Hi Anne

If you like you can come to a Aspen meeting (Asperger Friends) call me at 908 236 6153. or vist aspen at www.aspennj.org to set up a Aspen Chapter where you live. please let me know if you need more help to set up a chapter. Ask for Matthew Loscialo or Carolyn Loscialo.

Edited by author 03-31-2007 03:17 PM
Hi...I just wanted to say thanks for posting here and especially thanks to those who are promoting and educating on this condition. My brother is 47 years old and was just diagnosed with AS last year. I always knew something wasn't right about him, as we were growing up...but never had a name for it.

He's lived at home with our mother for nearly his entire life. Chaotic work history. Then our mother got sick last year and I had to intervene on her care...and his. I got him started on treatment but he keeps fighting me. Sadly, after so many years of his own negative thoughts & bad habits, it might be too late for him to sucessfully habilitate and integrate into a working society.

Good luck and best wishes to those with children who are trying to do something positive for your children. It's a hard life.

Looking for students with autism who have graduated or exited high school within the past ten years to fill out a survey on their high school experience and employment history. Parents and guardians who are knowledgeable about the students high school experience are invited to participate.

Click on this link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=284633401755 which will connect you to a survey that is part of a doctoral dissertation to provide information on the major components and settings in public schools that lead to employment for individuals with autism.

There is a British organisation called Asperger Technical for people with Asperger syndrome who work in science, engineering, or computing.

http://www.aspergertechnical.org.uk

Edited by author 09-10-2007 11:33 AM
Hi All,

I am new to all of this, so please bare with me. I am just about to be diagnosed with Asperger. In addition, I have never been able to get or keep a job and am not sure if I can receive disability insurance(SSI) from the state of Michigan being that I don't have a bad enough case of it. Yet, in the long run of things, I believe that Asperger has and--for the most part--always will be a deterant for me in getting and keeping a job. I am 33 years of age, not benefitied job, have to take 6 different meds, and I am tired of looking for a job at this point. Im not saying that I am giving up, just tired of the run-around I get in interviews and such. Being that this is a verrrrrrrrry hiden disability for myself, no one believes that I realy do want to succeed in my work. My work happens to be clerical.

Hi. I see that a few of you were able to get a diagnosis. How did you do that? My brother was diagnosed as having high functioning autism as a child but now he is 32 years old and hasn't been able to hold a job at all. My parent's no longer have any of his medical records from when he was a child as well and from what I discovered what would have been available has been distroyed by hurricane Katrina. Do you have any recommendations?

Hi ! I have a comment to Julia Moore (9-10-07) Dear Julia: I was diagnosed w/ASP about 4 or 5 years ago, and am also in a clerical job, having problems; I have always HAD problems with jobs, as they have been within organizations. The difference? I am 54! But I have a support person specializing in employment support - being very fortunate there. My biggest problem is in "reading" what others are saying/indicating w/body language, & knowing what is expected of me. I have trouble generalizing. Working in a hospital, (even a lame one like mine, going through management problems!) I can say: listen, I have perception difficulties, can you please explain this to me, spell it out so I can make a "rule" to follow? Perhaps you can try that approach with your supervisor, if they are at all understanding. Let me know how you are doing. And cheer up! You found out early you had Aspergers -- I only found out after I was 45!!! Knowledge is power -- you can have insight on the way you think, and understand yourself better. This is a very good thing, trust me. It is better than going for years clueless, or having people not believe you, because your 'symptoms' were a little this, a little that, with no consistency! Does Michigan have any sort of state insurance if you fall under a minimum income? Do you qualify? Does it have psych counseling benefits? Maybe, if you checked with a reference librarian, they might help you find out -- they are often helpful whereas official people don't take the extra time to help us out. Good luck. (I think I said that, sorry for repeating, I do that).
Carol

Carol, Julia: i think I may have AS. I have been told I belabor topics. Some co-workers say that my "tone" is rude, and that I tend to follow rules too much. I am just not saying too much anymore.

Just saw the message from a Michigan family...
Judson Center Autism Connections in Royal Oak is constantly adding to their supports for adults. We currently DO NOT place people into work. Our supports currently are things like career assessments and job shadows, job club (plus some social things).
www.judsoncenter.org
(disclosure: I work there)

Please help me. I am a 40 year old woman who believes in her soul she is an "Aspie". I have almost every diagnostic problem listed on the psych evals available on the internet. I have always been labelled "wierd". My sister goes with me to meet new people because she guides the conversation so I understand the new person and they understand me. She is my interpreter, I guess. People are exhausting for me. I am constantly having to make sure my facial expressions convey what I am trying to say. I still get it wrong, though. People tend not to trust me because they "feel" something isn't right. When I get a new job, employers start out thrilled thinking they have just found the goose that lays the golden eggs, largely because of my vocabulary. They put the "off" messages down to nervousness at a new job. But within a few weeks, they are dumbfounded at my inability to grasp things everyone else picks up on immediately. Some employers have extended a normal two week training period to three months and end up firing me or demoting me because I only grasp the higher functions of the job. For instance, at Burger King, I was the Shift Manager. I got the managerial duties just fine. But I didn't get the hourly jobs, like how to make the sandwiches. And I am SLOW. I still fail to see how I could have been faster. I did my best. I would have to ask the same questions every day. It is very frustrating to know that I am going to go in to work today asking the very same questions I asked yesterday, and to know they know I will too. They get frustrated that I can't seem to remember the answer to that, but I sure can remember the combination to the safe after doing it once, or that I can remember every cash transaction on my drawer for an entire week, but not how to make a certain burger that I've made a thousand times. I was written up repeatedly and I finally just quit. I have only been able to last about 3 months at any job.
I have no friends. Mostly it's because I am so outspoken. If I see hypocrisy in a person, then I'm done with them. It's like a worm that infests me. At first it just irritates me to see the difference between their words and their actions. But very quickly, I shun them because I can't stand the dichotomy. What I perceive as honesty, others perceive as rude. I've even started friendships off by telling them I have Asperger's and explaining what it is, thinking they will cut me some slack if they know up front what is wrong. But it doesn't work that way. They still expect me to be like everyone else. So I guess I don't get to have friends or jobs.
Please contact me with some advice, help, anything. My email is: QueenAngie_2005@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance,
Angela Mayes

Hello webmaster,
I would like to share with you a link, write to alarroste@mail.ru

Just an update to my posting of 2007: I am now on full-time disability, due to major depressive disorder (which seems to be much better now that I am not struggling to fit in to a dysfunctional workplace all the time). My two psychiatrists, primary clinician, acute clinician, and (reluctantly) my job counselor all agreed that I could not fit into a work situation with my Asperger's plus major depressive disorder. I ended up getting into screaming matches with my supervisor because I would not "name names" when they wanted me to rat out on my co-workers. Management could not understand I had a code of ethics I needed to adhere to. I ended up having suicidal ideations (thoughts of killing myself) as the job demands grew more intense; I was NOT able to handle the rapidly increasing stress levels that affected all levels of my hospital.

(I was also dealing with abnormal levels of spinal pain at the time; the steriod injections I had - series of 3 epidurals - probably was the last straw in destabilizing my emotional state).

The good news is that now, 11 months after my last breakdown at work, I am relatively happy, much healthier, and working towards improving my mental health in a proactive way. My psychiatrist has me taking 400 mg of 5 HTP Tryptophan + B complex in aditional to my psych meds, and I have been able to reduce my anti-depressant from 300 mg/day in May 2008 to 87.5 mg /day in March 2009. We are also trying reducing my modd stabilizer (Zonegram) from 300 to 200 mg. I must add that I have been on a GLUTEN-FREE diet since October 2006, and I think that this greatly affects the success of my treatment: I now ABSORB my medications and supplements. If I have even a little bit of gluten, my mood de-stabilizes.

I am a practicing Buddhist, and find that the discipline of meditation and prayer form a big factor in my peacefulness and stability. I would be "lost" without it. I utilize the techniques of radical awareness (Tara Brach) which is based on Buddhism; this helps me cope with many day-to-day stressors.

I do have panic attacks at the idea of returning to work; my doctor has assured and re-assured me I do not have to do so.

I'm sorry I can't provide a magic bullet for those of us with Asperger's and other mental health issues to enable us to fit into the work world. Of late, the business world has become MUCH less tolerant of any people who question authority and do not tow the line. Deviation from the norm is simply not acceptable. This makes fitting in even most difficult, if not impossible.

My suggestions would be to find a job in a small, private bookstore, or a small private store or office that MIGHT, I repeat MIGHT be able and willing to adapt to our different way of thinking.

Edited by author 04-11-2009 05:01 PM
Hello, I'm going through the same situation as most others on this board as a person diagnosed with AS and having troubles with work/job issues.

I have not been "officially" diagnosed with AS but I know in my heart that I have it. I've always been extremely shy, have had very little friends and was often labeled "different" and "weird" by my family, peers and classmates while growing up and still today. I still dread attending some family functions and some social activities with the few friends that I have.

Anyway, I got fired last year from a really stressful job as a clinical trials monitor (CRA), which looking back, it was probably for the best. That job required alot of travel (which was difficult for me since I still suffer from panic attacks when having to fly on airplanes, driving over bridges and driving through tunnels) as well as the ability to train and have strong communications with clinical trials staff employees (including doctors, which CRAs were required to correct and train, which was also very intimidating for me), all of which I was terrible at doing. I thought I would initially be good at this job because it always requires extreme organization and attention to detail, which I've always been good at maintaining but ultimately it wasn't enough to save my job.

But I still can't help but wonder what I could have done better to avoid what happened. But a part of me knows there is probably nothing I could have done to change that situation, it mostly had to do with having AS and the characteristics associated with this condition that makes keeping a job sometimes difficult. Fortunately, I was able to find a new job rather quickly after getting fired however I'm facing some the same issues as my old one and fear I may lose this one as well. My boss says that I work too slow and I know she thinks I'm very weird because I'm very antisocial at work. But I often work late at night to get my work done (because it takes me longer to grasp how to accomplish an assignment) and I think she sees how hard I work and that's why I haven't been fired (yet). But the possibility always remains.

Some issues I've had to deal with at the job that make work difficult include having trouble with multitasking and trouble with generalizing things. I've always excelled when dealing with specific tasks that have very specific rules attached to them for accomplishing the one main task at hand. I really enjoy technical writing and writing instructions for accomplishing routine work tasks and have written several mini "manuals" for our routine office tasks and my boss said these were pretty helpful but still this is not enough to "get by" with her.

My passion has always been public health and I'm trying to figure out the best profession at the field where I can combine my passion for helping others (without having to interact directly alot with them) and my passion for writing about public issues and creating instructional documents related to public health issues. It's too complicated to figure out all at once now but I'm slowly getting there.

In the meantime, I'm definitely going back to school to earn a masters in public health degree and am thinking about pursuing this full-time since I'm so burnt out with work and all that it requires with the constant deadlines, following up (which I still have great difficulty with doing) and then the constant required socializing, which has always been a major source of frustration and anxiety for me.

I'm just trying to keep the faith that somewhere out there is the perfect job for me and other Aspies who face these same job difficulties. Good luck everyone.

Hello, I have had asperger's syndrome for the past 10 years. I have difficulty holdingo onto a job as I usually end up making a misktake and then get fired. What are the best jobs for people with Asperger's Syndrome and what are the worst jobs ? What types of things do you do in your job to help you cope with time management, organization, and planning ? Has anybody been through any therapy and does it really help ? How do you explain to other people your disability.

Hi all. Well, the topic here is exactly what I was looking for since I have a 23 y/o son who is rocking the same boat as those I've read about here, but I don't really see any tips. We've been dealing with this since he was born actually, and it seems the fight will never end...Help! We live in Virginia; my son got a certificate from Woodrow Wilson Vocational School (in Customer Service-no less!) I told them when he went that wasn't the way to go, but "they knew better than me". So now, after quitting 2 jobs because the square peg just doesn't fit in the round hole, we're back to square -5 (this is destroying what little self esteem he had managed to gather. *shakes head* Suggestions and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hi my 19 year old is in the same situation / he was fired from his last job also. He has a passion for cars and hopefully will do something with that.
I know my son is only 19 but my findings from other people with children in this situation is child care for one they are great they have like minds communicate extremely well. my son loves to drive a fork lift in the warehouse he just started a new job and his very happy is making $20 an hour with benefits and insurance he likes the routine with no pressure. Most of us with this are very happy doing our own thing some draw some are massage therapist some walk dogs/the world is not ready for these high function individuals. but i do know when the look in side there heart and find what makes then sing they do much better .