gainful employment

In this post I will (obviousely) be covering finding and keeping a job.

Getting and keeping a job CAN be a difficult thing to do, but with a little effort, it can be achieved and even enjoyed.

I have fortunately been able to get a job in the art industry. It affords me a working environment which is generally quiet, and sometimes I get to work from home.
However, I have had a lot of jobs in the past which weren't so accomedating for me.
I have also worked in Auto Garages, as a house framer, a roofer, carpet layer, and a ditch digger. just to name a few. Most of my jobs have been utilitarian, and not exactly quiet; and some days, I had a difficult ttime. But I wore ear-plugs, and I got by.

I had these jobs for a couple of reasons:

(1) I am a very hard worker, but I am very poor at retaining direction. I also have a hard time "multitasking"
(2) because of my poor people skills. because I bomb out of interviews, and I couldn't really work well interracting with customers, or even coworkers for that matter. I also get easily confused, and worked up durring one-on-one interaction.

Looking for a job can be very overwhelming, It can be hard to figure out where to begin, for what type of job you are qualified, andhow to figure out where you belong.

The key is to figure out what you can handle, what your strong suits are, and what you are capable of putting up with every day. For example, are you more likely to be okay in retail, office work, physical labor, etc.

Some of the more common things I have come up against, which I reccomend thinking about when looking for a job include:

- Can you handle flourescent lighting?
-are you sensitive to sound?
-are you good with human interaction?
-are you particularly good with numbers, or do you have some other trait unique to you? ( eg. I retain automotive information like a sponge)
-are you easily distracted
-Are you good with kids
-do you have particular clothing needs that might not be acceptable with a uniform of some sort.

Once you establish a criteria, it can make narrowing down possible jobs much easier. You will inevitably need to make comprimises with some of your criteria, but If you can figure out which issues are easier with which to cope it will make the entire process and experience, much easier.

With the jobs I have chosen, for the most part, I am able to work alone, and not have to remember a lot of direction. They are repetitive, and perfect for me. I worked those jobs to put myself through school, (which is another topic for another post) But I was able to work hard through school and now I have a job that accomodates ALL of my quirks and needs.

If you have any Questions or comments, please don't hesitate to ask, I'll do my best to help.

Family life.

I guess It's about time to start updating with current experiences, Huh?
I have been visiting family lately. A horrible experience unto its self. I don't do well in any social gathering, and even family is no exception. The noise, the close quarters, the neices and nephews screaming and making trouble. it's a complete mess.
Fortunately, thanks to my insomnia, I do get a few hours of piece at night, somewhere between 11:00pm and 6:30am I find time to think and unwind.
don't get me wrong, I love my family very much, just not when they're all together at once.Today there was so much screaming, and I managed to forget my Noise Cancelling headphones back at home. I was sitting around covering my ears and rocking most of the day.
I've only had my diagnosis for a year now, and my family is still having a hard time adjusting, though they all agreed that covering my ears and rocking is far preferable to shouting and breaking things. (as mentioned Here:
Fortunately I was in my compression clothing underneith my clothes. It helped a lot. It's amazing what just cutting out the sensory agrivation of touch can do. but I still had a really hard time. Now it's late at night and the only sounds are the heater fan, the wall clock in the next room, and my computer fan.
Earlier things got so bad that I started ticking and jerking. Once so badly and violently I knocked my external harddrive off the table and broke it; in addition to losing all my software, files, contacts, and programes, the incident, of corse made things even worse. It's a realmess when you tick and break something, which causes you to tick even more.....go figure.

Tomorrow Is another day, and I will be helping unload trucks at the family owned Warehouse. That will most assuredly be a "fun" experience; it always is.

Regarding my compression clothing (meaning Tights and Compression shirts,) and the Family setting: In case anybody was currious, Only my mother knows about my compression clothing, and I would like to keep it that way. I may be physically comfortible in it, but I still am quite uncomfortable with the idea of it.
Besides, I think of it sort of like underwear, you wouldn't tell everyone you know about that for no reason, right? Granted, I wouldn't feel compelled to tell my mother about my underwear, but you get what I'm saying.
Besides, the reasons my mother knows are (1) She has always been supportive of me and has helped me through these strange times; and (2) I don't have a credit card, and she is kind enough to let me use hers to order my wears online.

Sensory overload: Take one.

Have you ever been in a grocery store, and closed your eyes and payed attention to all the sounds and noises? Imagine if you heard all of those things all the time.Have you ever payed attention to the way your clothing brushes across your skin? or the slight breeze caused by people walking past you? Have you ever noticed all the flashing lights around you?, from signs to Cell phones?
Now Imagine if you coould hear, feel, and see these things ALL THE TIME; have no filter. My mind doesn't block out the unimportant things. Before my diagnosis, I always wondered how people could function iwith so many noises all arround them, or miss things I heard so clearly.

(1) SOUNDS.

A few weeks ago, I went into a large hardware store with my father (not my favorite place ever) Though it wasn't too busy I was really getting overloaded with stimuli. My father asked how this was possible, I pointed out all the things I could hear, see and feel: The hum from the flourescent lights, the BEEP of items being rung up at the front of the store, the rattling of the loose A/C fan, the squeeky shopping cart a few isles over, the screaming child in the distance, the table saw in the lumber section, the bird in the rafters, footsteps on the concrete floor and the bad music playing throughout. and that was just the things I could HEAR; All the things bothering my other senses were piled on top of all of that.
As we were talking about all this, a Voice came over the loud speaker; that was all I could handle. Overload. My hands covered my ears, I began pacing, and mudderring to myself, shaking my head side to side, and periodicly flapping my hands.
My father was embarrassed, I was a wreck, and so glad when we finally made it to the car.-I don't know why I always follow my father into places like that. When it's anybody else I just wait in the car, but my dad, even though he knows what those types of places do to me, for some reason that's beyond me, always draggs me in, and for some reason, I go.

Sensory overload is a very big issue for me.
Some of the ways I cope with such things include wearing headphones, earpluggs, sound muting headphones, dark sunglasses, and of corse my compression shirts and tights. I can function pretty well when I use one or a combination of these methods. But even with all the right measures taken, sometimes, things still happen.

(2) Lights

I have a difficult time with bright, flourescent, or flashing lights. And they are EVERYWHERE.Police lights really mess me up. I will get completely overloaded just from glancing at police lights. Needless to say, I am a perfect driver. There are, of corse other AS qualities which play into that, but that's another topic, for another time. I was a wreck when that fad of flashing LED lights on Cell phones was so popular. (And I have a really hard time with cell phones anyway.) Flourescent lights are also particularly upsetting, the light they cast is litterally painful to me, Not to mention the buzzing sound they make.

(3) Touch

I feel everything. I have mentioned a few times already that I can feel my clothing on my skin. Much of my youth was spent shirtless, but I can also feel even the slightest breezes from fans, heaters or A/C, even the slight breeze caused by people walking past me. I like physical contact, but I am very selective about who can touch me, and will often get overloaded and even violent when someone not on my mental list makes physical contact with me.
Deep pressure (tights, compression clothing) is paramount. Ever since I discovered it, I have craved it. I do MUCH better, and feel so comfortable when I have it.

So what can you take from this post? That Las Vegas would not be my kind of town AT ALL!!!Seriousely though, I hope somebody finds this post to b usefull.- But even more Seriousely, I really do keep away from Casinos at all costs.

That's it for this post, I'm positive that this is a topic I will be discussing often in the future.