Feeling Weak Keeping Up NT Lifestyle.....

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I was wondering is this normal for us Aspies? I can't keep up with work even though it is 28 hours or so at Burger King I know everyone gets tired but I hear Management being able to pull ''doubles'' open and close the store as if no big deal,do we have a ''weaker'' processing system as well as internal health issues? I worked 9am to 7pm one night and the next 9am-5pm and actually felt physically ill my anxiety was through the roof and can't calm down for days

I wouldn't be able to work in customer service full stop (I would get flustered and probably flip out). I work 10 hours a week over 3 days (freelance editing from home office) and it's as much as I can manage at the moment. That being said I have two children so I have them after school/preschool until my husband gets home and usually by then I'm so exhausted that my brain has completely stalled and I'm a mess (sensory issues through the roof, whole body feels exhausted, irritable).

Even before I had a diagnosis, I realised years ago I just can't get as much done as other people. If I didn't have to deal with other people, I think I might actually be very productive with the work I'm doing. Still wouldn't be able to work in customer service. Can you look for a job that isn't so service oriented? I'm able to work more productively when alone and able to set my own pace.

I'm not sure it's so much we have a weaker processing system, but perhaps less efficient and way overcrowded with excess information (sensory as well as dealing with all the social stuff by logic). It's financially frustrating though. I feel like my life is a waste of energy, but I have to remember to work to my own threshold not someone else's.

For me, keeping up an NT lifestyle could be hell. I was attending college for a while but stopped for medical reasons. But, when I was a student, I found it difficult to go home and do the coursework because I kept having to go home and crash and get involved in a special interest to regain sanity. The crowded hallways, the noisy classrooms, the need to interpret everything I heard in class so that I wouldn't get confused, and also not knowing that I had autism at the time... yeah, there wasn't much energy or brainpower left after each day at school. Going on campus wasn't as much about learning as it was about subjecting myself to mental torture so that I could build up a tolerance/endurance.

As far as employment, I haven't had a job in ten years. My last job was in retail and that was a nightmare for me. I did both sales floor work (terrible at that because I would never approach customers and when they approached me I would shutdown because I had no idea what they just asked me or why), and stock room (which was better for me because it required placing objects on shelves after hours and involved little to no social interaction). Still, I had issues revolving around special interests and knowing when to step away from them so that I could get back to work (literally, get back to work from break because I would actually drive home to spend my lunch time there rather than at the store), and I would regularly space out in my own little world and forget I was supposed to go back to the job.

All so terribly familiar. My employment history has been a repeated cycle of ; get job - struggle like hell - go part time (where available) - carry on struggling - lose all contact with family/friends due to social exhaustion from work - utter burnout - lose job - shrinks/meds for a few years to recover - try again.

As said by previous posters, public facing work is by far the hardest for me to deal with. The worst, by a long stretch, was a job in the local JobCentre (UK welfare office for unemployed people.) Not only dealing with the public, but people who are only there under duress and see you as the public face of an organisation which they despise. Twice, I had full-scale screaming, flailing melt-downs in the middle of the public office (I was told that on the first occasion, I got some cheers and applause from the clients queuing to sign for their benefit cheques - my manager followed me half way across town before giving up trying to catch me.) When they sent me for an occupational psych assessment, the shrink's conclusion was that I had a "Jesus complex" - I'm not sure which part of the DSM you would find that in , but an interesting diagnosis for a life-long atheist!

Working in electronics assembly was the best for me; I could have happily done that forever, sat at my little workstation with my soldering iron - high concentration work, so very little chit-chat. Though I didn't think it at the time, I made the stupid mistake of accepting a promotion to the R&D team. Good money, but everything started to fall apart, as I had to do my own time management of multiple projects, all with different project leaders, and endless team scrums, including during lunchtimes (which was otherwise my only sanctuary.) I lasted at that for a couple of years by the skin of my teeth until we got a new manager who was a blatant bully (passive-aggressive "you don't want to be like <colleague> now, do you?" kind of crap, broadcasted to the whole team.)

Similar with student life and socialising in my late-teens and twenties. I kept thinking that if I just practised more, I would get the hang of it all, but just ended up burned out and alone most of the time in my bedsit, barely eating and abusing alcohol (it makes people more sociable, right?) in a kind of slow-motion suicide.

My Mum has always told me how lucky I am that my vices are my own free time and creativity, rather than money and possessions; but I'm never quite sure if that is really a choice I ever made, or just acceptance that I don't really have a choice.

I feel I get too overwhelmed with work for my age. Most of my peers work full-time and don't seem to complain about it, while I feel more like someone in their 50s who get tired easier and prefer part-time work.

My previous job was very tiring. I only done 3 days a week, 6 hours each shift, but I was exhausted and shyed away from doing any overtime. Some people there done long days, like a 12-hour shift. These were young people in their 20s. They seemed to be relaxed about it, where as if I had to do a long day like that I would probably have a panic attack sometimes or think about the stuff I could be doing at home, not being stuck somewhere all day under strict rules and stupid Health and Safety stuff.

I suppose it's better to work somewhere you enjoy and what suits you. Now I work at a place that's very Aspie/ADHD-friendly; no public, no distractions, no strict rules, doesn't require much logical thinking, not too tiring or boring, and you can basically be yourself. So if I had to do overtime I will be prepared to do it because I enjoy the job.

For me, it can be, but it is a pleasant type of exhaustion. It was much better than the lonely rut I was stuck in many years ago.