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Adult diagnosis - experiences informing work

JohnnyBeGood

Hi

I'm looking at getting a formal diagnosis, after speaking to a psychologist who can help me with it. I mostly want it for myself, my own understanding, and not feeling like a "fraud" in the ND community. 

However, I would love for a diagnosis to allow me to gain some kind of understanding of me by my work place (at least my managers). 

What experiences have you guys had with informing your work places of your diagnosis? I have read a post where someone had a very negative experience. I am wondering what other experiences people have had. Especially where adjustments had been made to accommodate. 

Cheers

Dave

Parents

  • I haven't come out officially to my employer. But recently my manager criticised me in a performance review and said that other colleagues had been complaining about my communication. I don't want to go into why exactly, but I realised that they were basically correct. I went back over some of the logs of the chat software we used and realised how rude I must have seemed.

    I felt really bad about it because I thought I was good at masking, and realised my colleagues must have thought I was trying to be annoying or being surly all the time with my one word replies and failing to explain myself properly. I was actually a bit devastated and cross with myself, because I know I can do better. When I get too comfortable with people I stop masking.

    So I sent a long message to my manager explaining that I am being diagnosed with Asperger's and it was really scary but overall based on the response I think it went well. I'm lucky that my manager was understanding I think.

    I still don't know if I would ever disclose it officially to the company (or HR department) or to my colleagues, because I am worried about people discriminating against me or treating me differently. Even if it's positive discrimination, I don't like the bigotry of low expectations or not being chosen for something because they assume I would not be able to do it. But in this case I wanted my manager to know because I felt it was reflecting badly on me if my poor communication was not explained.

Reply

  • I haven't come out officially to my employer. But recently my manager criticised me in a performance review and said that other colleagues had been complaining about my communication. I don't want to go into why exactly, but I realised that they were basically correct. I went back over some of the logs of the chat software we used and realised how rude I must have seemed.

    I felt really bad about it because I thought I was good at masking, and realised my colleagues must have thought I was trying to be annoying or being surly all the time with my one word replies and failing to explain myself properly. I was actually a bit devastated and cross with myself, because I know I can do better. When I get too comfortable with people I stop masking.

    So I sent a long message to my manager explaining that I am being diagnosed with Asperger's and it was really scary but overall based on the response I think it went well. I'm lucky that my manager was understanding I think.

    I still don't know if I would ever disclose it officially to the company (or HR department) or to my colleagues, because I am worried about people discriminating against me or treating me differently. Even if it's positive discrimination, I don't like the bigotry of low expectations or not being chosen for something because they assume I would not be able to do it. But in this case I wanted my manager to know because I felt it was reflecting badly on me if my poor communication was not explained.

Children