Lockdown

Hello,

My boyfriend has a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. Life has dealt him some bad hands and he carries a lot of trauma and hurt from this. He has suffered from anxiety and depression for over 10 years. He recently left university (a little later than he would have liked) and went into the world of work. After a hard time trying to get a job, a friend of a friend landed him a brilliant opportunity. He began working for a company and it all seemed to be going well. His confidence started to grow again and he began to see hope again where he hadn't for a while. But then lockdown happened and he struggled to work remotely. He reached out again and again for support from the company only to be encouraged to stop the job. There was no redundancy or firing, he was on probation so they simply ended this. This left him terribly depressed and anxious.

Since then (9 months ago), he has been looking for another job but part of him has given up. He has employment support but he lacks the energy and motivation to keep going and he finds the job application/interview process very painful. He is an intelligent man and wants to find a job which will challenge him intellectually but this seems impossible at the moment. Over the last 10 years, he has exhausted all sorts of medical help/intervention including therapy, CBT, medication. His parents have spent thousands of pounds on therapies etc but nothing ever seems to work. 

We have reached a point where he has lost hope for everything - finding a job, getting medical help and having a future. I really worry about what the future holds for him and how I can support him to keep going. 

If anyone has any advice for how I can support him please do share, I would love to hear your experiences. 

Thank you. 

Parents
  • Oh gosh, that's a hard one. Now is not easy, so he shouldn't generalise the difficulty in finding work, it'll pick up again. As you get older you realise how many niche jobs there are out there that you don't see when you're young.

    You sound caring, so keep showing him care. Sorry I've no easy fix to suggest.

    (maybe editing the title to so ething like "finding work as a maths/history/english graduate" might help get more engagement.

Reply
  • Oh gosh, that's a hard one. Now is not easy, so he shouldn't generalise the difficulty in finding work, it'll pick up again. As you get older you realise how many niche jobs there are out there that you don't see when you're young.

    You sound caring, so keep showing him care. Sorry I've no easy fix to suggest.

    (maybe editing the title to so ething like "finding work as a maths/history/english graduate" might help get more engagement.

Children
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