Public Disclosure of ASD Diagnosis - Good or Bad

[Rasputin]

My employer promotes membership in employee leadership groups, and I joined one some time back. The group I joined advocates for people with disabilities.

Today this group sponsored an Autism Awareness event, a public question and answer panel. I agreed to sit on the panel, and the event went well in my opinion. I spoke candidly about my experiences with ASD, and advocated for more professional employment of persons with ASD and related conditions.

My participation in the event disclosed my ASD within my company, and afterwards I discussed it with my boss. His response seemed positive, as he noted receiving a lot of good feedback.

My approach was to not overtly disclose my ASD, but to advocate for others. Was this a good strategy to disclose my ASD? I guess only time will tell.

 

[MyLifeAsAnAspie]

Interesting approach. My company has a group like that too. I might look into joining it more as a advocate than someone in need of accommodation.

I took a look at the group. They have never done any event at my location. And the only events they have done were NAMIWalk and World Mental Health Day.

 

[Sarah S]

Its a well known fact that in here there are both camps on whether to come out with our disabilities or not. But im happy you so far have had a good experience reg this as more of us needs to take this step so that others that dont have this or any diagnosis can better understand those of us that has them

 

[Rasputin]

Interesting approach. My company has a group like that too. I might look into joining it more as a advocate than someone in need of accommodation.

I took a look at the group. They have never done any event at my location. And the only events they have done were NAMIWalk and World Mental Health Day.

Maybe if more people join your group will become more active. The group leadership sounds like it needs to be replaced though.

One factor that I think helps you is your age. You and I are close in age, and we have learned coping strategies that might be helpful to less experienced people with ASD. This lends credibility as an advocate, versus someone who just wants to pad their resume and do nothing.

 

[menander]

It really depends. I would not. It will be on record forever with the internet and all.

It also depends on how plugged in you in life. If you've been lucky with resources and good connections and you work for people who are all intelligent and kind and you have a good therapist and solid base and meaningful relationships......all the package......then sure. No one will think any less of you. You are already in a no-fail place.

However, if life is a grind and you have no realtionships and people think you're odd and you are clearly just one out of 1,000 for your therapist and surrounded by people who don't even want to support or befriend you------you know, the exact opposite........once the ball starts rolling in ither direction, it tends to keep going....well then I would never tell.

Sometimes we think if we tell in the latter scenario, people will magically like us or understand us or something. Over and over I saw that is not true.

I could be very wrong, though. I am one person.

 

[SDRSpark]

My employer promotes membership in employee leadership groups, and I joined one some time back. The group I joined advocates for people with disabilities.

Today this group sponsored an Autism Awareness event, a public question and answer panel. I agreed to sit on the panel, and the event went well in my opinion. I spoke candidly about my experiences with ASD, and advocated for more professional employment of persons with ASD and related conditions.

My participation in the event disclosed my ASD within my company, and afterwards I discussed it with my boss. His response seemed positive, as he noted receiving a lot of good feedback.

My approach was to not overtly disclose my ASD, but to advocate for others. Was this a good strategy to disclose my ASD? I guess only time will tell.

That sounds a lot like companies I've worked for....my old company went overboard with leadership groups actually. I avoided them for a lot of things - I got the distinct feeling that they were doing it just to impress stockholders, and if I had joined, for instance, the LGBT one, I would have been a badge that they could show off for their diversity and inclusion efforts (hey look at us world, we have a nonbinary asexual on staff! We're so great! Rah Rah Rah! Look how inclusive we are!!!) and I wanted no part of that.

My new company also has leadership groups, but they don't have a plethora of them like the old company did. They also seem like they're doing it for the right reasons - actual employee development, not putting on a show for stockholders.

It sounds like it went really well for you - if I had an opportunity to "come out" that way, and I wanted to, I would certainly do it the way you did.

 

[Rasputin]

That sounds a lot like companies I've worked for....my old company went overboard with leadership groups actually. I avoided them for a lot of things - I got the distinct feeling that they were doing it just to impress stockholders, and if I had joined, for instance, the LGBT one, I would have been a badge that they could show off for their diversity and inclusion efforts (hey look at us world, we have a nonbinary asexual on staff! We're so great! Rah Rah Rah! Look how inclusive we are!!!) and I wanted no part of that.

My new company also has leadership groups, but they don't have a plethora of them like the old company did. They also seem like they're doing it for the right reasons - actual employee development, not putting on a show for stockholders.

It sounds like it went really well for you - if I had an opportunity to "come out" that way, and I wanted to, I would certainly do it the way you did.

I am sure there is some of that Rah! Rah? Look at us! However, there does seem to be some genuine desire to hire more people with ASD, which is different from most companies.

 

[SDRSpark]

I am sure there is some of that Rah! Rah? Look at us! However, there does seem to be some genuine desire to hire more people with ASD, which is different from most companies.

I don't think you can ever really remove the desire to impress stockholders from capitalism....lol! But yeah...some companies are really transparent about the fact that they're doing things for mostly the wrong reasons and others have a healthy mix of both.

 

[Giraffes]

I think no, this is due to experiences of being marginalised,predudice and ignorance from managers and colleagues, the fact i had to pay for my own diagnosis gave evidence for me that often people 'think' they accept different ways of being then make little reasonable adjustments.

 

[sport]

I tend to fall on the side of caution having autism and being incontinent don't need any stones cask my way.

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

Me personally I can take the idea that someone might discriminate me for my autism because I know better than they do. I have come to take it from my mum on the ability to handle things like that. Her, it wasn't autism but, being maori. I've never had discrimination about my skin or family heritage, so I'm different to her.

The importance with this sorta issue is to recognize that it's not a fault of you for revealing information to them or them finding out you have autism but them for not understanding and instead of being curious about that info and asking you questions and getting to know you, they went with the option of growing fearful and making sweeping generalizations about what little they know about autism...the same advice i'm giving is true if they're doing the same with other mental health conditions or even your culture or skin colour. The point is, not everyone out there is out to treat you with fear and some can even treat you with curiosity and come to get to know you. But I do understand that anxiety and difficulty in articulating things to people can complicate matters. I myself have never been discriminated...just people making the wrong assumptions of me, but with a bit of explaining i have been able to change the majority of people from these first thoughts about me to coming to realize there isn't much bad about me at all or just finding out i'm not what they thought i would be. Some people who go the route of making bad assumptions aren't necessarily bad people...they just don't know how to treat the unknown initially, which is what a lot of people do, and sometimes some people may make incorrect statements without realizing that they're saying things that are upsetting to you or insulting of you. But if you or someone vouching on behalf of you explains things to people how things are...and the other side just does not stop with the way they are going about you...then they're no longer just going off to a rough start...they're just discriminatory jerks.

When i had bad anxiety and difficulty articulating things and was socially anxious and insecure about myself, I did not know any of what I just wrote in the above paragraph. But my mum was always there to step in and explain to people how it was, and she herself is where I learnt how to tackle potential discrimination.

 

[Jumpback]

My employer promotes membership in employee leadership groups, and I joined one some time back. The group I joined advocates for people with disabilities.

Today this group sponsored an Autism Awareness event, a public question and answer panel. I agreed to sit on the panel, and the event went well in my opinion. I spoke candidly about my experiences with ASD, and advocated for more professional employment of persons with ASD and related conditions.

My participation in the event disclosed my ASD within my company, and afterwards I discussed it with my boss. His response seemed positive, as he noted receiving a lot of good feedback.

My approach was to not overtly disclose my ASD, but to advocate for others. Was this a good strategy to disclose my ASD? I guess only time will tell.

My guess is that when you did this people put two and two together and compared their experiences with you and a light bulb kind of came on with like “oh, that explains this” if they noticed something unusual before

You might be in kind of a good position with this as in general and as a general advocate, in that you already have this professional position and are half disclosing things when you don’t actually have to.

Much more helpful for a community than the thread about the movie patron who interrupted a movie with laughing and then cried foul, even if she maybe was mistreated. I think that people are suspicious of people who may have secret agendas, but what could your secret agenda possibly be?

It really would be wrong if people give you a hard time for disclosing this when you had no need to. And I don’t think people will since you are already an established member of your work community, plus minority rights is a huge deal, so people want to be on the right side of things. I really don’t think that you’ll suffer any consequences from doing this, but people are stupid, so who knows?

 

[Rasputin]

My guess is that when you did this people put two and two together and compared their experiences with you and a light bulb kind of came on with like “oh, that explains this” if they noticed something unusual before

You might be in kind of a good position with this as in general and as a general advocate, in that you already have this professional position and are half disclosing things when you don’t actually have to.

Much more helpful for a community than the thread about the movie patron who interrupted a movie with laughing and then cried foul, even if she maybe was mistreated. I think that people are suspicious of people who may have secret agendas, but what could your secret agenda possibly be?

It really would be wrong if people give you a hard time for disclosing this when you had no need to. And I don’t think people will since you are already an established member of your work community, plus minority rights is a huge deal, so people want to be on the right side of things. I really don’t think that you’ll suffer any consequences from doing this, but people are stupid, so who knows?

I hope by my speaking, people who listened will be more open minded and inclusive.

 

[strawberrysoda]

Hi, Has anyone on the forum disclosed on the internet in a way that it was mapped back to their name, and if so, what were the pros and cons after the fact? I'm considering disclosure of my autism and mental illnesses through my writing. I'm a freelancer and I'm working on an important story that is only a story if I share these important truths. It's a springboard to become an advocate and to just be me through and through, but I'm aware it comes with major risks, potentially to be further misjudged, abused, harassed, or worse. My doctors and I have been discussing this for months and we haven't come to a firm conclusion.

 

[SDRSpark]

Hi, Has anyone on the forum disclosed on the internet in a way that it was mapped back to their name, and if so, what were the pros and cons after the fact? I'm considering disclosure of my autism and mental illnesses through my writing. I'm a freelancer and I'm working on an important story that is only a story if I share these important truths. It's a springboard to become an advocate and to just be me through and through, but I'm aware it comes with major risks, potentially to be further misjudged, abused, harassed, or worse. My doctors and I have been discussing this for months and we haven't come to a firm conclusion.

If you're writing under a pen-name, it's not super likely that it will be traced back to you (that's not to say that it can't be - anything you do online can be traced back to you, but unless you're a high-profile politician, have attracted the attention of a hacker/stalker, or are writing about committing terrorist acts or something, the chances of anyone actually bothering to tie your pen name to yourself are pretty slim. There's just no reason for most people to put in the effort.)

On top of that, I'm not sure what kind of writing you are doing, but if it's fiction there's no reason anyone has to believe that you (the author) are writing about yourself, either. (Although you may be making it clear that you are, in which case disregard this comment.)

 

[strawberrysoda]

If you're writing under a pen-name, it's not super likely that it will be traced back to you (that's not to say that it can't be - anything you do online can be traced back to you, but unless you're a high-profile politician, have attracted the attention of a hacker/stalker, or are writing about committing terrorist acts or something, the chances of anyone actually bothering to tie your pen name to yourself are pretty slim. There's just no reason for most people to put in the effort.)

On top of that, I'm not sure what kind of writing you are doing, but if it's fiction there's no reason anyone has to believe that you (the author) are writing about yourself, either. (Although you may be making it clear that you are, in which case disregard this comment.)

when I refer to disclosing my health publicly, i would be writing non-fiction under my real name. Sure, I could package it as fiction and use a pseudonym but that’s not going to serve my goals as well, which above all are to present my views, stories and life experience in an authentic manner, and to discuss how my experience relates to others with ASD, with the goal of educating the readership. Presenting my work as fiction or using a fake name are still options on my list but when I bring up public disclosure here, I’m asking about real public disclosure.

 

[SDRSpark]

when I refer to disclosing my health publicly, i would be writing non-fiction under my real name. Sure, I could package it as fiction and use a pseudonym but that’s not going to serve my goals as well, which above all are to present my views, stories and life experience in an authentic manner, and to discuss how my experience relates to others with ASD, with the goal of educating the readership. Presenting my work as fiction or using a fake name are still options on my list but when I bring up public disclosure here, I’m asking about real public disclosure.

I think it depends a lot on your situation, the details of what you're intending to disclose, and what your employment and social situation looks like.

 

[strawberrysoda]

I think it depends a lot on your situation, the details of what you're intending to disclose, and what your employment and social situation looks like.

exactly.

I appreciate the feedback but it’s not really getting to the point I’m after so I’ll pose my question again:

Has anyone on the forum disclosed on the internet in a way that it was mapped back to their name, and if so, what were the pros and cons after the fact

 

[sport]

I have but never has hurt me as of now.

 

[Magna]

I'm just seeing this thread for the first time. Rasputin, I think your approach was great and I'm glad it worked out for you.

@strawberrysoda your question is a good one. I think you'd get more exposure and possibly more responses if you started a thread about it.

I disclosed my autism to my employer earlier this year which was about a year into my employment at the company. I started working from home in March of this year because of Covid. I benefited from working in my own home environment so much in regard to my lower stress level and my ability to concentrate that I greatly desired to work from home permanently. I decided the only way I was most likely certain to be able to work from home permanently was to disclose my autism and present a request of reasonable accommodation under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) which my autism therapist drafted. I presented that to my employer via email along with a short explanation as to why it would benefit me. I was granted permanent work at home status by my employer and I haven't been back in the office nor have I seen any of my coworkers since. I assume my employer has kept my disclosure confidential, but I have no way of knowing that. I'm glad that I disclosed my autism to my employer because it has benefited me overall.

I have disclosed to members of my family such as my dad and my sibling and that has been favorable.

However, I've also disclosed to a longtime friend and also to an aunt both via email and neither person responded or acknowledged it at all. Perhaps they were not sure how to respond?