Anybody here embarrassed to tell people you have ASD?

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A lot of close people in my life know. When it comes to new people, I am not sure how to go about it because I know there are a lot of people who are ignorant about ASD/get the wrong idea. Some people sense there is something off about me anyways.

If I know I can trust someone, I might bring it up, and I've had people help me with disclosure about my disability in the past. There are a lot of positives that come with ASD so there are things I don't mind about having it. It's just that I know there are ignorant people out there who assume.

I think of it this way:

I can’t give my partner autism....so I’m under no obligation to tell my partner.

If I had AIDS, then I would be obligated to tell my partner, because I could give her AIDS.

I’m not ashamed of having autism....because I didn’t do anything wrong that caused me to get autism. I do embarrass myself sometimes, though.

For me it's a little different: I once talked to a couple of coworkers about my suspicions of being on the Autism Spectrum and the response was essentially "We all figured that out a long time ago." My wife actually told me she thought I was Autistic so I didn't even need to bring it up. I'm not too worried about costing myself employment opportunities because I have tried unsuccessfully for 7 long years to find a more suitable position with no success (despite superior education and experience) so it can't get much worse.

Granted I am not officially diagnosed yet but I can state when I go for my formal testing if the Psychologist says "no" she needs to have her license revoked as I am about as textbook as you can get. The biggest thing to remember is that ASD is a "disability" ONLY because the majority of the population doesn't have it and with proper support I can not only keep up with but exceed most people in all aspects of life.

Not embarrassed of autism, it's just no one needs to know it. I simply thought it's no one else's business but my own.
More so if those people neverminds the realms of disability, neverminds the realms of neurodiversity, just neverminds anything more unusual than their relatable realms of human continuum.


There are so many times I seriously felt like discussing my case to some... It's other else's contexts that holds me back.
Their assumptions, their over/underestimations, their own idea of what makes an autistic... Didn't mattered much of how much they knew, be it an amateur with interest or an experienced professional.

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When I was in my teens I was embarrassed to tell people because of stigma and stereotypes, but now that I'm older, care less about what other people think and am for the most part less interested in socialising, I have no problem telling people.

If I tell people, it tends to be after I've gotten to know them a bit, or if it's relevant to a conversation I'm having, or if I just plain feel like it. I'm not embarrassed to tell people but I also don't feel obligated to. It largely depends on what my relationship dynamic with them is like, and whether it ever seems relevant conversation.

I would probably tell someone I was dating about it after we'd gotten to know each other well enough to where I could reasonably expect that she'd be able to see me for who and what I am as opposed to evoking stereotypes, but it would also depend on the flow of conversation and topics we chose to talk about. It wouldn't be inconceivable for me to tell someone about it on the first date if we got on well enough and it felt like it fitted into our conversation.

I just can't do it. I have never told anybody that I have it. The only people who know are my immediate family, because I was only a child when I got diagnosed so of course the family knew. But anybody else, I cannot let them know. It's NOT because I think my boyfriend will leave me if I told him, because he won't.
Words can't describe how I feel about it. When I was a teen I used to self-harm, because I hated my AS. I'd smack myself in the head, yelling, "I HATE MY f*****g BRAIN!!"
The shame and feeling of being victimised by it has left me wanting to hide it under the carpet. Maybe the diagnosis will come in useful one day, but at the moment I'm quite happy coming on to WP to talk about my life and "leaving my Asperger's here", if that makes sense. I do talk to my mum and aunties about my Asperger's but that's it. They know I don't want to tell anyone outside the family about it, and they understand that some people like to reveal their diagnosis to people while some don't. I'm the latter.

Even if you hate having autism, if you could share that and your experiences with him, it would do nothing but deepen your relationship. It seems like being on the spectrum has been a big part of your life. I think you owe it to yourself and to him to share it.

Of course you should do what feels right, but I’d think seriously about it.

Having autism isn’t something to feel ashamed of.