New here, and considering college this fall...

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I myself will be entering college this coming fall term. I have had many struggles, I've attended college twice and have utterly failed both of them (not because the work was -hard- , but more because I didn't have the right assistance apparently. That and for so many years I still didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life.

But this time I'll have both the assistance of Vocational Rehabilitation, as well as attending a college with a disability services program that has recieved good reviews. To give a little background of where I am coming from, before explaining on topic about what my ideas are.

Most of my life I was completely oblivious that I had Asperger's. They had diagnosed me with ADHD (Which has been proven that I have that as well as Asperger's) and played on that all the way through high school. It wasn't till I was 25 that one of my parents said that "Oh by the way, we didn't tell you but back when you were little, they said there was a high possibility you were on the autistic spectrum." My whole life, my teachers struggled with how to deal with me, they didn't know what to do, I was pretty much left to my own devices during school, and tossed into special education because "they didn't know what to do with me".

This wasn't to say I wasn't intelligent, or that I couldn't do the work, but more the fact I was causing the teachers so much stress, by doing things like correcting them when I knew they were wrong, never doing my school work but acing the tests, and so on. Think the biggest problem was math for me... I LOVED the sciences, history, music, art, but I downright HATE math because I couldn't teach myself math....

Math was my bane in school, because they couldn't seem to figure out a way to teach me in a way I could understand it. It'd pretty much go in one ear and out the other. For that reason, I assumed I just was terrible at math, and that was it. I gave up.

When I was 25, Vocational Rehabilitation sent me in for testing, and it came back that I was diagnosed with Aspergers/ASD. This really didn't come to me as a suprise because I had been informed by my parents that it was most likely the case. At this time I was still rather irritated that I went through my entire life being socially confused, and wondering why i could never fit in. Why I had such narrow interests, and many many other things. Not only that I had absolutely no help on it while growing up. I just assumed I was odd/different and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

So here I am, trying to figure out what I could possibly be good at, considering I failed so terribly at finding/keeping work, interviews terrified me beyond belief, because my anxiety would always get the best of me, and trying to explain to them why I wanted to work for them was always the most difficult. Because i couldn't do anything but be honest, which usually didn't get me the job. I struggle with multi-tasking, and doing anything that doesn't interest me usually causes me to be rather sluggish about doing it even though i know I should do it anyways.

The major worry I have is that science always interested me, I wanted to get into the medical field somehow, but kept going back and forth between choices and then changing my mind when I find that I'd probably struggle with it with all the social interaction involved. I am not much of a small talker, and usually if I have a choice in the matter I'd rather not talk at all unless it's with co-wrokers (people I'd be interacting with on a daily basis, meaning I'd eventually get comfortable enough to actually hold some sort of a conversation with them)

So we were going through possible job options, we went from Registered Nurse (wasn't going to happen), to Pharmacist(probably wasn't going to happen either), to Radiologist(someone scared me off from this idea because they said I'd have to small talk alot *sigh*), and now we're somewhere around lab technologist (seeing that as the most likely job at the moment that I might feel successful in).

The problem with Lab Technologist at the moment is how much math is involved in it. As much as I love the sciences, I somehow managed to make it by without really associating math to it in high school, but sadly for the degree I'm going to have to work from the ground up (since I forgot pretty much everything from Algebra and up). So I'll have to take alot of pre-requisite courses in math before I'd get anywhere, and even my mother is concerned that it might effect me negatively because she's worried if I'd make it through them.

At this point I really don't know what to do, chances are I'll pursue the Medical Technologist option, and do everything I can to succeed, but what is your opinions regarding my situation? Has other Aspies had this difficulty in math and wanting a degree that somehow involves alot of it? How did others deal with it when they realized much later in their life that they had ASD/Asperger's in the first place?

Well I could have alot more questions, but I'll let everyone take a look so far and post their opinions. Thank you for taking a look at my thread to give me some options/help/advice. Look forward to hearing from you.

~Aure

You sound a little like me, so forgive me if I'm extrapolating a bit too much here.

My biggest downfall at uni was not doing the groundwork throughout the year and getting to grips with self-learning. Like you, I could ace tests without doing my homework at school and the teachers probably hated me.

When you start uni, they tell you at the start that it's not like high school and nobody will hold your hand, and they're really not lying. If you have difficulties with maths, you will be left behind unless you do the hard graft yourself and catch up; they won't slow down.

I'm not sure what disability does in your college, but I turned mine down because they couldn't offer me anything that would actually help. They offered a seperate room for exams. What I could have done with was personal secretary who sorted out the dates and nagged me into studying

Basically, if you want to be a technician, go for it but be prepared to put in a lot of work in a subject that you hate.

I never figured there would be any math in that job. Try this, start from a subject you are comfortable with and work your way up

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Math as a technician is not hard. You get to take your time doing it. (I am in a Biochem Lab technician); and you use excel anyways. Just make sure you actually do it; and having someone reminding you.

Retaking basic math in university is a good thing. You'll realize how bad the teaching methods in high-school/middle-school reflected on you. I would probably recommend everyone to take algebra in college; since they always teach with new better working accepted teaching methods.

That is good to know, i am familiar enough with excel that it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Yeah i assumed that regardless of how embarassing it feels to enter an algebra class at 25 in college.. But I am quite sure I'll be more than capable of working my way through it, as long as I have the support I need to succeed.

Also, I struggle with self-learning. As much as I can be motivated or have the drive to want to complete, I always feel more comfortable when I have someone to refer back to when I have questions, otherwise I easily get stumped and give up. Which frustrates me beyond end, but I was never much of a textbook learner as much as I was a hands on and visual learner.

But I am sure I'll find ways to make it through it. It's good to know that most math is done in excel though. Makes things easier for me.

~Aure`