Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I'm Karen [I prefer Kaz] I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome back in October 2003 at the age of 8; I didn't really fully understand my Aspergers until my late Teens.
I have difficulties with Social Communication; Understanding Things [Questions; Emotions; Words; Routines; Financial etc.] Sudden Changes or Changing my Routine. My biggest difficulty in particular is Group Work; I find it very hard to meet new people, make friends and especially keep friends. A lot of times I've gotten to know people, gain friendships and then once they gotten to know me or see me during a 'Sensory Overload' or whether there's an issue or argument they would then see me as a 'BAD' person (which I'm not 99% of the time) and would either then avoid me, bully me, gossip about me or most cases hurt me emotionally. I do have a small bunch of friends whom I'm close to who understand, respect/accept me, who I am; they've seen me at my worst times and have stuck by.
Unfortunately since leaving college back in 2012, I decided not to go to University and focus on getting a job; I am now currently a University Student and unemployed. I haven't had a job yet, I've been rejected by so many job applications, I've even had replies say "I'm sorry but we can't hire you with your condition". I want to try and do something career wise, so I've decided to go to University, unfortunately I've only been here 2 months and I've already had issues with group work (which I'm currently sorting out atm) and I currently have some students in my course either avoiding me or gossiping about me. Truthfully, I work better independently. It's a shame really, cos I'm a very caring, supportive and funny person once people get to know me, it's just hard when they look at me differently cos of a small issue or if I get anxious about something.
I am very creative & imaginative, one of my positives is Photographic Memory which is useful for my Self Taught Video Editing; I'm a Youtuber and spend at least 6/7 hours a day editing videos/creating videos which is my biggest skill. I'm also a massive Doctor Who fan [so hello to any Whovians who read this] And I also want to help inspire & support people with Autism, Aspergers, Autistic Spectrum in the Future, so I can share my stories and experiences to others for inspiration.
But yeah, that's only a bit about me, there's so much more to that, but hello, nervous hello really, cos I'm not 100% socially comfortable/confident with chatting online/forums etc.
Nice to hear your story! I can relate to some of the stuff you mentioned.
Have you looked at EmployAbility? It provides job opportunities for students with disabilities. https://www.employ-ability.org.uk/ Since you are in university now, you can consider writing an email or making an appointment with the University career centre when you want to look for jobs.
I also had a hard time with some of the group work when I was in undergraduate. If you want to, you can consider asking the professor if you are allowed to complete the project as an individual, they may or may not agree, and if you do do it by yourself, it may mean more workload (you will be doing a full project while other do a fraction of the project), but maybe less social stress.