Do jobs offer an excuse?

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I've had a lifelong special interest with glasses and optics. I've been mocked about this and I can understand why.
I wonder if becoming an optician or at least working at an optical shop can make my obsession seem more normal.

I'll get to do things that are related to my obsession all day long. I'll get to talk about glasses to people all day long. If I'm talking about glasses outside of my job I'll just be talking about my job. My step dad talks about his job all the time and he's NT.

I guess I'll just be that annoying grown up who's obsessed with her job instead of an annoying aspie. I guess I'll also be seen as hardworking. I've never been seen as hardworking before. Mainly because I'm extremely lazy.

It's always been said that if a person can turn their hobby/passion into a job they actually get paid to do, that's the ideal situation, the ideal job. And yes I would imagine that if you talk a lot about things related to your job, it's probably viewed differently as just "Wow she's dedicated."

I don't know what's involved in becoming an eye health professional, but there are probably other positions in an optics shop and you would probably be in "hog heaven" as they say, surrounded by things you love. It might be well worth looking into, I would say.

But whatever happens, try not to worry too much about people getting annoyed about your special interest in glasses and optics. Lots of people go on and on about their hobby, making friends and family kind of roll their eyes, so it's quite a common thing for loved ones to get a little weary of hearing about stuff. Don't worry too much; you have a passion and it makes you happy.

My e-mails to friends are often filled with talk about my special interest, because it's often the only news I have, lol. They kind of put up with it.

My fondest hope for you is for you to go to Optician School.

Yep...you'll be seen as somebody who is interested in her job, rather than a mere annoyance, should you do so.

I think having it become a source of income is a great idea but don't expect anyone to really accept you or your interests just because it's your job. Honestly most people hate thinking and want to avoid it as much as possible on their off time. as far as I can figure the only acceptable thing to talk about with most NTs in a social situation is small talk BS and sports or perhaps gossip and things like that.

Honestly it's better to just talk to your dog or cat than expect much out of your typical Joe Sixpack out there.

I have talked too much about my cat in the past. They still mock me about it.

Yeah, I would definitely explore job opps in optics. If not in a retail store front then maybe in a lab where lenses are made or something like that.

As everyone else has mentioned, a job in optics would be ideal. However, a word of caution, you can still come across as slightly obsessed and possibly even annoying if you can't make small talk about other things. At the end of the day, you're working with people as diverse and broad in their interests as anyone else, so one topic for 9 hours a day, every day, can get old.
This used to be a problem for me and my mild obsession with transfer pricing. Apparently even international tax accountants aren't as thrilled about TP one might expect.

Maybe you're a good person to talk to about an argument I've been having with my dentist, of all people.

Okay, so, I'm fairly certain that my pit bull is nearsighted. He doesn't recognize people very well until he sees them up close. Sometimes it's better, but I assume that's because the wind is blowing a different way. I know he can see because he can see my neighbor walking his dog across the street. I wondered if there was a way to test him out on different lenses and then to perhaps see if he might find dog glasses an improvement to his life.

My dentist seems to think that since dogs use their noses more, being nearsighted wouldn't be any sort of bother to a dog, and I shouldn't be even thinking about this. But he made a fake tooth for his dog once, so I don't think he's one to talk.

What do you think?

And yes, I think you should be an optician. That would be a good living, you wouldn't have to make much small talk, it would be fulfilling to you, and you'd help people because people who like what they're doing are better at it.

There are some breeds who have relatively limited vision; I'll have to do some research to determine which ones. But I believe pitbulls might be one of them.

I'm glad you're the owner--if trained wrong, pitbulls, can be really, really dangerous. I'm sure you've trained your dog quite well--and that he/she would rather have his/her belly rubbed than anything else.

Also:

Do you really believe the unemployment rate among autistics is 80-85% (a frequently quoted figure). I certainly hope your research will result in a revision of that estimate. If you look at the WP membership, you'll notice that at least half have some kind of job. Many others are in school/college/university.

Pit bulls are easily influenced by humans. We have two pit bulls and an English Shepard. I can tell that we stress out the Shepard with our human ways sometimes, but the pit bulls are very social and are always trying to please us.

No, I don't believe those are accurate rates. I suspect that under- and unemployment for autistics is the same as for everyone else, which is about 60% employed in the US. There is a current study that reflects these numbers. I'd have to hunt it up but I can if anyone wants it.

In fact, those higher figures are a reified "fact." There were a couple of studies with small sample sizes, using participants that were connected to autism employment services, and in those studies most of the people were unemployed. Obviously, most people do not use autism employment services. If they did, there would be a lot more of those services. Most of the articles that quote those figures you're talking about cite back to nothing. When you finally chase down a study with real people and numbers, it's these couple that I'm talking about.

I read someone's graduate thesis recently where she did a study asking people if they were autistic, and if they had ever worked with an autistic person, and they she gave them an imaginary scenario about an autistic co-worker where the participants knew the imaginary person was autistic and got a description of that, just heard that they were autistic, or didn't hear anything about them. In the scenario, the co-worker was acting in a stereotypically "autistic" way. There were many, many flaws with this research, which was still interesting. I can go into it more if anyone wants. But this is what I thought was interesting. Out of something like 120 people, NONE of them had ever worked with an autistic person and only one had ever known one. 1 in 68 people are autistic themselves. So probably two people in her study actually were autistic, and although they did not know about it or say so, a good deal of those people would have had autistic co-workers at some point.

I think the "prevalence" of autism will rise over the coming year. In 2013, it was 88 to 1; in about 2010, it was about 110:1. I suspect it might go below 50:1 in 2015.

Don't you agree that it's caused by more awareness, rather than a real increase in autism itself?

Yes I do think the rate will continue to rise. I think it's going up because the definition of what it means to be on the spectrum is relaxing. Similar to autism awareness, but not exactly. Autism is not a "thing." We can't see it, or hold it. There is no universal definition. It's like "family" or "law." It's a human social category that we use to refer to a group of people.

The separation between autistic and not autistic constantly changes. A person who might be identified as having mild Asperger's today would not be even noticed in 1950. I think that people who show some autistic traits but are considered neurotypical, maybe a lot of the siblings of autistic people, will be considered autistic in the future.

Eventually I think the autism spectrum may not exist at all and people may be categorized in a different way. I think there's a real danger that "autism" will become a dirty word, like "ret*d," and this would provide an opening for new terms. Many of us will be too old to learn the new lingo and will seem rude to everyone else.

This is like, Year 3000 Speculation kind of stuff, however. Just my personal thoughts.

You can, but you have to find a special vet that will work out the prescription your dog needs. The only glasses brand for dogs I've heard of is Doggles.

Really?? I'll be calling my vet today!