How have you dealt with receiving a late (adult) diagnosis of ASD - have you told work colleagues?
The reason I'm considering this is because I feel the need to explain why I can be inflexible, my memory is awful and if I have to cover someone else's work it can be really stressful because if I don't do something routinely I struggle. I sometimes have to ask how to do something which can be humiliating because I should know how to do it, I'm more senior and I've been in the job for longer!
I don't trust or particularly get on with most of my work colleagues. There's a big age gap and they're all females with strong personalities (my worst nightmare!) I have never disclosed my depression diagnosis to them because I don't trust them with such personal information about me and I cannot stop myself from thinking people still see it as a weakness, a character flaw.
Even in my own head the image of someone with ASD is of someone who walks on their toes, flaps their hands, can't talk coherently, can't do a job, needs care, etc. I know I'm not like that, that I'm on the high functioning end of the spectrum but the terms 'autism' and 'ASD' still conjure that up for me. I imagine that's a common way of envisioning someone who's on the spectrum.
Maybe my need to let people know I'm on the spectrum is because I feel like I need to be 'excused' for being the way I am. I have always struggled because I need so much acceptance and validation from people. I find with most people it's not forthcoming. I only wish they would treat me the way I treat them in terms of acceptance and giving credit where credit's due.
