A possible last resort, if I am forced onto Workfare

Do not advise me on any alleged ‘help for disabled/autistic/mental health’ people into work or in the workplace...I have tried it all and it is irrelevant and useless to me in particular.
Does anyone who is autistic/asperger have any knowledge, preferably personal experience, of any legally available chemical/pill which will make a person more alert, process information and move/work faster, also most importantly, react quickly and aggressively (obviously nothing illegal or drastic such as the Evan Harris/Dylan Cleybold response). Assertiveness training I’ve done, but I have no idea if it will work in the work place among lots of people when I am also subject to noise, fluorescent lighting etc, lots of distractions which will push up my anxiety levels. From experience, I must not come over as weak or frightened and easily intimidated, I must react more quickly and strongly.
Please no replies from people worried about drug reactions, I am already on SSRIs and have researched thoroughly any possible effects, short or long-term and there is no way that any reaction I have can be worse than the breakdown I had years ago, but this time I would like to be outwardly hostile if need be and react quickly to a situation, especially involving working and trying to interact with people at the same time.

Yeah, the only drugs like that are ADHD drugs and those are dangerous.

You will likely be forced onto workfare until it proves that you cannot work by your doctor.  So preventing harm might be the best idea.

"any legally available chemical/pill which will make a person more alert, process information and move/work faster, also most importantly, react quickly and aggressively"  -  maybe caffeine but likely you would be more nervous.  

Either you can do the work or not.  If you CANNOT do the work then you get disability, if you just don't WANT to do the work then that is not enough to get disability.  Proving that you CANNOT do the work is what will prevent more harm to you and possibly others if you become aggressive.  

What kind of stupid workfare placement would they give?  They were trying to give my friend a placement in a school when she had paranoid delusions from schizophrenia.  She would never hurt kids but really how was that suitable?  She had to do it for a while until her disability got activated.

Apologies for late reply but I just couldn't manage to get posts onto the forum so my friend is doing it for me now.

The fact that I can't do the work and will end up being chucked out anyway does not stop the Workfare people (or the Work Programme as it is humorously called). However, because of a lot of bad publicity, so many companies have pulled out that it's going to take longer to implement.

I have done a lot of jobs which I don't want to do in my life, in fact I have done very few which I did want. Producing proof that you can't do the work is pointless because you will simply be ignored/the facts not read. Workfare placements will basically be anywhere that there is a vacancy but there will be much less now that companies have pulled out.  What happened to your friend and is she still on disability and how is the schizophrenia?

Ephemerol 9

Thanks everyone who replied. I did try to get back to you all but it wouldn't post.

Ephemerol9

Unfortunately I am not in contact with her.  She finally got disability.  She does really want to work.  It seems that some people can do limited amount of crafts at home in her area but she is not interested in that or has any talent.  She could probably work as most people with disability but they need a sheltered place that will accept that they might not come in everyday or want to work full-time every week.  Such employers do not exist.  

She was helping out at the school but really only because her relative was a teacher there.   Mostly stress was causing everything to be worse for her.  So stress is reduced when she does not have to do anything although the financial stress is always there.  

She was on meds that did not work.  She got meds changed while in the hospital but that did not improve her situation.  I am not sure if any meds really work for her.   They seem to just sedate her but she still hears voices which she tries to ignore.   She will permanently on meds and disability.  She has to still see doctors regularly and get her form filled out every year for disability as they don't seem to understand what a permanent disability is.  So once people are in the system they have to stay there to survive, keep seeing doctors and keep being medicated even if it does not work.  Before she tried to kill herself and the hospital were not nice to her.

No drugs needed: if work = special interest, then (what you described); if not, then not. Being unable to force it seems what autism is about.

You might try to develop a special interest which covers your workplace, but how realistic is that???

None of my special interests seem to be available as funded employment. None of the available employment are things I can do or can stand.

Ephemerol9

You are right about employers not existing who will understand and listen to what you are saying. Also, the whole 'lighting and layout' of the place would have to be altered which would never happen. I really hope your friend is okay and that you are somebody else can get back in contact with her. Hopefully she won't have to face the WCA (Work Capability Assessment).

These links might be of use to her and anyone else:-

• www.boycottworkfare.org
  
• info@benefitsandwork.co.uk
  

My best advice is to wear headphones while you are working which will prevent interruptions from people and can help you zone out of the workplace and zone into the work. I did it, and it was as if I was not even there... plus I found spaces to work which were away from everyone.

What are your special interests- if you don't mind me asking? Perhaps your job can cover the cost of tuition at a nearby university and you can get a degree in something you like?

This post was last modified: 05-18-2012 11:29 AM by sg1008.

Thanks for your reply, I will have to get back to you later with a more detailed reply.


Ephemerol9

Being able to do forced workfare really should have nothing to do with anyones special interests.  I worked at jobs that I was not interested in just to make money.  They had nothing to do with my interests or goals other than to make some money.  

It is not about interest or even liking a job - it is about ability.  If your environmental sensitivities are beyond you and prevent you from doing the work - then you should be relieved of workfare.  That means you can not handle the stress from noise, flicking lights, bullying by coworkers, or whatever.  

I tried to work somewhere that was boring but I was let go because I could not get along with coworkers, misunderstood instructions, and I could take the chemical smells (even though I told them before and bought in my own gas mask to wear).

No one is going to accept that you just don`t like a job.  It is all about ability to do the job.

Dear M,

I accepted a long time ago that I would never be able to do anything I like to support myself. It's true it is about ability and not whether you like the work or not. The trouble is that after trying to do several things at once, i.e. coping with a high speed modern workplace, noise, fluorescent lights and interacting with people.

"I tried to work somewhere that was boring but I was let go because I could not get along with coworkers, misunderstood instructions, and I Could take the chemical smells (even though I told them before and bought in my own gas mask to wear)."

Well that happened to me and I simply was not able to keep up with the work and cope with the people and everything else at the same time and fast enough. I simply wasn't able to and realities of the modern workplace is that it really doesn't matter what you want, or even what you are capable of doing, hence the reason I was looking for pills to cope at least short-term. Reason being that if I could be kept on for a full week, at least I would get a full week's pay to tide me over until I either find another place to get chucked out of or if I am lucky, crack up so spectacularly that even the employment service lets me go on benefit. That's basically what happened about 11 years ago, from what I can remember / from what I was told by people who were around me at the time.

At least there's a new rule that the coalition wants to bring in where employers can basically fire underperforming employees (as they see it) at will. I think it is called 'no fault dismissal' or something, so although it is opposed by many people, and I can see why, I suppose it could work in my interest because I might get fired before I have to get really ill. With a bit of luck, I could show an employer / HR / recruitment person my work / health history and basically tell them that I won't last very long in the job anyway before they have to let me go and hopefully they will pass me over in order to avoid the paperwork of hiring and firing.

Ephemerol9

(I'm not from the UK, so I've no idea): Within this Workfare system, are there work-places which are in the open? In your bio you write about gardening, and outdoors you can avoid flourescent lights and too much interaction with people.

This post was last modified: 05-25-2012 11:44 AM by Shnoing.

If you like gardening - raking leaves, cutting grass - inquire at local cemeteries for work.  While seasonal - there is work.  However you would be expected to do a certain amount of work every day and show up regularly.  

You should also be careful not to get so upset that you would strike another person - that is just going to get you into legal problems.  

Have you discussed these issues with your medical doctor?  Likely a doctor is a person who is going to medicate you or get the forms filled out to keep you out of workfare.