Being a closeted autistic

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I'm so fabulous people just assume.

I told my husband, daughter and two friends, one of whom deleted herself from my life, I don't think it was anything to do with me being autistic though, haha. They all reacted supportively.

I don't usually tell people because a) I don't know anyone and b) what business is it of theirs anyway?

If someone point blank asked me 'are you autistic?' I'd probably say 'yes', but I can't think why anyone would ask that out of the blue.

For some reason my husband told his sister that our daughter is autistic, I don't know why he did that. The sister is okay I suppose but generally snide and horrible to me so I told him not to tell her that I'm autistic. Why give her another stick to beat me with?

I haven’t usually told people because I’m too shy and reserved to do so. It would probably be better if I did, so they aren’t puzzling over my behavior.

When I left my last place of employment, I said it was due to PTSD-related issues which was largely true. They seemed relieved to finally have an explanation. They know so little about either condition it didn’t make much of a difference.

I would like to work for a place that was autism-friendly - that didn’t expect perfectly normal behavior all the time.

it isnt a secret. though i wouldnt say i shout out that im autistic from the rooftops or anything.

I've come out as autistic to a few people where I volunteer and they haven't spread it which is good of them. At my cleaning job they knew before I started the job because I'd had therapy there. Plus my family knows. I don't have any friends at the moment but when I did, they knew.

I disclose my diagnosis quite freely these days. I feel there's no real point in trying to hide it. I don't tell everyone about it, because there's situations where I don't really need to, but it's not worth lying about for me either.

I'm open about my ASD+iADHD, though I don't advertise with t-shirts or bumper stickers.

My casual, almost flippant attitude about my mental health always unnerved people. I was always open to the possibility that I was crazy, unlike most people (NT or ND) who have/had an almost irrational about how convinced they are of their own sanity and clean mental health. I never had a denial phase.

When I finally became educated about ASD and ADHD, I talked with a lot of people I know about the possibility. Most people who knew me were skeptical, unless they personally knew someone who had ASD. Many people my parents age were downright horrified at the idea.

When I got a formal diagnosis, I posted about it on Facebook almost immediately. (I waited only to tell a close personal friend who is ND first.) A number of people felt the need to reassure me, which was nice but unnecessary. I've had plenty of existential crises in my life; this wasn't one of them. It was just an explanation for what I knew had been going on a long time.

Will people think of me differently? Perhaps. So what? If it cost me any friends they weren't friends worth having.

I have been open about it since I got an official diagnosis in 2017.