I've been diagnosed with ASD at 18 a few months ago, I'm still learning about myself and all, I think this is related so advice would be lovely :)
I started my work in an apprenticeship over a year ago now, my parents suggested I do it as it relates to computer science / programming (which I studied as an A level). I do like programming little things in my spare time (albeit not often as I'm not massively interested in it), but when it comes to doing it at work I feel like I really struggle with the problem solving part of it - I used to think I was really good at problem solving but it was more being good at repeating methods and formulas rather than designing a solution or so. And unfortunately my work is a lot of designing solutions for things. I do feel a bit useless in comparison to my coworkers in this apprenticeship, they seem to just "get" things and program useful things while I try to think about making some kind of solution and feel like there's a brick wall or something in my head. I do ask people around me for help when I need it (a lot), but there's only so much help I can ask for and I'm starting to wonder if maybe my brain just doesn't suit work like this.
I work like a standard 9-5 office job, and every day I'm in the office I sort of come home tired and lie down for hours (I started falling asleep in the passenger seat driving to and from work a few months in). I find the office noisy and the lights are bright but I do use music to block out noise so I don't get too many headaches (I get them often I'm not sure why), plus my workplace is friendly and open to reasonable workplace adjustments (although I have no idea where to begin with those). I don't know if I'm just being lazy when I'd really rather do some form of job with simpler instructions or repetitive tasks I can follow than this style of job, but I'm also not really sure what jobs consist of things like that either, and I feel kind of hopeless. I have tried the different placements I've been to as a part of my first year, but I just feel tired all the time and become increasingly more aware that I'm the slowest programmer of my group and that I really do not have an interest in programming software etc as a means of work.
When I was looking at jobs etc after A-levels I was looking at uni degrees in illustration / animation as I'm interested in and enjoy creative things like that, but my parents thought an apprenticeship like this was more viable and I believe it is. It does pay well, and have good career progression, and I worry I'd be making a big mistake switching jobs or anything of the like. I'm really not happy though, I find myself dreading every day I have to go into the office, and counting down the hours until I can go home. I also cry a lot sometimes. When I talk about it to people around me the advice I get is that not enjoying work like this is just a part of life, I hope I'm not just being overdramatic.
I'm just looking for any advice / insight, I really don't know or understand much about the world of work and this is my first job (the pandemic meant I couldn't have a side-job whilst doing my A levels like others did). Thank you :)