rail_enthusiast

Thanks I will look into following these options. I feel so depressed and useless at the moment. I feel completely dehabilitated and unable to adapt or learn anything new. I hope that this is down to me being depressed, and not my AS getting worse as I get older

Hello, I am 30 years old and suffer from Dyspraxia (diagnosed at secondary school) and Asperger's syndrome (diagnosed last year). My organisation skills and sequencing skills are very poor, and I have a terrible short term memory. As a result I find it difficult to work in situations where I have to be aware of multiple factors which change frequently. I am very good at sharing information with people and helping them, but struggle being in a situation where I need help, or have to ask people for help or assistance. Partaking in group discussions is very challenging for me too, and I struggle to keep track of conversations taking place in meetings etc. I base this analysis of my ability on my experiences in the work environment, and also looking further back at my experiences at school. I have worked in the IT sector since starting full time work nine years ago, and up until the past few years have predominantly worked in Helpdesk or Desktop support roles. I think that I have been able to cope with these roles pretty well, as they have not relied on my weaknesses. For instance, I would only have to deal with one thing at a time, only dealing with something on a short term basis while I was fixing it (on the phone or at a user's office), and would also be in a position where I was able to offer knowledge, rather than ask other people for it. More recently (over the past 3 years), my career has progressed and I have found myself working in jobs which I find extremely difficult and put me under great mental strain. My latest job which I started 3 months ago (in an IT discipline which I haven't worked in before) requires me to be aware of a highly complex IT environment, many factors of which are constantly changing due to projects etc. I have difficulty writing things down quickly, and unfortunately (due to a high staff turn over and being understaffed), my colleagues don't have time to baby sit me through learning my job. I feel terrible being such a burden, and to make matters worse my manager can be boarish at times, and in the past has been unsupportive of me. My job has started affecting my health, and due to one of the health issues I have had to medically surrender my driving license for a year. I think it would be difficult for me to move back into a role which suits me better, due to it being three years ago since I last worked in such a role, and the IT marker being saturated by people wanting to do these roles. I feel completely burnt out and unable to adapt to new situations or learn new skills. I would like to leave my job straight away, however don't think I'd be able to get what I earn now in a different role. To add further pressure to my situation, my girlfriend (who I supported through her studies as a mature student) has just qualified as a nurse, after working very hard to get there. We would both like to save up and buy a house, however I can forsee me actually becoming an unemployable burden on our relationship and us not achieving our aims and goals life. I would love to change career, I think that in the past I have just been ignoring the fact that I have been working in a career I am ill suited to, due to other matters being more pressing. I enjoy helping people and love animals. I would ideally like to work in a field which encompasses at least one of these aspects. I have considered becoming an IT trainer, but even then I would have to take a pay cut and expend considerable effort in acquiring the required training certificates to work in a field which I believe to be over saturated and highly competitive. I have no idea what to do, or how to get my mental state back where it should be. I cannot see my self being able to continue in my present job for more than a month before resigning. (Partly due to stress, partly due to incompetence) Although I am capable of understanding some concepts, I struggle to understand complex concepts, where complicated relationships exist between sub concepts of concepts. This, in my opinion, is the problem, and why I am incapable of fulfilling my current role. What can/shall I do to move forward from this? Are there any jobs that I'll be able to do without adopting a blag/band aid approach to my work? Any suggestions of suitable career options and possible solutions to the conundrum I'm in would be massively appreciated.

Hi there, I am a 30 year old male and have recently been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I also have Dyspraxia which was diagnosed when I was a teenager. Without digressing too much, I have always found life to be a struggle, social, academic, practical and work. Due to the fact that I have always come across as quite soft and well spoken, it was often people from poorer backgrounds who victimised me at school. I had a very dictatorial and unsympathetic father, which in many ways forced me to develop what I believe to be subconscious coping mechanisms. As a teenager I was obsessed with PCs (probably due to the absence of friends or a social life), and learnt a great deal about PC hardware and desktop operating systems under my own steam. It would seem a logical progression that I have been working in IT for the past 10 years, and up until about three years ago was able to cope with things pretty well. I believe that my success in the IT/PC support field was largely attributable to what I had taught myself independently and the fact that I have good customer service skills (I am very passive and overly polite). I do not believe that I have the capability to engage in group or directed learning, and that I am only capable of learning through self directed study/problem solving. Over the past few years I have been promoted into various different back office/infrastructure roles, which are far more reliant upon technical, organisational and analytical skills, and not so much on customer service. I foolishly let my ego run away with it's self and believed that I would be capable of doing such jobs. However, a healthy dose of realism brought out by 7 days in a new job has shown me that I am out of my depth. Although I have always felt incredibly stressed out, worried and unhappy at work, things have recently got much worse.I feel incredibly stressed out and out of my depth at the moment, and just don't know what to do. Quite a few people on my new team seem quite unhelpful and seem to be unwilling to help me and tend to fob me off quite a bit. Feeling out of my depth is making me feel panicked, which it's self makes me less able to digest, assimilate and analyse information. To speculate on the source of my woes :I believe that working in a back office/infrastructure role requires the ability to get information out of other people, understand and conceptualise a massive picture, and work closely with others. Conversely, working in a PC support/helpdesk role is well within my capabilities because I am able to concentrate on one thing at a time, and in most cases fix problems independently without relying on or having to engage others for assistance. I'm really not sure how much more I can take of this, I certainly can't imagine existing like this for another 40 years. I feel like I have a lot to lose (eg very good wage), which is making me feel even worse. I have an overwhelming feeling that IT isn't the right field to be working in. I enjoy helping people (eg showing them things/sharing my knowledge) and dealing with animals, but have no idea what kind of career would be suitable for someone who as AS like myself. Although I'm good at working things out and problem solving on the fly, I don't think that I am suited to roles which require the ability to learn or grasp complex concepts. Also, if everything goes wrong, what kind of benefits will I be entitled to? What on earth can I do? I'm losing the will to live Thanks for reading this, any advice will be greatly appreciated.