Is this a good idea for a middle-aged Aspie?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm thinking of putting together all the little bits of money I have from severance pays (since I've been fired so many times) and a bit of savings I have, and buy some kind of low-level 1-room dwelling in some God forsaken, unemployment-stricken part of the country (probably around the desert, where I might be able to afford it). Apply for social security on the grounds of Asperger's, which is just enough to cover food and utilities. Devote my life to writing the books I've been wanting to write, and try my luck at an online business I've been wanting to develop, to have a few extra bucks.

(Merle, please move this to the middle-aged Aspies forum if it doesn't belong here)

Right now it sounds like you've got nothing to lose. The stuff you write is very insightful and just might sell. Once I pay my stupid house off I plan on being a recluse. A simple job is all i will need after that.

What will you write about?

My special interests are connected to tourism in Jerusalem and being an Aspie in an NT society, so without going into detail, the projects I have in my head are connected to those topics.

I highly recommend giving up attempting to work and being employable and just going on SSI. The SSI you will get will probably be comparable to any minimum-wage job you might find yourself in. It is a waste of time trying to get along with the 90-ish IQ cretins you find in the low-level type of work you are probably going after. All it takes is one insolent co-worker to make your days a living hell to the point where you can't work and get fired.

Why not just dump the stress from trying to "be normal," and just devote yourself to doing what you love. You only have so long to live, and why waste your life working at a job you hate if you can get the same money for doing nothing. AS is a legit disability anyway, and as far as I am concerned, I think society owes you something for the torment you probably took in school. I would feel no qualms about going on SSI. If the government can spend 100 million per month on Iraq, then surely 830$ a month to you won't hurt them or taxpayers too badly.

Brusilov, I'm not sure I'll get disability or even that I'll get an AS diagnosis. I always think that I'll be told by the specialists the same that my mother always told me, that there's nothing wrong with me except I have to be less selfish and care more about others and so they won't be angry at me (she thought I didn't care to apply Theory of Mind, not that I didn't have one). Or they'll tell me what my therapist says, that I just have to heal childhood abuse by mother and all will be fine and everyone will want to be my friend. But if I do get lucky, then yes, I want to leave the ordeal of constantly being fired.

Thank you, Merle. I hope to become good enough at the technical side of Photography to include my photos in the books, because I really like my photos...

By the way, this thread is not intended to be all about me, everyone please feel free to post your related sharings!

sounds ok to me, it's what i did. had to move to where it was cheap to buy and yes, that's a 'bad' area.

I thought you weren't sure that they acknowlegded AS in Israel.

I would strongly advise not doing anything financially until you 1) get a formal diagnosis and 2) can prove that you are so disabled you can do no work of any kind. That's what SSI is going to require. Typically, it can take quite some time to get SSI - don't be surprised if you get turned down initially. You may have to appeal.

If you are able to get your SSI, I would ~not~ move to a desert. I lived in the desert southwest for over 20 years - it's a very harsh place. You would want to be able to at least attempt to grow some of your own food, I would think. And having water is essential - not always easy to come to in the desert - and when you do have it it can be brackish or dry up without notice. If it were me, I'd think of some "backwater" place that's having some serious fiscal issues impacting housing where you won't be dealing with extreme heat (unless you can handle either the heat or being indoors avoiding it for 12 hours a day), where you have adequate water (rain, well, municipal, it doesn't matter), where you could try to grow some of your food, and where you could secure adequate fuel to keep yourself warm in the winter.

Good luck.

EDIT - SORRY, I didn't see your location and assumed it was in the USA. Good luck with your plan, hopefully it will be easier to carry out there than it would be here.

Yeah, sort the pension/disability stuff out first, you need a reliable income even if it's only the pension. You can do some 'window shopping' of real estate/areas while you wait.

Not to sound morbid or anything but at middle age, you can usually look forward to something from your parents estate, at some stage, so that may help too.

The following websites are useful sources of additional income... I have friends who make a regular income online via these links.

Here's an email I sent a financially challenged friend of mine... you might find this useful supplementing an income, if you're a good writer.

Of course, I wouldn't do it unless I secured the social benefits first. And I do expect it to be a long, tough fight.

I'm not going to get any inheritance, unfortunately. And here you can't buy land for little money so I'd buy a studio apartment.

I'd much rather live in the Galilee, around Nazareth, but I'm not sure I'd be able to afford it. Prices have gone up since Mary and Joseph bought there, hehe. The desert villages are the cheapest, around the places where the nomadic bedouins live.

Do you girls have cars?

I'm middle aged (40) and I joke that I'm in "early retirement." I can write, draw, pursue hobbies and play.

It took me 9 mos to get SSDI, with a lawyer. To pursue it, I'd say get the atty who will work on contingency to begin with before starting to apply. What helped me was that I had not worked in the two years prior.

I think it's ok to go for this dream. It works well for me.

Wait a minute, whitetiger. I know a bit of postperson's and Nan's stories, but I didn't know about you, that you were living the dream too. Tell me more!

Makes perfect sense to me, except I don't feel inclined to write no book, but that's me, not you.

I feel more at home in the desert than anyplace else. I find a sense of belonging there, a harmony with me a part of it. Not everybody feels that way.

I'd be out there still, except I didn't find enough gold to keep up with the basics, and there's a couple of blue eyed girls I hardly ever see who for some reason get really distressed when I'm not nearby.

All this stuff about "living off the land" comes from people who haven't tried doing it. Read Walden and you'll see what a pompous phony Thoreau was. Lived a half mile from town and hung out at the tavern. Had a steady stream of visitors. He could recognize who had visited by the lingering smell of their tobacco. His "self reliance" depended on participating in the larger economy. Made himself a popular celebrity by bragging about his isolation.

Here in the Rockies, even the mountain men, about as solitary and wild as white people ever got, trapped furs to trade for their necessities.

I've heard stories about some guy around here who lives in the bush and gets by trapping furs, but the animals they call "fur-bearers" are some of my favorites, and I wouldn't feel right about tricking them to kill them for Paris Hilton types in New York and Hollywood.

In traditional societies, where people spent their entire lives practicing the skills of survival, banishment was the equivalent of a death sentence.

Chuang Tzu said, "It's a good thing to live in the wilderness, but the slightest attachment turns it into a marketplace." Chuang Tzu was prone to exaggerate, but he did have a point.

Me, I figure if I gotta be alone anyway, there's no point in having people around cluttering up the scenery.

I wouldn't say run right and do it, but I definitely think it's worth a careful look.

Mortality's a temporary and limited thing. Might as well explore it and see what might be out there for your own version of a human life.

And if you don't, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened if you did.

I believe that everyone has a talent for something. If you are good at it you will be successful. That’s the same advise I would give my son.