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Telling my friends I have autism

UltraViolet

I feel like a outsider in my friend group. Only two of them know I have autism because I can mask very effectively. I want to tell them but I don’t know how. I’ve been trying to for ages but I get so nervous.
Any advice on how to overcome my nerves and do this? 

:)

  • in reply to UltraViolet

    Well done you! They most probably will ask questions, I never mind as it’s how people learn.

  • Update: today I told my friends about my autism. They were amazing, thank you for the advice!

  • Hi, my family know and are mainly supportive. I have only told about 6 other people of my autism , four said straight away that they thought I was. Some people I know that I will never tell as they don’t have the mental capacity to understand. It is a bit of a gamble, but if your friends do treat you differently then they are not true friends.

  • I have only had positive responses to informing friends about my autism. The close friend who was my best man when I married has an autistic son, so was very accepting. When I told a friend who was a former colleague, she said that she suspected that she was autistic too, as she is a former medical doctor it might be a fairly accurate self-diagnosis. I told a friend that I have had since we were at school by email and his reply was so very kind that I was close to tears when I read it. Of course it depends on the individual people concerned, but I imagine that your fears about the response of your friends are exaggerated.

    I found it much easier to tell people by email or text message than face-to-face as I am better at expressing myself in writing than by speech. I also included a small amount of information about autism and how it affected me in particular.

  • I can't even tell you if you should tell them I don't know them or how they may react. but since two friends already know have you tried asking their advice? Being closer to the situation might give them a more useful point of view.