Who do you disclose to and why?

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1. What people do you disclose your diagnosis to and why?
2. Has it helped you in any way?
3. Have people changed the way they treat you?
4. Did they know you were different before you told them?
5. If so, in what way?

1. What people do you disclose your diagnosis to and why?
Friends and family. I don't socialize, work, or go to school, so I have no one else to tell it to besides my current friends and family.

2. Has it helped you in any way?
Not really.


3. Have people changed the way they treat you?
My parents and sister treat me a little better now. My 2 friends haven't made any effort to understand what aspergers is and continues to treat me the same and still get mad at me when I don't want to socialize. The other day my friend said that "I need to do things outside my comfort zone to improve my anxiety". That pissed me off because I live in a world where I'm ALWAYS living outside my comfort zone.


4. Did they know you were different before you told them?
My family just thought I had mental illness problems. My friends never said anything about this topic.

1. I've only told my close family members and one close friend. (I don't tell anyone else, because I've always been reclusive by nature, and literally don't know anyone else!)

2. It's helped me for my family to know, because I wouldn't want to have to hide it from them.

3. My family treats me the same, but my one friend couldn't accept my diagnosis, kept insisting I don't actually have it, and it ultimately led to the end of our friendship.

4. My family has always known I was different, so it wasn't a surprise to them.

5. Shy, antisocial, sensitive, reclusive, consistently failed in school and jobs due to being stressed beyond my coping ability; marriage failed due to asexuality and inability to socialize.

I have told my employers and the people I work with.

I get on fine in the job but if I do make a social mistake people understand I did not mean it.


Told my family too be they do not really accept it except my mother.

I tell my more trusted friends, nice girls and people who ask how I learned technology, in which case I usually paraphrase. All I know about this topic with regards to my family is that when it comes up, I get the !@#$ out of sight. Usually in my car.

I have never told anyone apart from health care professionals.

I don't like to admit weaknesses.

I have never told anyone apart from health care professionals.

I don't like to admit weaknesses.

1. What people do you disclose your diagnosis to and why?

Any time it might be relevant. I openly blog about autism and this is linked to my social media accounts even. I don't hide it at all.

2. Has it helped you in any way?

I get professional help and such. People don't expect things of me I guess? I don't know.

3. Have people changed the way they treat you?

Not really. I've gotten some advice.

4. Did they know you were different before you told them?

Yes, I even got "Oh, yeah, that makes sense", when I told people about my diagnosis.

I disclose my diagnosis on a need-to-know basis. I disclosed to my psychiatrist, my former employer, my school when I was in school, my close friends, any women that get close to, some family members, my 12-Step sponsors. I recently told voc. rehab. so that I can see if I am eligible for assistance. I told employers, school, and voc. rehab. so I could get treated fairly. For family, friends, and potential girlfriends, I tell them so that they can understand me better (my social failures, my thought process).

The only time it helped me was before I was officially diagnosed. I told my current therapist I thought that I had AS, and he diagnosed me. It has never hurt me to disclose my diagnosis.

People don't know what AS is most of the time so they don't treat me different. After I tell them, they usually ignore the information because they don't know what AS is.

I act funny anyway, so people already knew something was "different" about me. I doubt they considered me disabled because I am so intelligent.

I'm not good at knowing how other people see me so I won't speculate how they saw me as different without knowing that I had AS. It only comes up when I make somebody angry and they insult me. In the recent past I have been told that I am arrogant, hard to approach, humble, nice, a "know-it-all". When I was a child, the names I got called were a lot worse. I think most people see me as no different than anybody else. They don't have any knowledge about AS, so they wouldn't think to label me.

1. What people do you disclose your diagnosis to and why?
Most everyone in real life already knows. I disclose it in online forums as autism awareness.

2. Has it helped you in any way?
Has not helped or hurt me, but hopefully has helped autism awareness

3. Have people changed the way they treat you?
Only in that I am "amazing" because I sound so normal and smart for someone more severely autistic.

4. Did they know you were different before you told them?
Yes.

5. If so, in what way?
Called interesting, unique, unusual and even bizarre (all in a commendable way)

1. What people do you disclose your diagnosis to and why?
Friends who I think might fit the diagnosis or maybe the subject just comes up and I do it in an "oh and by the way" way.
Teachers...homeroom teacher, counselor
I don't tell any of this to jerks or people who I've just met.
2. Has it helped you in any way?
I guess things generally just stayed the same
3. Have people changed the way they treat you?
No? I can't tell, anyway
4. Did they know you were different before you told them?
Yes.
5. If so, in what way?
I'm generally weird and people easily become baffled with my reactions or the things I do. But I am at the same time a very good actor and very polite. I am not as socially inept as the traditional AS stereotype so people are either like "That fits perfectly and explains everything" or "what! Aspergers?"

If I choose to disclose to acquaintances this is kind of what I rely upon. I find that people tend to react in a way similar to how I present it. If I mention it almost offhandedly in the course of conversation, I find it helps put them at ease a bit, and does not make my Dx the focus of a conversation they may want to avoid.

1. What people do you disclose your diagnosis to and why?
need-to-know basis, only housemates, parents/sibling and significant other, anyone else only gets the relevant symptoms
2. Has it helped you in any way?
yes, it allows a better understanding for my issues
3. Have people changed the way they treat you?
somewhat, but only in a positive way; they are more willing to, for example, keep fluorescent lights off or turn the music down a bit if i ask
4. Did they know you were different before you told them?
those who get a full diagnosis, yes, but i dont disclose on the first meeting so they know me for a bit, the other people (mainly coworkers or fellow students) dont know me well enough, usually, the only ones that realised are on the spectrum themselves and therefor better at detecting others
5. If so, in what way?
the 'stereotypical' nerd/geek/quiet guy is what i heared the most, on disclosing, the most common reaction was "ah, that explains a lot" (amongst those that have heared of aspergers)

Only people on here know really.

I would like to tell people sometimes, but then I run through each and every eventuality in my head, and in the end I just don't bother.

wife, mum and then drunkenly a friend.

wife just completely agreed with it when she read through some info on it. Mum said she wasn't surprised, which surprised me. mate didn't say a lot, I don't think he had ever heard of it before and didn't know what I was rambling on about

I tell anybody with ears. Good or bad, I just take it on the chin to try to foster awareness for my kids. Keep in mind if you take this approach that the Genie doesn't go back in the bottle once you rub it.