I’ve been wondering for quite a while if I have autism or not as I seem to hit a lot of the commonly reported symptoms and experiences. I recently tried some of the self-tests out there, including the ones on Embrace Autism, and yeah, I hit every single one I tried for mild to even moderate autism. Scored 49 on the rbq-2a for example.
Now, I know that none of those tests are conclusive and I could easily be a false positive, so I’m not directly claiming I have autism. But I’m thinking the next step is probably to talk to my primary care doctor, but to be honest I’m really hesitant to/don’t completely trust the mental health system in Canada. Genuinely asking because I don’t really have anyone in my personal life who has similar experiences or I think would understand: what do people here think about getting a formal diagnosis? Is it always something one should pursue if they suspect they’re on the spectrum? Are there any major drawbacks? I’m especially concerned about it affecting my career prospects (which already aren’t great tbh, my fault for getting a science degree in an already niche field which I deeply regret but that’s a different story) or my ability to take out loans or rent an apartment by myself. I don’t personally see my autism (if I have it) as a disability, but unfortunately in Canada it is still very much seen as such. Who am I required to disclose an autism diagnosis if I am diagnosed?
I’m really sorry if any of this comes off as insensitive. I have never really participated in the autism online community and I am in no way trying to put down people with autism, I’m honestly just kind of scared about what this means for me. Anyone else in a similar situation, or were in a similar situation? Care to share your experiences or have any advice?
I recently got fired from my software dev job and am really considering going freelance at this point. I’m working on learning Kotlin and wanna build a few small apps over the next year or so to fill out a portfolio and then will go from there. My last job was remote and I thought that wold have fixed the “working with a bunch of people” issue but then my boss put me on support calls and I wasn’t able to focus on the programming like I wanted to.
Also the “playing support” idea is really great and I don’t know why people don’t consider it. I can see it help especially with junior level developers like myself but also help you as the tutor, so to speak.
Good luck on Kotlin and the freelance sites!
I think the employers are resistant on the idea there because becoming “management” is supposed to be a promotion for the “good ones,” and that’d take away from their roles. In their eyes you’re either an important manager or a disposable developer.
I call it “support” specifically to counter the notion of being a superior. Lots of newer workers will already know things others don’t yet, so in a sense it’s just a worker solidarity thing, with the added bonus of a change of pace for people who are a bit tired but not enough to warrant sick leave.
But you probably already know how techbro CEOs feel about solidarity…
Especially after the whole Twitter thing. At my last job we were a bit more cohesive, but our boss was pretty laid back too. I don’t think I’ve experienced “code monkey” culture so much.
Your boss is a demon.
No fucking joke man. I think you are a dev so like, imagine being in a flow state, working 2+ hours on something, super focused, then BAM! phone rings and it’s some field tech trying to figure out why our software won’t run on Ubuntu 18 when we switched support to Ubuntu 20 last year.
On the flipside, I just spent 3 hours uninterrupted, working on a persona project, so hey…