Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article examines the issue of disclosure at work. This is a major question for autistic people, especially those of us who have learned to camouflage. If the identity in question is an invisible one (ie: autism, sexual orientation, chronic illness), it seems it's statistically better to disclose it.
Specifically, "Workers who expressed their non-visible stigmas experienced decreased job anxiety, decreased role ambiguity, improved job satisfaction and increased commitment to their position. Outside of work, these workers reporter decreased psychological stress and increased satisfaction with their lives."
That's a long-winded way of saying that living a lie is bad for you, and so is living in fear of how people will treat you if they knew this part of your identity. Camouflaging, which is what it's called when an autistic person suppresses their authentic selves in favor of attempting to seem neurotypical, by the way, is pretty much exactly "living a lie."
This isn't to say that disclosure is always the right answer in every situation. Your specific circumstances may vary: your workplace or boss may be particularly intolerant or uncaring, your ability or desire to self-advocate may not be up to the demands that disclosure imposes, or, in a temporary position, it may not even be worth the time.
While I personally think the more of us that are visible, the better off all of us are, it's definitely a personal choice. People can and do get burned out from having to be "the _____ person" all the time. That's true of any identity, visible or invisible.
Specifically, "Workers who expressed their non-visible stigmas experienced decreased job anxiety, decreased role ambiguity, improved job satisfaction and increased commitment to their position. Outside of work, these workers reporter decreased psychological stress and increased satisfaction with their lives."
That's a long-winded way of saying that living a lie is bad for you, and so is living in fear of how people will treat you if they knew this part of your identity. Camouflaging, which is what it's called when an autistic person suppresses their authentic selves in favor of attempting to seem neurotypical, by the way, is pretty much exactly "living a lie."
This isn't to say that disclosure is always the right answer in every situation. Your specific circumstances may vary: your workplace or boss may be particularly intolerant or uncaring, your ability or desire to self-advocate may not be up to the demands that disclosure imposes, or, in a temporary position, it may not even be worth the time.
While I personally think the more of us that are visible, the better off all of us are, it's definitely a personal choice. People can and do get burned out from having to be "the _____ person" all the time. That's true of any identity, visible or invisible.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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