I'm among the ones that are unemployed. Therapists think it's for the better of it, especially in my rather volatile state I'm usually in. Mind you, I can manage it fine the way I live now. Though some people might think I live like a savage, lol.
Therapists could obviously see if I get support, but financially I'm in the grey area that's not covered in any way like that. I'd pretty much have to get myself in debt to even see if it might work for me.
The one time I had a job I ended up being more at a therapist, but apparently the company I worked for thought it was "fine" but still decided to fire me (I blame "good economy" and them being short on people among the reasons). Irregardless of circumstances why I held a job I'm therefore not eligible for disability benefits (though that's a recent law that changed; looking at past laws, there's a few I would've fallen under otherwise... and actually have more funds to get stuff sorted out).
Why is it a problem for me?
- Ongoing depressions on and off (since I've been diagnosed with minor traits of mood swings in a rather apparent sense; I'm not bipolar, cyclothymic, dysthymic or anything, but let's keep it at "I'm not that far off"), and those swings get more severe if I'm not keeping myself in line by pursuing things that keep my "happy".
- Having no real "concept" of day and night in terms that my biorhythm is way off. I'm a night person as such, but I don't limit my sleeping patterns to 24 hour schedules. Sometimes I don't sleep for a few days, others I sleep 12+ hours.
- A number of sensory factors required for me to be a productive member of any department. I can't deal with loud noises or bright lights. During day I wear shades and I never leave the house with my ipod. So we're talking major adjustments to just keep me "sane".
- I don't own a car (nor a license) and traffic in general is too stressful for me. In the past I found that even taking a bus or train on a daily basis was a lot of stress for me due to crowds as well as the "staticness" a busride brings I guess. When I attended university and had to go by train I always had my laptop around... my mind will wander to dark places if I'm not busy all the time. Though that's a comorbid thing with ADHD. But not having means to go somewhere limits employment a bit. I tried driving lessons... some people just can't manage that.
- Similarly I can't focus on a single task too much... ADHD and concentration don't go hand in hand... unless it's something of interest, which in general aren't things to get employed in.
- Social interaction never worked for me. Mind you, I CAN talk talk to people, I'm not afraid that much, but even my "spare time" social group is really, really small and I sometimes feel that this is too much already. So yeah... having to deal with people doesn't work for me.
- I'm terrible at verbal communication. I always have pen and paper around, and usually take notes (or am prepared about what I need to say). Smalltalk for such reasons doesn't work, and any jobs that require talking don't work either (callcenter jobs are out). I'm not really talking scripts thought, but I really need to have my information ready... (and hope people will stay with that and not go on tangents). Otherwise my talking sounds like incoherent rambling with little care for grammar. I think it's that my mind is more busy thinking WHAT to say, than actually how to say it.
- The times I have been at interviews people told me early on that I wasn't fit because I came across as "too smart"... I even got fired (and had this on documentation) once for being "overqualified"... and I don't even have a degree. I've been let go in order to "motivate" me to get a degree of sorts.
- How silly it might sound, I do have a problem with "appearance". Compared to back then when I actively had to look for jobs, I look relatively neutral now. But I usually tend to get more into bodymodifications, mohawks and stuff like that. It's something I am willing to budge on a bit... but a bit usually isn't enough, lol. The reason I mention it, is because this actually got me at a therapist once for a minor "identity disorder" thing going.
That's a handful of problems I encounter when we're talking employment.
Needless to say that I went the same route in education and have no formal training in any way. I'm a drop out of way too much courses... but at least I can say that I tried. But not having a degree in anything, therefore looking like I'm "dumb" on paper and coming across as weird and dare I say "smart" in person usually is a supervisors nightmare for them to fit me in the department with other co-workers who have the same thing going on, on paper.
However... I'm not going to state that "I'm not fit to work"... that's the wrong expression I feel... "I'm not capable to work any job that's available" since there's probably companies that might work somehow in terms of employment.
) and before that I taught martial arts. Both of my businesses grew out of my special interests so that's how I acquired the core skills. The rest of the skills required for running a business (bookkeeping, PR, etc.) I picked up by reading, studying other businesses and taking a few college-level courses. Mostly I made a lot up as I went along and learned some stuff the hard way, but I also tend to be good at looking at something (an ad, an accounting system, a sample tax form) and modeling it, so being self-taught works pretty well for me.
