How on earth do you survive with Asperger's/HFA? (Poll)

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You left out my option:

"I haven't died yet."

I survive. The only reason I'm still with my parents is because I promised my mother I wouldn't leave until I was twenty years of age. Otherwise, I know I can survive alone.

I've comes to terms with my disability and compensated in many areas. I receive a pension and I have a part time job. My pension doesn't define who I am. My musical tastes do.

. I was amazed by the fact that you reached R&D in a company without a college degree. What amazes me more is the fact that you started from cleaning and moved all the way up.
I've been different all my life and I suspect i have asperger's. I'm doing Bachelors in Business Administration. I am in my 4th semester of college. I am having a hard time coping with the stress of academics and the social life. I'm not intellectually inferior. It's just that i can't think clearly when i am under stress. I had a 3.4 GPA on my 1st and 3.33 on my 2nd semester of college. But i did really bad on my 3rd semester with a 1.48 GPA failing statistics. I specialized on marketing. But now I've realised that i can't be a conventional marketer. Life is getting harder and i can't cope. But I'm not lazy and I'm willing to work to get a good life. I wanted to ask you some question.
How did people treat you back when you were a cleaner? How did you move all the way up, did you have friends in the upper level? And as you started moving up how was people's behavior towards you?
I was interested in knowing your overall experience with life.

^^^^hiya 1997 welcome to the club

There was no multiple option so I had to vote other.


I do qualify for disability so I get it. I have an honored citizen pass because I also qualify for it and an adult monthly pass for public transportation is over $100. I work part time and work for a company that employs people with disabilities. But that is about all the support I get.

I've had long periods of unemployment (3 years was my longest), went to college twice (Graphic Design when I was 18 and Computer Science in my late 20s), over twenty jobs (kitchen porter, retail, tech support, IC design, chef, delivery driver, R&D QA, installation engineer, software dev, web dev, and now software tester), have been made redundant 6 times and walked out of numerous jobs. Oh, and no degree for me either - every time I got a uni place I got a job instead.

Having been diagnosed this January, I finally know why I have such a chequered employment history

I choose "other" because I work part-time but my significant other is the breadwinner. Before I had kids I worked full time and attended college. I've also been self employed, which is nice. I find working to be stressful and I would often just up and quit a job over some silly thing. I didn't know how to work out my problems when I was younger. I am now in a job that I would like to keep, so I'm trying to make sure I don't screw it up. I pretend to be normal. And I must remind myself not to do some things because my behaviors can be weird.

I'm a high school dropout who has lectured to graduating engineers. When I needed a regular job the last time, I was hired to develop composite helicopter accessories based on a marine product I'd developed on my own. After a while, the boss got nervous and sent me to trade school for a week to get some paper. I had to pay attention for one afternoon, but the rest was review for me.

I was lucky enough to find a job that I enjoy that pays decent money. I'm also okay with being on the spectrum. I work at a local bank.

I have a lucrative career as a musician known by my stage name as... I better not say.

I've been a clerical worker for the City of New York since 1980.

I am just lucky that I seem to work well within the UK mental health service and have a very supportive manager

Most of my work has been as a comunication support worker, which means I interpret lessons into sign language for deaf students. I'm now working towards a special needs teaching assistant qualification.

Since studying is more or less what I can do best (only if intrinsically motivated), I just moved on from university to doctorate studies, and I'm working full-time as a scientist. Saying full-time, however, is a bit of an overstatement, since my work routine tends to be pretty messed up (sometimes I work mornings, sometimes evenings, sometimes from home, etc.). I do get some support from my workplace, in that I have a flexible schedule (I can work from home if needed, if my anxiety is too bad, etc.; workplace doesn't know about ASD but it knows about anxiety), but I also work long hours doing experiments in the afternoon, evenings, and weekends, so it kind of balances itself out. I often think I wouldn't be able to support myself if it weren't for the type of job I do, and I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it up. Probably looking into non-ordinary jobs (with flexible schedules, self-employment, part-time jobs, etc.) is one of the best bets for some of us. Good luck with figuring things out, I know how draining it can be!

I have a work-from-home job, but I live with my mom and pets. I wish I could live on my own, but most people have said that it would be impossible for me to do so.