I can't work

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I'm constantly fired either because I don't work well or I don't fit in well. How does a person live when they can't work and their disability is not recognized for social benefits? i sit here, having been fired last month yet once again, and don't know what to do, who to ask for help, what to think.

Keep trying. It took me many years and many, many jobs to find someplace where my quirks were an assest rather than a liability.

Is it possible for you to relocate? The area you're in is not very friendly towards women. You might get a fairer shake (and possibly benefits) in another country.

About half of the states don't recoginze AS as a legitimate disability. Missouri recognizes AS and Bipolar disorder. Perhaps you just got bad luck and wound up in a "right-to-work" state.

I know the feeling of feeling like you "can't work." Pretty much all of the time, I felt like there was no way that I could function at any sort of job.

Perhaps an objective evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses would help you select a better line of work? Then you could enhance your strong points.

As for the other folks in the work place... do you have access to some social skills counseling? As an Aspie, we really benefit from appropriate counseling when learning the necessary skills for dealing with other folks... we speak a different language.

Finding a mentor in your field may help also.

Good luck.

I feel that way, that I can't work. I started working "late" compared to my peers, and ended "early" compared to just about everybody! I went on maternity leave when I was 7 months pregnant in 2002 and haven't worked a paid day since. But even when I was working, I was always underemployed. I took crappy boring low-stress jobs so that I could feel comfortable. They certainly never paid well, but at least I wasn't overwhelmed. My husband (also an Aspie) bounces from job to job. He doesn't get fired, but he certainly quits a lot! So much of the time it's on principle over some ridiculous office politics kind of thing. I totally get that and support him fully.

Our daughter is an Aspie and qualifies for disability. I've just today posted the paperwork to see if we will qualify as adults. We were told that we probably wouldn't since we're too "high functioning." I say we're just lucky we havn't gone destitute. If moving is an option, look into it. Having a pension of sorts, no matter how small, would certainly be helpful.

God, I'd know. I'm in the same boat you're in.

Stupid ignorant society.

No, it's not the same boat when I'm double your age and only discovered I have autism a couple years ago. You have over 20 years advantage over me to develop in some field more secure for an Aspie. At the very least, you won't easily quit a job where they accept you Aspieness and all, you'll know it's not easy for us to find such jobs. I spent decades thinking it was bad luck instead of knowing what was really a limitation on my side.

Why are you not recognized for social benefits?

If not in the exact same boat then Im in the next boat close to you....

No social benefits in my country for AS / NLD adults. And in order to get social benefits for indigence I'd have to prove that I'm living in the streets, have nothing to eat, and have tried all kinds of menial jobs and been fired from them. Do people in your country get social benefits just for having been diagnosed with AS? Or do you have to prove that you were fired from, say, washing dead bodies in the hospitals, as it is here?

well, find out what they do pay benefits for and see if you can meet that criteria. I also have back problems, rsi and anxiety. What about your eye condition, would that do? Are you depressed? You probably meet some criteria somehow.

A lot of parents go for the dx that will get their kid services rather than the accurate (if unrecognised in their region) dx. Also in this country you can get unemployment benefit and not be required to look for work provided you do 20 hours of volunteer work, they sort of recognise that some people are unemployable and to require them to aggressively look for work is a waste of everybody's time, so thats why they introduced this a few years ago.

Um.....yes.....*feeling ashamed for us not beeing treated as equal*

Here we who gets social benefits is placed in categories of diffrent groups. Im with diagnosed AS is placed in circle 1, which means I have more "rights and privilegies" than those in circle 3....
That means its easier for me to "get what I want". It feels like riding the Titanic and Im in first class watching those in third class drown and Im not proud of it...
But I might soon end up in your lifeboat anyway. I have to apply for new social benefits soon and I have heard that the authorities do more rejections now than before. They are striking harder at us now and its no longer enough with just a paper that states AS confirmed. You have to SHOW and PROVE to the very detail that you cant work and many people fall on the borderline...

Its an very unfair world we are living in

But what I don't understand is...how can you prove that you're unemployable? I mean, probably you wouldn't be fired from washing bodies at the morgue?

Even if you never was fired or have worked in the morgue they find ways on testing your abilities to work. My mum told me a horror example of someone who needed to proove she couldnt work. She got an authority person visiting her home and was told to clean the bathroom while she was watching. She started to do so while the authority person was taking notes about the progress. She was looking at the abilities to organise, the speed and sense of doing a task properly and so on...
I would freak out if I come in this situation when its my turn to apply in september....

I guess executive functioning would be easier to prove. But I think in my case it'd be impossible to prove that I always get fired because "there's something in her we don't like"...

Get a psychologist to administer the Vineland II Adaptive Behavior Questionnaire. Then, you will have solid evidence of your low functioning that any state should accept, regardless of your label.

I'd also say to get an attorney early. Find one that works on contingency. That's what I did.

You live in Israel right? What kind of work have you done before and what kind of work are you looking for?