Disclosure stories

Think very carefully on what and who to share it with. be it family or friends or at work. Remember there is a huge amount of knowledge about autism in the NT population. Everyone will have their unconscious bias and perhaps stereotypical assumptions and will not always react in the way you might wish.

I disclosed to my management hoping for support for my years of struggles but what I received was questions regarding my suitability to be in the role I was and led to me being moved out from the department and a 30 odd year career effectively ended. I wish I could have been more upbeat but the enormity of the situation has taken a great toll on my enthusiasm for anything.

It’s shocking. I’m so sorry to hear this but sadly I am not surprised. I actually had been recruited for a PhD position and whilst choosing which offer to accept, this one supervisor seemed very supportive and very keen to have me on their team. I had met with them and everyone else multiple times and it seemed like a good fit. I hadn’t mentioned the diagnosis during recruitment process as it didn’t seem hugely relevant but I had friends who previously studied at the university and they said the autism support team was great and encouraged me to reach out. I had had some other health issues related to autism and it was all quite new to me and I was keen to see what support was available so I called the disability team in confidence and asked about support available to see if I should disclose to the university- they said they had specialist autism advisors and strongly encouraged me to disclose to the university, college and my supervisor so that they could draw up a support plan and so that I could access all these resources and get togethers for autistic students. It all sounded very positive so I thought about it and said fine. So I talked to the disability advisor and she drafted a support document to share with relevant people so that everyone was aware of my situation. Just before they circulated it I thought let’s better let my supervisor know too and I just said I was autistic and that I had decided to disclose to university just so that I could access some of resources offered. They seemed fine with it but I actually think it very much changed how I was viewed and treated later on. I can’t prove this but I was essentially pushed out in quite an insidious way and I felt quite discriminated against on multiple levels- it’s difficult to explain all the details but I really regretted ever telling anyone- it can really change how people view and treat you and it’s almost impossible to prove or know whether that is the reason which makes it all the more frustrating. I’m so sorry about your job - it is shocking since you had worked there for so long- it really highlights how the knowledge of diagnosis can shift people’s opinions of someone- hard to understand though- they had years of evidence of your suitability but instead chose to focus on a label they did not understand. Infuriating but I guess it’s just what our society is like. 

It’s shocking. I’m so sorry to hear this but sadly I am not surprised. I actually had been recruited for a PhD position and whilst choosing which offer to accept, this one supervisor seemed very supportive and very keen to have me on their team. I had met with them and everyone else multiple times and it seemed like a good fit. I hadn’t mentioned the diagnosis during recruitment process as it didn’t seem hugely relevant but I had friends who previously studied at the university and they said the autism support team was great and encouraged me to reach out. I had had some other health issues related to autism and it was all quite new to me and I was keen to see what support was available so I called the disability team in confidence and asked about support available to see if I should disclose to the university- they said they had specialist autism advisors and strongly encouraged me to disclose to the university, college and my supervisor so that they could draw up a support plan and so that I could access all these resources and get togethers for autistic students. It all sounded very positive so I thought about it and said fine. So I talked to the disability advisor and she drafted a support document to share with relevant people so that everyone was aware of my situation. Just before they circulated it I thought let’s better let my supervisor know too and I just said I was autistic and that I had decided to disclose to university just so that I could access some of resources offered. They seemed fine with it but I actually think it very much changed how I was viewed and treated later on. I can’t prove this but I was essentially pushed out in quite an insidious way and I felt quite discriminated against on multiple levels- it’s difficult to explain all the details but I really regretted ever telling anyone- it can really change how people view and treat you and it’s almost impossible to prove or know whether that is the reason which makes it all the more frustrating. I’m so sorry about your job - it is shocking since you had worked there for so long- it really highlights how the knowledge of diagnosis can shift people’s opinions of someone- hard to understand though- they had years of evidence of your suitability but instead chose to focus on a label they did not understand. Infuriating but I guess it’s just what our society is like.