How many fall through the cracks?

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Have you ever wondered how many aspies are out there that have not been lucky enough to get jobs or have people to help them out? I wonder how many are homeless and poor because they aren't lucky enough to have anyone that gives a damn about them. I think alot of us can consider ourselves extremely fortunate that we have the life that we do. Maybe in the future, less of these people will slip through the cracks.

I agree with that. People with with AS will get help until their 18 or so. Then after that you're on your own and many struggle and fall in the cracks. Trying to get jobs etc.

Definitely. Although I'm not sure what's going to happen to me after college, I definitely feel lucky. So many auties (and other disabled folk) are out on the streets. I reckon 50% of skid row is disabled.

There's a lot more than we'd guess tragically...

now everything seems significantly scarier! I don't want to be out on the streets!

No, and that is why I spent most of my life
being unemployed and sympatheically
employed and homeless. I have made $5,000
or less, and worse case was $500 in one year
during 1984-1998(age 32). $10,000 - $12000
during 1998-2002, $5000 or less in 2004.
Hmmmmm? Smart, yes that applies to me, it
was the lack of real opportunity in life in general
that has had me fall through the cracks.
Homeless, let's say 1984-2000 off and on.
15 years homeless and 1 year off and on
housing. And you wonder why I see the
world the way I do.


 


This is true and sad! What else can I say.
 


This is questionable since being homeless
can burn your fire for successes, or
mentally burn you out. Their is no one
path fits all here, it all depends on how
you are in knowing, loving, and listening
to your better self.
 


Hmmmm? That is more likely truer than
most would think.
 


It's not so much being on the streets. It is
how much internal understanding, love and
listening to your better self that counts. I
am in a hostel room and being broke based
on a Quizno's $400 per month wage and feel
just as empty in that room as I would have
in a abandoned building, ect......! I have
good integrity, and don't fear a bad reaction
to myself from myself, I make improvements
as I go. Housed or not doesn't replace the
empyiness autistic people can feel and batter
themselves with. I have always said, being
HFA, that "I am my own worst enemy", thus
cannot lie to someone. Physical abuse from
others doesn't outweigh my internal emotional
thoughts that can out abuse myself. I have
a good constitution and always strive for
improvements and how to make them.


UNDERSTANDING, LOVING, AND LISTENING
TO YOUR BETTER SELF IS ALWAYS THE KEY,
if there were one.

Sincerely,
Ghosthunter

Many people I know have been or are currently in those situations already. (Some with a diagnosis, some without.)

I have no idea where I would be, what I would be doing, or if I would even be alive if it wasn’t for my family helping me out. My life has been an absolute disaster so far. Most of my jobs have lasted only few months, sometimes only a week or so. Only three times have I held a job longer than a year. I’ve pretty much had it with the world and despise the demands our modern, fast-paced society places on individuals. I can be happy with a minimalist lifestyle and that’s what I plan to pursue, but I may not even be able to succeed at that.

It doesn’t help that I have made some terrible decisions in life, i.e. dropping out of high school and forgoing further education. The years of drinking myself into oblivion certainly hasn’t helped my cognitive functions either, but I can say I’ve finally gained control over my alcohol consumption.

At the age of thirty-six, I feel far less capable than ever. Once I thought I was going to grow out of all these problems and that I would mature into a suave and elegant gentleman, possessed of eloquent speech and impeccable manners. Instead I became the lonely weirdo, screaming at the top of his lungs out in the yard, “I don’t belong here!”

http://www.onthespectrum.com

Last edited by Sean on 02 Mar 2006, 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't see anything wrong (morally or otherwise) with a worst-case contingency plan like that one.

http://www.onthespectrum.com

Last edited by Sean on 02 Mar 2006, 8:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Actually no I'm not. I consider it to fall under the scope of rational self-interest. Sorry if I crossed some boundary by saying so.

I don't think you've crossed any boundary, but I won't be suprised if alot of people think I have.

I consider myself fairly lucky that I have been able to make it as far as I have. Both jobs I have technically I should have never gotten if my prospective employers had taken my impression into account. Having done quite a few job interviews during the 1998-1999 time frame, I feel quite lucky.

My first job was through manpower working at a local meat packing plant in the cold. I managed to do fairly well there. Most of the people I worked with were quite older than I was, and the labor wasn't the worst. But I was laid off and spent the winter homeless.

The people there were also flabberghasted that I could work in a 35 degree cooler all day long wearing nothing but a flannel shirt, an undershirt, and my work uniform.

During that period, I got my second job at the local cable company. I was stupid and didn't really think too much about my appearance before hand. My interview was scheduled for right after work. It was July 17, 1998, and I went over there for my interview wearing my work clothes and since I had no car, I had to bike over there. End result, I reeked of summer sausage and was sweating pretty bad since this was summer time and temp outside was in the 80's that day.

I think I didn't go over to well and I made a couple of flubs during my interview, but since they were in bad need of a part time person and I showed them some stuff I did in high school, I was hired as I was able to show that despite my outward apperance, I was compentent in what they wanted me to do.

I ended up as a grocrey stocker 11 months later and, my employer was the type who would take almost anyone, so I was hired.

The first two months there was sheer hell, and I was on the verge of being fired several times. I just wasn't compatible with the other people I was working with. However, I slowly came around and everyone came around to me. But even since then, my employment there has always been on shaky ground.

I fear the "real world". I wonder if I have what it takes to make it there. I've come a long way in the past seven years. I managed to curb some of autistic tendancies that generated friction in the past, and now I feel that I've gained enough skills to at least get by in the real world.

But in the back of my head I always have that question lingering that stocking shelves three days a week for $9.00 and hour is the best I'll ever be able to do.

I didn't even get diagnosed until I was 20, and never recieved any help before that (see this thread: http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3532). Now I'm getting seen by various people, but the general consensus is that it's too late for anything but the most meagre, belated and inneffectual assistance, and it took a major depression/nervous breakdown to get that much. When you have PTSD (undiagnosed), the time for an ounce of prevention is long gone.




I find it quite sensible also. Personally, my drive for self-preservation is strong enough to overcome all but the most acutely dire situations, but we all have our thresholds and I have given some though to my own exit strategy, should it come to that.

Sean, I think of you as a respectful and wise person, so I hope that you will forgive me being direct and honest. I think that your plan is completely unsound and illogical. How could committing a suicide enhance your quality of life? What's more, although it may appear otherwise, you are not living in complete isolation from other people, and killing yourself would for sure hurt others as well, perhaps badly. I won't discuss your point #2, because I can't understand it at all. Anyway, make a rule that should you ever seriously consider suicide, you will give yourself one week notice. You are way too valuable a person to end your life because things temporarily got tough.


Scott, I didn't know that you were homeless. Care to tell the story?


How such a wise and hard-working person as yourself can have such fears? I'm willing to take a bet that you'll do much better than what you described here.

A few words about myself. At age 25 I was worth a whopping $1700, most of which I received as gifts from family members. Only small part was income from part-time temporary jobs that I had during my college years. Because of a very bad experience with one of these jobs (that lasted 3 moths), I was very unsure of myself and too frightened to look for a "real" job when I graduated from university. I looked around and envied other people that they were able to hold jobs and live independently (I lived with my parents until 25 1/2). Then a job found me - I was recommened for it by the professor who supervised my master's degree thesis (without my knowledge). I stayed at that job for 6 1/2 years, and quit because of social issues. That job has left me with substantial savings, and allowed me time to think of what to do with the rest of my life (I am still not quite decided, though...).