An Aspie's Life: The Untold and Unknown Story

Chapter 14 - Getting Extra Help

Being an Aspie, as you have seen by now, comes with many issues, problems, and daily things that will trip you up and keep you from living the so called “normal” lifestyle. Sometimes as an Aspie, just following these steps can take care of all your problems. You’ll be able to get that job, marry, have kids, pets, and anything else you want out of life. For others, they don’t really need these steps. Their Asperger’s Syndrome is so mild that unless you know what you are looking at when it happens it can seem utterly normal. Yet, there are still others. Your symptoms could be something you can handle with the right situation or they can be something that affects your life every day. With the first scenario, if it takes you a while to get things under control or you were diagnosed late in life, then you can run into the same problem as someone with more severe issues.

The problem you can run into is that normally, when you are working on those issues, you may or may not be in school but you probably won’t be working anywhere because you can’t find a job that you can handle until you get your Asperger’s Syndrome under control. To be able to work means having that under control. Here’s the problem, if you don’t work for more than six months then when you go looking for a job, people will pass over you. They won’t see you as an intelligent candidate because you don’t have recent training. You may have a college degree; you may have all ready worked in a department store. But if it’s been more that six months since you had that job, you won’t be looked at for the same job anymore. They will expect you to start from the bottom again. That means things like fast food restaurants or warehouses. Jobs that require you to be quick on your feet and quick in your mind and work long hours.

There are many Aspies who simply can’t do jobs like that. Being an Aspie with attention issues, fear of unexpected changes and panic attacks when they do change suddenly, inability to remember multiple tasks given verbally, imagine trying to work through the lunch rush you may have seen when you go to eat at your favorite fast food place. All the people, all the noise, and all the different things you have to do at the exact same time.

I’ve been there. I’ve done that once. Looking back, the only reason I was able to make it was because the manager was kind and because I had my mom looking out for me. She kept me on the right path to keeping up with my school work, keeping it organized, and talking me through my work day so I could go relax when I got home. While it might sound like it was a cake walk, I had a panic mode when it came time for my term paper in high school. The only way I was able to keep my job there was because with my mom’s assistance, we worked out a deal with my manager to have a week off so I could work exclusively on my paper and school and would return when my term paper was done. I remember having confusion when people crowded the counter. I remember being upset when things didn’t go right. It was hard work to do it and I only worked there for a couple of months. I couldn’t manage working there for a couple of years.

With the way my mind works, which has been confirmed by nearly every Asperger specialist I’ve had a meeting with, I could do other jobs like being a college professor, work as a receptionist for someone’s office. Those are jobs without the same level of stress that working for clothing stores and fast food places can bring. You have a limited and constant flow of the same faces. With being a college professor, you don’t even go in every day to teach. There are more off hours that you do grade papers but that’s something that can be done alone in the comfort of your own home.

Now, moving on from that. If you can’t get that job, then you won’t have insurance. This means car insurance, medical, dental, any of it. The only reason you might have it now is because your parents are paying for it for you. They are taking care of it for you because you don’t have the money to pay for it yourself. There are a lot of things you won’t have that you need. You will become dependant on your parent’s money. So what happens the day your parents finally pass away and you are left on your own?