Will I ever be able to do paid work again?

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I have lots of abilities but my 'executive skills' are so impaired (v ADD-ish) and I find being around people so exhausting that I've always found it impossible to function for any length of time in paid employment. It's been twelve and a half years since i had a proper job. I need to earn some money really because my husband, the bread-winner in our relationship, has developed a very debilitating physical disease which is highly unlikely to improve and he needs to either cut his hours or move into a less stressful and demanding field of work. I have a great voluntary job, working with wild animals, and would love to become a staff member there, but I honestly don't think I could cope with the increased hours & responsibilities at my current level of functioning. I don't know whether getting a diagnosis would enable me to get the accommdations I need to be able to do paid work or if it would just be stigmatising in the eyes of potential employers. If anyone has any thoughts on this I'd be most grateful.

Well, if youve got the l33t sk1llz, there is computer assembly/repair. You can charge insane amounts and yet people will still pay them, in order for you to slot some bits of plastic and metal into another bit of plastic and metal, then put a disc into a CD drive and click 'next' until Windows in installed.
And people are always getting new computers, and for some reason they will come to the person who charges first, instead of the one offering to do it for free, usually anyway.

Orrrrr...you could become a writer/artist, then nobody would think you were wierd

That's so funny you say that. I'm quitting my job right now to take a stab at that. I've been at a job for 8 years but it has become increasingly difficult to stay focused to the point that I'm going absolutely nuts and not being productive at all. I want drugs. I want just about anything right now. I feel like I'm spinning.

thats been my biggest problem in life is getting a job. i mean i don't find anything really to interesting to make a "living" out of it. wich is why i'm waiting to get social security. im tired of trying to get a job and going through the states programes to help me. they just don't work for me

I've recently quit my job as a programmer. I'm wondering about getting a new education but don't know what . Any tips for jobs suitable for aspies are welcome.

I have heard of dog walking services but I dont have any details(I have considered myself but fear it would involve "driving" to new places and I have driving phobia.I took a month long CNA class(dont work in "old folk/DD warehousing intsitutions)but I do an over night shift with 4 DD clients and only have a few hours in the morning that involve working with other staff and lots of down time at night.But there are alot of draw backs(I am looking for other work)Some people have suggested over nights at grocery stores stocking shelves but I dont know what they pay.There are some state jobs(maybe local,also) that you might find listings for on-line to work at a park or reserve.This is usually solo and some park maintenance(but some jobs include working with the public.They used to be good paying jobs but I think alot of park systems have been gutted(since the election of so many republicans...though I am sure that is just a coincidence)

My personal plan is....winning Publishers Clearing House and never having to work again...wish me luck

I spent several years working as a zookeeper, I don't know about the place you're working with animals now, but I know what I've experienced. If you're working there as a volunteer, you probably have a pretty good idea what the actual work involves; dirty, often monotonous, sometimes dangerous, occasionally exciting, but you get to be around the animals all day.

Me, I had problems with the monotony, but more with the people. I didn't mind the public, a lot of them were there because they were interested in the animals, and I could go aspie and talk about the animals and many of them found it interesting, especially the time I was demonstrating to some people how an ostrich egg is strong enough to stand on, and the egg broke, and I was standing in a quart of raw omlet. You get some jerks, but for me they weren't a big problem.

The biggest problem I had was with the people I worked with and worked for, but in most of the places I've worked, there were a few people I got along with pretty well. Sometimes they were supervisors, which made things much better.

If you've been working there as a volunteer, you probably have a pretty good picture of the people you'll be working around and what you'll be doing, plus, they know you, and if they want to hire you, that means they might not object too strongly to having your individual aspie ways around all day.

I'm not saying you should go that route, but it sounds like you have enough information to make an informed choice. Your concerns sounded kind of vauge and abstract. When you're working there every day, the problems you run into will be much more concrete, and you probably have a good idea now what they will be. Surprise emergency problems with wild animals are fun and exciting.

Krex, I've done a bit of dog walking. I do enjoy it, but have resisted taking on any regular work because the walk tends to be needed in the middle of the day and I find it very difficult breaking my day in the middle. I'm sure this sounds pathetic to many people, but as fellow aspies I'm sure this makes sense to you guys! Maybe I should think about it again. I'm not completely inflexible! Thanks for your reply!

CanyonWind, the place I work isn't open to the public, which suits me better. We have open days which i help prepare for but vanish fromn the scene before the public arrive. It gets very crowded, and crowds are one of the things I hate. I did stay for the first one that happened after I joined the team, and enjoyed answering questions, actually, but it was so cramped it drove me nuts and I had to leave after a couple of hours.

It's a pretty small place and who gets taken on as staff is down to the boss approaching volunteers who seem suitable, so I can't actually apply there. All I can do is demonstrate my abilities and dedication (which I have done to an extent - I know I'm held in quite high regard by most people there), but I worry about being able to work the very long hours that staff work, as I get so tired and need to be by myself a certain amount. I also worry about making clinical decisions, which I would have to do (including whether to put a sick animal out of its misery ). I may be underestimating myself with regard to this. Also getting organised is a problem for me and as a staff member I would have to take on a certain number of managerial responsibilities.
Thanks for your reply too!

Ever considered a job as an accountant? It's rather aspie friendly in a way, mostly just number crunching and analytical type work. Depending on which area of accounting exactly you shouldn't need to do too much human interaction, though make sure as some accounting work involves giving financial advice which means lots of human interaction. You will need to be reasonable adept at working with numbers, though computers and spreadsheets for working stuff out is the norm these days I think.

Another Aspie friendly job, if not all that well paid, is researcher, usually meaning time in a library or archive searching through tons of records and making notes or sorting it out, good if you like reading, history (most of it is history related) writing etc, having a university degree usually helps though (mostly they get students on holiday or ex students to do it). If you have excellent english skills (preferably a degree in english) then proof reading is another option, you can often work from home, I work in publishing and we have a couple of proof readers who work externally, one is on the otherside of the country and just communicates by email.

Another take on the above is working in a library, not a whole lot of human interaction needed, but a whole lot of sorting things into proper order and so on.

Or if you are good at typing there is data entry type stuff.

Most of the above need some sort of qualification however, I once did production line factory work and that required very little human contact, I was mostly night shift with not many people around and just looking after a few machines and making sure everything went ok, there was enough materials prepared, the right number made etc. Quite aspie friendly in a way, though some manual dexterity is needed in some of these jobs, and if something goes wrong it can get overwhelming fast (usually there is a supervisor to help out so its not so bad). It's also quite noisy, but I just listened to an MP3 player/radio the whole time anyway.

I can't think of too many jobs with absolutely zero human contact, but you can find quite a few that dont actually have that much human contact so it's not all that bad.

Thanks for your reply, MysteriouslyAbsent! I'm afraid, though, that the kind of jobs you mentions are just the sort of thing that would drive me doolally with boredom! I don't want to avoid human interraction altogether, as I do feel the need for some human contact! I just need to limit it a bit and make sure I'm with the right sort of people. I'm a creative person and I need to keep moving, rather than being stuck behind a desk. I guess even as Aspies we're as varied as the NTs! Thanks, though, I appreciate what you said!

Turn to the darkside Scrulie. There is much power on the darkside of economic.

"............The Black heart Cat Burglar strikes again in North London taking over
$5,000,000 in uncut diamonds.........two security gruads found with their blood completely sucked from their bodies............."

Scrulie: Hey Hubby how about a nice hot tub to ease your pain.

Hubby: Thats great but we can not afford it.

Scrulie: Oh we will manage.