To go public, or not go public...

That is something you should take very carefully into consideration, What are the possible consequences of coming out?

Personally, I have chosen not to come out at work. For one thing, I don't have a formal diagnosis. All my diagnostic "work" was done long before, at a time when you simply did not mention such things, and so for the most part I have functioned as normal although a bit quirky. Although I hope that at my age the bullying and teasing I received when I was younger is now a thing of the past, experience has taught me it is not always so, and it is not a good idea to provide people with ammunition to shoot you. In general, I tend to play things very close to the vest. I was also shaped by a hostile work environment where the less you disclosed about yourself the better off you were; that staying under the radar was the key to survival in that particular environment. I am actually more free on AC than I am in person.

Yep, a lot of those concerns are what I'm mulling over right now.

What I plan to do, though, isn't to "come out to work," but rather "come out to the world." In this way, the only company that has hired me under the NT impression is the one that I'm working at at the time I do it. Subsequent ones will know as soon as they find my professional blog.

Now, this has the obvious "disadvantage" of losing a number of prospects to discrimination. My own hard-learned experience, though, is that key people in such companies will likely discriminate, anyway. I actually had a boss one time, who I think his sister-in-law was mildly Autistic, and I wanted to knock his head off his shoulders for the disparaging things he said about her. He proceeded to bully me out of my job, in part by telling me that I had six weeks to change what were basically fundamental personality items, or I was fired, and refused to give me any more details on the problem or how I could demonstrate progress.

Given that, I don't see it as much of a disadvantage, and I think it can, in fact, work out to be an advantage, as it leaves the people who are more willing to work with me even knowing full well that I have some issues that require a bit of special handling. I do know, though, that I've got a luxury in my ability to do this, because I'm in a field with a high demand for workers, and therefore have no shortage of potential employers (or clients if/when I can get my own freelancing off the ground).

There's also the matter that we can't fix a problem if we never talk about it. Flying under the radar may work, but it's still a band-aid, in my opinion. It takes a lot of effort on our part to basically "avoid detection," and blend in, and it generally blows up in our face at least once. For those of us in a better position to start bringing these discussions out into the open, I almost feel like we're honor-bound to do so, so that it helps everyone. It's still a huge and scary as hell leap, though.

I think a full public announcement is a bad idea from a purely pragmatic perspective. Once you do that, there is no going back. Sure, some people will understand, but most won't. AS/ASD is widely misunderstood. You won't get the same reactions your friend did. My mother's initial reaction was to liken me to the VT Tech shooter.

you know what; if someone isint bold enough to start it first ... then theres never gonna be a change. I think you should do it. Actualy I think everyone should do it. People need to know what AS is and for people to know there needs to be someone crazy enough to do it first remember you are not alone, you have other crazy people like me that suport that ideia.
Hardships will come with it. But the final results my dear are bether. Actualy I am very inspired by Aarons story. He worked for Ideias, and that inspieres me, and i want to do that to.
I think you should do it.

I am new and this was the first post that I stopped on and I just felt like I have recently really come to terms with my responsibility to 'come out' so to speak. Although, my bravery is still in it's infancy, mostly becasue I don't know what to call myself so that people will understand. If I tell them I'm neurodivergent, most don't really get that. If I say autistic, then they automatically go to whatever they think about it, mostly medical thoughts, stereotypes, and how sad they are for me for my suffering (thick sarcasm). At the same time, I have some physical traits that make be visible and other traits that I have learned to hide. Although sometimes when I can't handle something, people just look at me like...overreact, much?? I am a professional academic, despite being a high school drop out and having so many learning issues. But, I eventually became a teacher and was able to really learn about how I learn... mainly so I could teach kids but it sure helped my understand how the education system let me down! I feel like I have responsibility to come out, because I know that kids in schools are struggling and I do, maybe they can too. But I don't know how to name it so that people will understand it. I still tell people in confidence and only when they need to know. So I can't be a hypocrite and so do it, but I hope more of us can start paving a path...