining came out of my pocket and it was not easy then either but I guess being an aspie helps there in a way...since no social life means no wasteful $ spending .

Currently i'm helping a teen I've mentored/tutored for a long time apply for her college financial aid. She comes from a near poverty level income family and its astonishing to see how the system is rigged against them. She's worked since she was 14 to pay for her college and her car, she's an A student that does volunteer work beyond the school-required hours and plays in the school orchestra. Yet because she has income and her combined parent's income she would only get like $1000 per semester in financial aid. A friend of hers that is a C student, comes from a higher income family, has never worked in her life and does no extra-curricular activities qualifies for $3500 a semester. All because SHE does not work and only her father works. It makes NO freaking sense but that's how FAFSA does things. The greatest irony of it all is that, after we worked it out, if my mentee stops working this year (has enough for her car) and starts school in spring 2016 (she graduates 2015 summer so basically she would be skipping entering college in fall 2015) her FAFSA would qualify her for nearly $4500 to $5000 in combined Pell Grant and a local college grant. That is literally enough for 2, full time student semesters worth of classes and covers most of her textbooks. She would keep receiving this amount the whole degree as long as her income status does not change. Absolutely absurd imo but if she has to game the system then so be it.

Yep, I'm familiar with that. I had to work to support myself, so was lowly qualified because of that. THEN, partway through the FAFSA process, I was called on because, until you're 22, you have to declare your parents' income on your fafsa in addition to your own. I was estranged from my parents and wasn't receiving diddly from them. Quite the opposite, they were taking money from me (hence me leaving and going out on my own and not speaking to them for years).
I had my grandfather submit a notarized statement that I was not living with any relative and, with cause, wasn't speaking to my parents and was solely supporting myself, but, the people I talked to said I would have to be (though I was by that point 18 ) legally emancipated from my parents, or have police reports proving they'd beaten or otherwise abused me.
Couldn't afford the legal fees, and you can't file a police report over verbal abuse from your parents. Stupid pita.

Oh, and for years afterward, I got nastygrams from the IRS because my super classy parents were still claiming me on their tax returns.

Whatever, I went to community college and paid cash for my classes. I would've gotten A's, but, I couldn't always afford textbooks, so I got B's and C's instead.

Lucky you and the individual from the higher income family.
Are you aware of the socioeconomic breakdown in the united states?

I float just above the poverty level, for context- while that is not the usual, most people do not "come from a higher income family". However, I was often over 26 and frequently not claimed as an independent.
I didn't get any income though. Even with assistance from Vocational Rehabilitation [which most people don't receive], a partial scholarship, the max financial aid, I was still way short both at community college and at residential. It can also depend on what you want to do.

If you want to go into a general studies program or do any basic thing that any college offers because that's what is offered and you will just go to get a degree- than great. My perspective is: Why would you do that if, in most of those fields, you can work your way up anyway?

For me, you can't work your way up in what i want to do. I would have to get a degree. For a lot of people who are choosing to take on the cost, they are taking that burden because you can't work your way up in research/biology/advanced psych professions. You just can't.

So I appreciate that [as I remarked earlier] there are exceptions to the rule, but it's not common place and it is a hotly contested issue that students are in debt up to their eyeballs for long after they graduate [too long] unless they have the uncommon resources not to be. This is often because, as you pointed out, they come from a place of higher socioeconomic status and other advantages that the majority of people do not have.

So again, giving the impression that it's easy or common isn't very nice.