Small changes adding up, really struggling, is it my autism?

Hi, I'm a 36 year old female, self diagnosis. 

I find I really struggle with small changes mounting up, it's always been an issue looking back, I can cope with change but it really ups my stress levels. And it tends to be dismissed as me being a control freak or something. But right now it's really pronounced. So much change has happened in my life, I've moved to a new area, my house needs a lot of work and the jobs never end up being what I planned (strip a layer find out the previous owners have done something weird I have to something different about) but it's in work that I'm really struggling at the moment, it's making me feel incredibly drained. I have a colleague who doesn't do what he says he will, he will do a random other things constantly all the time and I have to pick up the thing he didn't do. 

I feel ashamed for struggling with it, like it's me being a control freak and that's a bad thing so I shouldn't. But I just want to be able to figure out my own day as much as possible. I can deal with the unavoidable changes but I'm getting really angry at this guys unreliability. 

And in general I am noticing I feel like constant change is just running out my batteries at the moment nothing seems to go the way I plan. 

So is this likely to be due to my autism? Is it the sort of thing I can ask for reasonable adjustment for? I have already disclosed to my manager, she seems very supportive, her daughter is on the spectrum and she's actually helping me gain understanding of my own. I've never had support I just have to deal with things and the diagnosis has only ever really been useful for me understanding myself. But it's possible in this (also new) job there could be support for me, or at least understanding 

Parents
  • I've not got any real advice to offer, but I do have solidarity because I'm also feeling the same way. Us autistics are not good with change, and the small changes definitely pile on top of one another for me too, and the NTs don't seem to understand quite what an effect those things can have. My team has changed dramatically with turnover in the last 6 months, and now another is leaving in September, it's changed so many things. Plus they're now moving where we work physically (changing floor), and processes seem to change all the time and it's so draining. So I'm not much help, but you're not alone and yes I think this could well be highly linked to the autism - it is for me. 

Reply
  • I've not got any real advice to offer, but I do have solidarity because I'm also feeling the same way. Us autistics are not good with change, and the small changes definitely pile on top of one another for me too, and the NTs don't seem to understand quite what an effect those things can have. My team has changed dramatically with turnover in the last 6 months, and now another is leaving in September, it's changed so many things. Plus they're now moving where we work physically (changing floor), and processes seem to change all the time and it's so draining. So I'm not much help, but you're not alone and yes I think this could well be highly linked to the autism - it is for me. 

Children
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