i’m 22, and i never had a formal job, and atm have no income. i want to change this but every option sounds like it will lead to burnout.

💼 Education/Employment

i am a diagnosed level 2 of support (though nowadays i’d say i’m a level 2 that leans more towards 1), i don’t have intellectual disability or learning disabilities. i’ve done rather well academically during some periods of my life. but i have a very very low endurance to social and sensory stimulation, as well as stress easily has put me in burnout multiple times in my life. so i basically missed most of freshman year, quit HS before starting sophomore, returned a year later, just completed my sophomore year because it was 2020 so it was online, missed a lot of my junior and senior year on medical leaves. but i didn’t struggle with my grades not once during this periods, it was the need to be so many hours everyday around so many people with so much stimuli that drove me insane. after finishing HS, i went to university in this same cycle, manage a semester, barely, quit for another or two, come back. i’m currently in my second consecutive semester, my grades are good, but i’m in a half schedule, not a full one, i go 3 days per week. i’m… hardly managing, but i am. but i keep thinking of how at my age, it would be genuinely be very important to have some income, to start building towards financial independence. during age 18-20 i managed to get about 3000 USD creating for a game during a hyperfixation, unfortunately thats no longer a possibility for me. i study fashion, and i am also a self taught illustrator/artist. but i genuinely feel so stuck. because i feel like taking a job that requires me to go in person daily rn will be my end. actually. but i don’t know what else to do. i don’t even understand how formally applying to jobs work, and unfortunately my family is not helpful at all with this if not for shaming me. anyone has any advice? :/

Posted May 12, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

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