So I told a coworker today

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Well I had to tell another coworker today I was autistic. Basically I am going to be working with him closely on a project and my communication oddities have hindered such thing in the past. So I decided to try a different approach.

He wasn't surprised. He said he new there was something 'different' about the way I work, he just didn't know what it was.

I'm 2 for 2. So far, both people I have discussed this with on a professional level were not surprised. Not even a little. In fact it seems as if it was actually a good thing to do.

And I thought I was good at hiding my true internal states.

The very best co-worker relations I have ever had came about after we each better-understood the other. The overall challenge here is to fit ourselves into each situation in ways best for all.

Excellent. Was there much anxiety involved in the decision to do so? How long have you been working together?

When I ran into a former co-worker from the job I got laid off from that I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome a form of high funtioning autism we gave me an odd look and said there is no way you are autistic. His sister has a low functioning autistic kid and refused to believe I am autistic. He said I am a little weird and shy but not autistic. He also said I am a chatterbox about movies and survival stuff his sister's kid doesn't talk at all. I tied to explain the differences of HFA and LFA but he did not want to hear and quickly changed the subject.

Not so sure on the anxiety part. It's just become more and more apparent that my previous strategies of masking my intrinsic oddities wasn't working. So I sort of said to myself "WTF. It hasn't worked this way, lets try a new approach".

I've worked with this particular person for more than 10 years.

This is the reaction I'm afraid of running into. That's just ignorance and it would probably piss me off. I can usually cut through that crap my tossing out a few sentences with ten dollar words. Like 'hfa has similar anomalous temporal lobe dysfunctions as LFA but language skills create better opportunities for developing effective coping strategies". If they are smart enough to know what I just said they usually back down and even are a bit more curious. If they were totally baffled they slink away feeling like the jerks they were.

Sometimes ya just gotta baffle 'em with BS.

My experience so far has been 100% people agreeing with the diagnosis and/or having some educational discussion RE autism. I think it is beneficial for the most part to share with anyone you will be working closely with. It helps me to actually relax a bit more in fact.

YES!! This is so counter intuitive but so true. I've expended so much energy trying to fit in, just not having to try so hard is huge.

Telling people makes me nervous. In my experience, about thirty percent of those who find out act strangely around me ever after.

Right now, %100 of people seem to react to me strangely. I've never quite sure what the reaction is supposed to mean. I suppose I'm substituting on form of strange for another.

Congrats.

I've told a lot of people in my recent past and most where flabbergasted because they couldn't believe it to be so - or really didn't knew what it was.

I've found that most people will give a positive response as long as you aren't using it as an excuse for doing a bad job or being lazy. They wanted me to answer phones at my job one day (all day, 8 hours), I just explained why I couldn't do it and they were understanding.

This is going to be a tricky thing for me. I have always done what was asked of me, often to less than desirable results. I need to figure out graceful ways of saying no.

Not counting my family, I have told very few people. When I told my supervisor, he just said "I haven't noticed anything". So I told him about weird things that I might do, like - among other things - I may laugh at the weirdest times. "Oh. Like you do now?" he said. Yes... just like that...
At some point I had a coffee with a friend of mine a few years back. This was at a time when I started believing that not everyone was like me. I said to him: "I think I may have photographic memory."
He said: "Oh, you didn't know? We all know that."

Say what?

Isn't this part of our problem? We don't even know that people know things that are obvious?

Totally. It feels just so ... stupid. "Oh! That was obvious. Has been for the last gillion years. I just found out." That's AS for you...