It is pretty hard, if not impossible these days to earn enough to make a living without burning out. It’s not just neurodivergent people who are struggling, it’s everyone. Inflation is out of control and housing and basic living costs more than ever.
I’ve literally used the “canaries in the coal mine” analogy in defense of sensitive people and why we exist in a world that has historically not been gentle. We’re the ones who are like “Yeah, it’s a nice cave, but my toesis are frozies, maybe we could put up a door or something? Put some throws on this hard floor?” But we literally work more than ever, and the idea that our work is “easier” is really stupid. Is mental work easier than physical work? When did that idea become popularized? When the average person hates basic math, a science which has been around for millenia, haha? Our bodies are designed for physical labor and the lack of it literally makes us sick, and now we not only have to focus and apply ourselves to tasks that provide little immediate gratification or physical improvement in our lives, but we also will literally develop physical disabilities if we don’t also force ourselves to go work out like mindless little hamsters. The mass proliferation of farming/survival sims where all you do is run around and gather ingredients, fish, and tend crops is just icing on the evidence cake, proving that no, the modern lifestyle is not easier, it isn’t more satisfying, it isn’t healthier, and yet we’re still shamed for not working longer and harder than any period in history, and just be thankful our corporate overlords still have a use for us so we don’t have to sleep on sloped park benches designed to hurt the homeless. It’s sick, tbh, while the obscenely wealthy go on nature retreats, so many people live in concrete jungles in tiny boxes they aren’t even allowed to paint, going into offices for 8 hour shifts under fluorescent lights and being told they don’t deserve to eat unless they have a second, possibly third job and workout enough. “Freedom” my ***.