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Do I tell my clients that I'm autistic?

Tonik

I'm self-employed and since getting my diagnosis last year I've been wondering if I should tell my clients that I'm autistic.

As far as I can tell, being autistic only has a couple of significant 'negative' effects on my work:

  • Dealing with clients causes me massive amounts of anxiety (so far I've managed to hide this).
  • I need time and space between projects to recover, so I'm not as productive as some people.

There's 'positives' too, for example:

  • I have great attention to detail.
  • I'm dedicated to my work and not letting people down.
  • I'm great at picking up new skills/etc.

But even though I think my clients are  getting a good deal because I put in so much effort with no extra cost, I sometimes feel like it would be better and more honest to be open about being autistic.  Maybe some people don't want to hire an autistic person? Maybe I can be myself more when I work and communicate with people? But I also think that it might cause complications, and even though I'm 'high-functioning', being self-employed is a constant source of stress and anxiety already.

What do you think - do I tell my clients that I'm autistic?

Parents

  • To the actual discussion... I can understand the dilemma, I can see it may be helpful, but also question the NEED to do disclose it. Id also urge caution, as if you do, and by no means is this universal, but there are a few people who may well use this to their advantage. Few and far between perhaps, but they do exist.

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  • To the actual discussion... I can understand the dilemma, I can see it may be helpful, but also question the NEED to do disclose it. Id also urge caution, as if you do, and by no means is this universal, but there are a few people who may well use this to their advantage. Few and far between perhaps, but they do exist.

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