One thing that I’ve noticed since my diagnosis since age 52 and after 30 years in supermarket retailing in both Ireland and here in the U.K., which was the only thing that I was ever allowed to do, because I grew up at a time in Catholic Rural Ireland in the 1970’s and 1980’s where your career options were decided for you by others and you were expected to be obedient without question to this (according to traditional Catholic social and moral teachings) and were made to do what you were told that you were going to do as instructed - if you tried to leave and do something else, you were blocked from doing it in many different ways and firmly told to “cop yourself on” - I know that there are “ideal” or “recommended” jobs for those of us with ASD but many of us don’t have the required skills, qualifications nor experience - even after I moved to the U.K. 20 years ago I tried to do other things but I was “persuaded” out of it and these opinions of others were robustly enforced in various ways “behind the scenes” - even when I tried to move back to Ireland between 2009 - 2018, this was also blocked because people did not want to be seen to be agreeing with nor listening to me on anything long before my diagnosis and the traditional Catholic “faith and morals” mantra was rolled out, along with the “obedience” and “discipline” mantra again with enforcement of these opinions as you were simply told what you wanted in life and was expected to silently comply without question, protest nor objection
