Autistic and unemployed

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11 Comments

I am 25 years old now and still unemployed.
I have reached a point of bitterness as well for not getting diagnosed until the age of 22. Its a long process after getting diagnosed to where you can recieve any kind of support.
For me its mostly been I need a specific job coach who works with neurodivergent people, especially since I have social anxiety and since I have selective mutism. I got a job coach who was amazing, this was in 2020. When the pandemic came they removed her from her post because society does not value people with special needs. Now I am on a waiting list...

I feel terrible about my choices in career. At 15 I chose to study photography like some dumbass and then I struggled figuring out what to study after high school but eventually went for animal care. Studied that until fall 2019 only to realize I cant work with that. I've been offered jobs with animals but all such workplaces are far out in nowhere or just located in places you can only get to by car. Some of it is quite heavy physical labour too which doesnt suit me very well.
I should have gone with programming like most other autistic people but now it is too late. I would need to study it at a school with a teacher present because its difficult and if I decide to do that now then more years will pass of unemployment...
I already know I want to work alone. Something like programming would be ideal but I am too late. I feel very depressed.
It doesnt help when I read a large number of autistic people are unemployed... I dont want this. Disability check is tiny and its boring with nothing to do... My mind wants stimulation.

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Based on 9 votes
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Comments ( 11 )
  • SkullsNRoses
    1 year ago

    Twenty five is a normal age to want to learn programming, I’m exactly the same age as you and literally started learning HTML this month. If animal care isn’t working out then what do you have to lose by trying something new?

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      1 year ago

      I guess but im just worried of not having a real job until in my 30s and comparing with everyone else my age who started earlier and picked the right thing on the first try and have worked for years

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      • SkullsNRoses
        1 year ago

        I feel that, I have to catch myself multiple times a day and tell myself that comparing my “life progress” to relatives, friends and ex-classmates is a waste of my time. I know very few people in their early/mid twenties who have never even doubted the career path they chose and several who changed direction and went “back to square one”.

        Life doesn’t have a re-do button, we can just make the most of the situation we are in.

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  • Tinybird
    1 year ago

    Wow you're like exactly the same as me. I'm 25 and autistic (Although I was diagnosed at 7 or 8 and I'm a girl), I've never had a job, I first did one year of animal care at college, then 1 year of equine, which I hated cause it was heavy physical work which didn't suit me at all, then 1 year of performing arts, then finally one year of art and design and now I'm too old for free college tuition I don't do anything I just stay at home. I'm basically a kid, who has been alive for 25 years. I also have social anxiety and selective mutism and severe executive function disorder

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  • Tinybird
    1 year ago

    There's no way I just wouldn't be able to work, I have meltdowns where I scream and cry as loud as possible uncontrollably when I get overwhelmed or sad, I can't mask and never have never will, and I don't pay rent or bills or whatever, I just live with my parents.

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  • Tinybird
    1 year ago

    I have no motivation to get a job. I doubt I'd even pass the interview. I used to do volunteer work at the local shop for an hour every other week and that was just stacking shelves and shit, but I couldn't even cope with that. When there was the slightest change in routine I would freak out because I had my own routine of what to do first, and my boss Karen (yes her name was Karen) was a bitch!!! I get DLA or PIP or whatever it' called anyway.

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  • Tommythecaty
    1 year ago

    Has selective mutism, talks a lot.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      1 year ago

      What?!

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      • Tommythecaty
        1 year ago

        *looks around

        Who said that?!!

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  • Somenormie
    1 year ago

    The one post I can relate to

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  • Anonymous Post Author
    1 year ago

    Im pretty high functioning but basically its my social skills like for all my school years I was quiet because of selective mutism which still happens to me in certain situations. Based on testing I have now gone through I am not capable of working more than halftime. I think my biggest issues are social and sensory. I lose energy and get even more sensitive to sensory input. Everyday after high school for example id have bad headaches and sometimes migraine attacks from the strain of being there 7-8 hours a day even though I loved high school and did well there.

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