"Open" or "Closet" Aspie?

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I opened that bag of chips a long time ago. Some flavours are intense, some mild, others in between.
Basically people that know me will find out eventually and it's easier on me if they're aware because I may have a meltdown/ shutdown in front of them, and they give me a lot of support at those times.

I prefer people to know because I feel no shame about it. They can choose to ridicule me or ignore me, and those people don't stay my friends for long. Those who support me I stay good friends with.
I don't tell everyone I know. I blog about it so much I assume people just know.

And thus concludes my 4000th post.

Closet (except for my immediate family.) I have heard too many horror stories from people who disclosed to everyone. The strange thing is that my immediate family either doesn't believe I am right or has no reaction at all, whereas more than one person who I have not disclosed has strongly implied that I have it or said so outright.

I don't actively hide it, but I won't tell people about it either unless the topic of AS happens to be mentioned, or if I need specific accommodations in the study/work setting. I don't want to tell everyone I talk to about me having AS as they might think I'm just saying it to attract attention and expecting them to care, hence the contextual need for me to reveal it. Also, I imagine that some of the NTs in my Med course whom I reveal my AS to, will probably gossip about it to others so that means I don't have to actively tell everybody.

So far my parents and classmates from high school know I have it, as well as 6 people in my Med course. When I enter my Clinicals at the hospital, I'll slowly tell more people that I have AS as I'll be requiring accommodations then in regards to my education.

If people in my Med course are going to avoid me, treat me like crap, gossip about me negatively, or blame everything I say and do on my AS, then I know that it's them who have a problem and not me as I'm the one who actively learns to cope in an NT world and they are just being superficial a**holes who take their NT social prowess for granted. In other words, revealing my AS can filter out the people who are awful, which is good coz I can then figure out which people to avoid establishing friendships with.

So far I think I'm autistic don't have aspergers. I've told my mother but was affraid she wouldn't believe me, so I said my therapist thought I had it, which is true. I've not told anyone else, but it makes me feel better to know that I have it, regardless of others.

I am open about it, I don't like hiding things especially when its big part of who i am, the way i see it is, if someone can't handle the fact i have Aspergers even after i have explained it to them, then i won't bother wasting my time.

I didn't know until I was 48. My family learned about As then told me, then I was diagnosed.

So since I have gone through life without telling people (being I didn't know I had it) I see no reason to start telling people. I do so only on a need to know basis. After I got diagnosed I did not tell my employer.

When I told a friend I reconnected with through Facebook and asked him what he remembered from our interaction in the past he said there had been nothing unusual about me. But after the diagnoses was confirmed, he said that there had been something odd about me.

I do the web site for a lady who runs a framing shop. When I tried to be a salesman going around to small business to try to get clients she was my only success. Later she was telling me about her son, that he had Asperger's, so I immediately disclosed that I had it.

Triumph Services helped me get a job at a warehouse. The HR lady there knows I have it. I do not reveal it to anyone at work. At lunch I sat with a lady who helped me out on my first days and her friends. They asked why I ate celery and carrots. I said I'd made a roast and had some leftover so was eating them. And I pointed out that it takes more calories to eat celery than you get from it. The next day I was eating fried chicken with my vegetables and the lady who helped me asked why I didn't have bread. I explained that I have a food aversion.
So I am an oddball who eats healthy. I had a hard time understand then when they spoke to each other and couldn't figure how to break into the conversation.

Later I sat by myself. I figured if anyone asked why I was sitting by myself I'd say that I have a hard time meeting new people. My strategy is to reveal only when necessary. If somebody reveals they have a family member who has it then I speak up. And my strategy is to reveal aspie traits, like being shy. If I am confronted as to why I behaved like I do to reveal the particular aspie trait. Such as: Why am so slow? I am detail oriented and it is hard for me not to obsess over doing it perfect.

On Facebook I'm openly Aspie. I did reveal it in my E-Harmony profile but my above mentioned friend recommended I don't, so I removed it.

Most people don't know I'm autistic, they consider me weird and I don't correct them.
If people are Aspie-friendly or somebody knows me well, I'm open and I say what I feel as autistic.

I WAS closeted until that stupid Autism Spectrum Quotient came up on Facebook, then I sort of outsed myself to my FB friends because of that. My family knows and has known since dx and my one close friend from HS knows. Other than that, I have to be really comfortable with you to let you know.

No one knows but my family, and no one has figured it out either. People just think I am reticent and taciturn, hence my username.

Hmm
Mostly closed, though I expect my behaviour reveals me to anyone who knows what they are looking at.

Did disclose to partner of 7 years, who became ex-partner not long after.
I know that the outing of the ASD was not the only factor in the demise of the relationship, but it had a lot to do with it.
I think that my partner viewed my peculiarities as hard-wired AS (ie. unchangeable), and on some level he did not feel able to deal with this. It was better for him when he felt that I *could* be different.

I strongly suggest that anyone who is newly diagnosed with an ASD, and who has a partner.... get some advice and support before you tell your partner, because it will change your relationship somehow!

Used to be very open - it was inevitable, as the teachers had told absolutely everyone I knew at school. Didn't go very well. New school, new situation - the teachers know, but no one else. I get a lot more respect nowadays, and I actually have real friends.

The world is an unfair place.

Only open with those who could gain from understanding (family members, friends found through WP/local AS groups, educational professionals, etc.).
Otherwise, I'm closeted. I'm able to handle most day-to-day forms of social interaction, and I fear that disclosing the details of my diagnosis to those who needn't know would be more trouble than it's worth.

closeted. This little town is NOT an inclusive place. If I could move, I certainly would, but until real estate picks up, I'm stuck.

I would WAY rather be thought of as a jerk, than give the locals something they can use against me.

I am open to members of my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my doctor, my supervisor, and some of my coworkers. Otherwise, I am closeted to everyone else, mostly complete strangers.