In short, I’m miserable, lonely, and broke. I need to get the fuck out of California and into someplace with rent less than $1000 a month. I also need to find a job that gets me like $25 an hour. I’m good at data entry and formwork and I have a really great voice I have no idea what to do with. I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing and I suck ass at all the important parts of being a person, and all the people who try to help me can’t help me or I don’t get it because I got the full power of the spectrum radiating inside of my forebrain and it’s fucking me up.
I’ve tried budgeting with spreadsheets and it doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried looking for work but it’s a brand new hell every time I open the browser. I hate this. I fucking hate that mental illness fucked me up when I was supposed to figure out my life and now that I’m finding a bit of peace within myself I still have to contend with all the things everyone else has to do and recognizes as shitty but somehow get done while I just suck ass at everything.
Help me.
I’m in a similar situation and I don’t think I can mentally handle work, so I’m trying to convince my family to let me be a kind of house spouse or something (which I will also probably kinda suck at but at least I will be somewhat useful instead of just doing nothing and endlessly failing at being a wage slave?)
It’s really amazing, I was “fine” (looking back:not really) all throughout school because I got such good grades, all the adults hyping me up making it sound like I’m gonna “go places”. I literally cannot function lol. I am perpetually burnt out all the time just from existing.
If not for the pity and generosity of my mother, I would likely be homeless. I’m sorry, I wish I had advice. I read somewhere that 80% of autistic people are unemployed. Idk how accurate that is, but given how hard it is for us to keep up with the NTs, I wouldn’t be surprised.
I read somewhere that 80% of autistic people are unemployed
I’ve read this many times, and I kinda believe it but also like, how the fuck are y’all surviving? It’s not like this is a country where you can be alive without a job.
Homeless, living in supportive housing, living with parents, inheritance, or staying in constant burnout turning over job after job til the very end
I feel this in my bones. 4 jobs in the past 4 years. Make it through the first few months feeling like it will be different. Eventually burnout and function poorly until I am laid off or it’s so overwhelming I quit. Rinse and repeat.
Trying to work and finish my degree now, but my job is so soul sucking I counterintuitively stay up way too late at night trying to disassociate from my current existence through videos and weed
I think a lot of the “NEET” (that might be a 4chan term sry) and “living in mom’s basement” types are this, and if you don’t have that sort of privilege, probably a lot of homelessness :/
Like most terms it started out as a real term and got muddled over time. Like, did you know fool was originally a medical diagnosis? People enjoyed misusing it so much we forgot its original use. Neet was a government clarification for people Not in Education Emploument or Training. The 4chan core audience to be sure
I still have to contend with all the things everyone else has to do and recognizes as shitty but somehow get done while I just suck ass at everything.
I don’t have any advice, but I want to say that this really resonated with me.
I feel this deep in my bones. I’m so burnt out that I’ve just given up on trying for anything, even the things that make me happy. So now I just feel like I am actually a lazy fuck. Self fulfilling prophecy. I’m sorry you’re struggling with this, it’s awful.
I have a suggestion for work, maybe, if you’d like it
This probably won’t work for everybody, but looking at county jobs doing reception/intake work for things like your state’s developmental disability services could be doable. In my county it’s a union job with good wages, flexible schedule, hybrid, etc. Plus if you actually get in to that particular program, I’d think that they would be more flexible/welcoming to people with autism…I hope. Lol.
Most people who fit that description I know do skilled call center work. I don’t know how poorly that pays in the US but you can get an above poverty level wage here in Australia thanks to unions. It’s good for neurodiverse people bcs you can work from home and have subway surfer going at the same time. You’re constantly switching tasks due to calls so ADHD is an advantage
constantly switching tasks
That’s one of the things stressing me out at my current job
I can emphasize with that. If my boss just gave me work and fucked off for the week I’d be much better off than my current situation of stop start jolts on 5 different projects along with random 1 minute calls throughout the day about things that are in emails he hasn’t read yet.
Have you thought about work that you know will be traumatic going in? I work in Healthcare and there are alot of otherwise marginal people doing reasonably well in it. Me for example. One of the doctors I work with is a masters degree doctor. So doable for a working class person, and she has a poorly managed skitzotypal condition. Like, she will be wiritng orders and doing procedures fine. Then in the breakroom she will just talk about paranoid delusions and everyone is polite but uninterested.
Right now I am basically an orderly. I walk around the hospital all day assisting with thing and emergencies. It suits my adhd brain well as I am walking about all day and I rarely have to work at a task for longer than it takes for me to get irritated at it. Pay is okay, there are several diffrent kinds of certifican you cna get do to this level of work.
I don’t have as much experience but plenty of thr people I have worked in construction and security with have been the same. So those are also options worth considering. You like coloring? Welding is just high stakes coloring.
