Autism in the Professional World: How Diagnosis, Support, Accommodations and Empathy Can Unlock Creativity and Innovation

I want to share with you a personal story that has changed my life for the better. A few months ago, I was diagnosed with autistic burnout and encouraged to complete further assessments to confirm that I am autistic, which is a neurodevelopmental disability. At first, I was shocked and scared. I didn't know what it meant for me and my future. After few days of processing what this meant due to how confronting and confusing it was, I was able to accept what it meant.

Being diagnosed as autistic has been like finding the missing piece of the puzzle as so many of us describe it. It opened my eyes to help me understand myself better and make peace with a lot of the pain from my past. It has given me a new perspective on my strengths and to embrace interdependence, so I have more confidence to seek help for my challenges. It has also helped me find a community of neurodiverse people who share similar experiences, lessons and support each other.

I want to show the professional world that being autistic does not limit my potential or my value as a business owner or an employee when I am in an environment that I am given the right level of support, accommodations and empathy. Where these key ingredients are available, I have an edge in creativity, problem-solving, and attention to detail and we can do many remarkable things together. When these key ingredients are not available, the pain I endure is not only mental, but also gives me phantom pains as well as meltdowns and the longer it goes on for, the greater the trauma I will have to carry for the rest of my life. I have been there, done that, am suffering from it still and am doing my best to recognise the signs that it is happening again, which is difficult when my true feelings are buried so easily from years of trying to do things that were not comfortable for me.

I am sharing this with you because I want to raise awareness and acceptance of autistic people in the professional world and there are potentially many more of us out there who just don't know it yet as the statistics for children being diagnosed is much higher than adults due to increased awareness compared to back when adults were at the age that children are now being more commonly diagnosed.

Thank you for reading this and for being part of my network. I hope this post inspires you to be more open-minded and compassionate towards people who are autistic.