can i claim disability with aspergers?

Post Reply New Topic

Oh, definitely. Getting training at a community college is a great option for someone who's not going to be able to tolerate an unskilled job, or even for someone who isn't developmentally ready to live on their own yet--Live at home, go to college, have a little more time to get the hang of it. Community colleges are pretty used to people with various educational deficits, too; the one I attended actually had reading and basic math classes for people behind in those areas.

It probably won't cost you anything to go to community college--the price is low enough that government grants and subsidized loans should cover it. They also tend to offer things like vocational training classes--six month programs, one year programs--as well as associate's degrees. And many of those degrees will be specifically geared to a job; so you can go straight to work after. Or, if you want a four-year degree, you can start at a community college and take classes there, then transfer. You should talk to your target four-year college to find out what will transfer into the degree program you want, though.

Oddly enough, it seems to me that the jobs that seem more "difficult" to a neurotypical would be the ones that seem easier to us, because in many cases there aren't nearly as many deficits in education and learning, as there are in social interaction, communication, self-regulation, and planning. And specific learning disabilities can be worked around, too, if you have access to a decent disability services center.

A very poor analogy. When applying for assistance or help one must be able to prove the need. A person with two broken legs has far less to prove than someone on the autistic spectrum.

Which I conceded to in an earlier post- please read back.

I completel agree.

Actually, I don't think it counts at all. I could care less how others feel about me or any discomfort they feel when working with me. I have enough of my own problems, I can't be bothered with how others feel. To me, it's a cop-out.

That's your opinion, and I respect that.

Oh? And how about when intelligence doesn't equal ability? How about when you can do differential equations in your head, but can't survive a two hour shift as a waitress? That's awfully common on the spectrum. Even if you are really, really intelligent, and sound really intelligent when you write, you could still be unemployable.

True...but just because you can work out HOW to do that, doesn't mean all of us can.

When we can't, should we cut our throats - or hang ourselves?

M

Last edited by mechanima on 08 Dec 2008, 4:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Strangely, none us get assistance until we can prove that need, which you, are still trying to deny exists.



Perhaps you would like to quote yourself for me, because I cannot see it.




I think you are forgetting the tiny, insignificant fact that others' aversion to employing or working with some us prevents some of us from being able to keep, or even get jobs at all...

What would you have us do?

Turn up for work whether they want us and can work with us or not?

How would we get paid?

At gunpoint?

Thank you for saying that Callista, so I don't have to.

I am on SSDI. I have a debilitating chronic illness, insomnia, anxiety, and Asperger's. One thing that has not been mentioned is that past a certain age (24?) you are able to apply for money for College, regardless of what your parents make.

This is crucial for me because my completion rate is s**t from the years I was undiagnosed and unable to perform in even the most trivial academic setting from anxiety attacks.

When I showed up for the final in one class, I had an anxiety attack as I was about to put my hand on the doorknob into the classroom. I ended up having to turn away before my body would let me take a breath. I couldn't force myself into the classroom to take the test. Half an hour later I had calmed down and was ready to try again, but the teacher had a closed door policy for tests... nothing makes you feel like being unable to even pass a class, despite having memorized everything the book had to offer.

That was when I was undiagnosed (well, I was but my parents never saw fit to tell me until I figured it out myself). Now I am Dx'd and I can not get a school loan. My college savings is gone, my parents are getting a divorce, and my mother (the parent I still talk to) is quitting her job to go into business for herself.

In two years I will be able to get up to 100% of my college paid for by the state. That will be a godsend. Until then I take a class or two a semester, however much I can afford (truthfully I am so far in the red its ridiculous), and work in concert with Student Services and the local Vocational Rehabilitation Foundation so that my teachers understand if I come in a bit late, and are prepared to make other similarly small allowances on my behalf that make all the difference in the world.

Get benefits if you need it, and don't be ashamed to. When you see some of the people who take the money you will be indignant at the thought of refusing what charity you can rightfully use because of some inner moral struggle.

BUT... try to get a job. Really. Its good for you. Don't get just any job but work with what resources you have to pursue jobs that will be GOOD experiences. Pushing carts at Wall Mart might be one of those jobs for you. For me I worked with children at the United States Space and Rocket Center. It was what restored my faith in my ability to be a productive worker. And that feels too good for me to allow you to deprive yourself of it.

That said it all.

M

Yes you can but that doesn't mean you will be approved. Lot of people get denied when they first apply but hey you can re apply again. I read you can't get disability for AS alone but if you have any other problems, you can get it. You have to prove to them how impaired you are. Have your family or relatives write them a letter telling them how you are effected and why it effects you. Your doctors also have to do do the same too. If you are seeing a shrink, have him or her release them some information about you. if you have had jobs and they didn't work out, have your old bosses talk to them so they can tell them how the job effected you. I would tell SSI to call your old work places if you did have a job and you lost them.

They will also evaluate you so you go in and the doctor does tests on you but just be yourself. He or she will ask you some questions and tell you to do things. She or he might even give you a test by asking you some idioms and ask you what you think they mean.


Being on disability, you can get medicare easily. But you are only allowed to have certain amount of money in the bank and your checks will be cut when you have a job. But they don't give you much money to live with. You might have to apply for section 8 or affordable housing, food stamps, LIEAPP, and of course if your local phone company has a program for people who have low income, they get a low phone bill, so you would have to get that. I heard you also are eligible for grants.

Here is more information about it:

http://www.ssa.gov/applyfordisability/adult.htm


The number is listed at the bottom.

Hi NextFact:

As an Aspie who has been the sole breadwinner of a family, worked a demanding full-time job while raising a family, excelled in school and in the workplace--and now can't imagine having any kind of steady, paid employment again--I'm going to jump into (and then away from) the fray here.

I think the most important thing is that you look at how you want to spend your time when you turn 18. Whether you apply for disability or work with someone to prepare yourself for getting a job, it is going to be work. To get disability, there will be paperwork, meetings, hearings, more paperwork, etc. It is not a particularly friendly process. To prepare youself for getting a job, you will have to learn how to fill out an application, do an interview, figure out what kind of work you're best suited to, etc.

To my mind, if you go the how-to-get-a-job route, you will come out with some new skills and, perhaps, paid employment; if you do the disability route, you may come out with a small check each month, but then again, you may not, and along the way, you will have learned nothing except how utterly pitiless bureaucracies can be.

It's just a matter of how you want to spend your time. If I were you, I would go the job route first. If that doesn't work out, you can always go the disability route later. But if you get on disability at such a young age, you may be selling yourself short and never find out what you are really capable of doing and achieving in the world.

You can do both: Apply for disability AND try to work. That way, if the work falls through, you won't starve. Barely won't starve, but survival is important, right?

Oh, and failing at one job isn't indicative of being unable to work. Nor is being unable to work at one point in your life a predictor of being unable to work anytime after that.

Might I give a suggestion? I want to go back to school and get higher degrees, but I know now that I will never get the right mentorship or advisor.

So I have a plan to have all my own studies already completed and my thesis/dissertation already outlined, the next time I walk through the door of a college. I'm reviewing Math and will next be going through the courses on MIT's free OCW website and elsewhere, since advanced graduate classes are now starting to show up at these free online college websites. Basically, I'm going to teach myself and study on my own and when I go into a program, I will already have the graduate courses pre-studied and the ideas in place. I will bring my own advising with me and will only need people to sign off for me. There is everything online, from linear algebra to computational neuroscience, if you know what the college websites are, so that you can basically do the whole curriculum in advance. When I do go back, I'll sign up for heavy loads, since most of what I'll be doing is review of things I'd already been over on my own. Get my master's in one year and my PhD in 2-3.

And when you study a thing on your own, you always learn it better than when you get it spoonfed (at least when it comes to math, eng. or physics. Maybe not for something soft like psychology or history.)

Just a thought.

It wouldn't surprise me if the new unemployment benefits packages, etc. have job retraining and educational benefits. And there should be student loans available to you. They might change the Pell Grant thing to not be dependent on your last year's income if you are laid off. The Pell Grant is free and other federally subsidized loans are cheap. It doesn't matter if you're 20 or 40, age is not a factor in the applications for federal student aid. I hope that you try this out. You're certainly very creative and motivated, or you appear to be from your posts. I'm sure you'd find going back to school to be a blast and further refine your talents.

I think that they are allowing some refis for loans that are under water. Or, if they didn't do it in the last bailout package (the TARP legislation that was passed in September) they will probably do this very soon. Clearly, the federal government has to start taking some more steps if it wants to really stop the foreclosures and falling house prices. It might start cramming down refinances on mortgage lenders in exchange for federally guaranteeing loans. Don't forget to keep up with this. You can go to marketwatch.com, register there and have email alerts sent to you for articles having certain keywords, so you don't miss any info.

Good luck.

Read through this thread and the debate, simplified, seems to be; I'm entitled to get help OR no you're not.

Have to say that I'm with Mechanima on this one, but on a deeper level.

First, I began to pick apart the assumptions. There were very many. lol. Getting rid of them all wasn't too difficult, but it was a lot of stuff to move out of the way. All the effluvia of the modern world, pretty much.

AFAIAC, I should be living in a cave, flint-knapping my tools, and roasting large herbivores over an open fire. This really wouldn't consume a whole awful lot of my time, I'd only have to cooperate with a very few persons like myself to secure my sustenance, and, on the whole, sounds not simply like a lot of fun, but also what I was MADE to do.

Anything else is superfluous.

I didn't ask to be born into this world. It's not mine, I'm not made for it, and I'll make out any way that seems convenient to me. If that means taking money from a government, then so be it. If anyone else doesn't like it, I don't care. Until there is a game reserve, replete with homey caverns in which I can dwell, set aside for people like me, I'm not going to concern myself with the silly notions of others who cannot see past the assumptions and suppositions of the modern world. I've been here for half a century. Long enough to know it's not my kinda place.

California says No to Aspies with respect to disability no matter how much official psychobabble paper work you have.

Excuse me if this is slurred, I have just taken my sleeping pills,

I recently got Disability Living allowance. I was on income support since i was 19, jsut after I was diagnosed, and stopped work altogether at 20. I had two jobs, one at a Theatre, where I worked for 4 years, and then my boss cut my shifts beucase I asked for 2 weeks off to do a christmas production, so I left, rather angrily. The other was at a videogame store where my boss once told me in the middle of a panic attack to "pull my Thumb out of my Arse and get on with it.' and left that job ill with stress, and soon was diagnosed as being schizophrenic. No, not the bullshitty hollywood axe murdering psycho syndrome, the proper disease. The fact that i have voices in my head, cannot think straight half the time, have violent mood swings and have physically assaulted somone I live with in a fit of paranoid rage probably means I should end up in a mental institute, but I havn't yet, though I know someone who has.
Also, I am agoraphobic. which means I can't be around people without having panic attacks. I have to take 5 different kinds of medication A DAY (hopefully four as of tomorrow), and , considering how angry I get with people on the internet, I think it best for me to stay away from real life people.

when i got diagnosed with asperger's and depression, the money started rolling in...i was put on income support (which is twice the amount that you get on job seekers allowance) just for getting a 12 month doctors note that said "asperger's syndrome" on it...i also got the lower rate of DLA, which was another £17 a week...and got a free bus pass that lasts for 5 years...

so yeah, grab everything that's coming to you...lol x