Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there,
Just wondering, does anyone else feel as though there is zero support out there? I have searched and searched including on this website and it just seems the only real support is for children, parents/guardians/carers of autistic children or severely autistic adults. I am high functioning autistic with a diagnosis in the past couple of years. It feels as though no one cares. Once I got my diagnosis there was zero follow up at all. Nothing. Is it not the people who have always struggled through life and never known why that need support? Of course children and severely autistic people need support, but it feels as though high functioning adults are completely left behind as if because we are high functioning we can cope on our own. I have been completely and utterly lost since graduating university with no direction and no purpose. I am one of the 88% of adults with autism who are out of work, but there is just no support to help those 88%.
I feel like I am slowly going insane and no one seems to care or want to help.
Am I the only one?
Sophie
Another recently active thread on the subject of work is this one.
NAS69281 said:my biggest struggle at the moment is finding employment. I completed a degree with a 2.1 so I am perfectly capable. I can't seem to decide what I might like to do. I will think of something and then obsess over it for a few weeks and then it will peter out until I've pretty much forgotten about it. I know a few things I definitely don't want; desk/office job, anything customer related (fewer people the better!)
I have computer and numeracy skills so would be well suited to a 'back office' role with a lot of spreadsheet / database / finance work but roles are combined with reception / telephone / customer / public elements, can sort of understand the feeling of not wanting any kind of office work but for me personally still don't know what I'd do instead. My ideal would be if I could find that next employer with that willingness to utilise my skills in the back office capacity without the front stuff.
Robert124 said:I want to get back into computer programming and software development. But my skills are out of date
That was the same problem for me after my redundancy from my last programming job in 2002, and I've just posted about my difficulty fitting in at that company on the other thread. While I did still have a few interviews, even though the skill I had was declining, always found that companies didn't just want a "programmer" but a customer facing "analyst/programmer" and were seeking ambition to climb the career ladder.
Trei said:for those of us in the higher functioning end, apart from getting concessions in work, if you're one of the ones lucky enough to find a supportive employer to give you a job in the first place, then there really is nothing. I don't count CBT as support, because it seeks to alter our way of thinking when there is nothing wrong with our way of thinking or being. We just need reasonable adjustments & acceptance in life
This quote really sums up what I put towards the end of my first post on the other thread, it feels like being in such a deep abyss between being nowhere near impaired enough to be deemed an ESA/PIP case, yet too impaired to be employers' first choice. I agree about CBT, and another over-used word ‘coaching’, real support would be if someone could introduce us to employers who would value our strengths with roles to use them, without trying to 'therapise'/'coach' us on the things we are never going to change by definition of the condition.
metalmickey said:it feels like being in such a deep abyss between being nowhere near impaired enough to be deemed an ESA/PIP case, yet too impaired to be employers' first choice.
A very familiar situation for me. In 2018 I was fired for being unemployable due to my bizzare behaviour. That's what was said at my dismissal hearing.
I was encouraged to apply for PIP by a debt advisor. I scored zero points for PIP. And that report found me to be completely normal with no issues of any kind.