The hidden aspie economy

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When I realized I have aspergers, I told two of the three people I consider friends at work. The first person I told finished my sentence while I was explaining, and said that he had assumed that I had AS because he had been studying it for years having self-diagnosed long ago. The second person also said she thought she had some form of autism and was considering getting a diagnosis. I was amazed.

We are all technically oriented graphic designers and combine a natural ease with digital technology and a strong visual mind.

A third odd moment came when I had just been diagnosed and I was thinking back through my work life and how autistic traits had been a factor. I recalled an odd conversation years ago when my boss told me she had Aspergers and about the symptoms of Aspergers. I asked if there was anything she wanted me to do and she said no, she just wanted me to know.

I wondered if she had been trying to tell me the she suspected I was also Aspergian. I called to find out and she said yes.

The four of us represent about 30% of our group. Two of us are professionally diagnosed, two of us self-diagnosed.

I wonder how many others in our profession have ASD.

I now realize I am incredibly lucky to have worked for someone who knew about my ASD for years before I did and looked out for my interests.

I understand there is similar anecdotal evidence that something like the situation I was in also happens in academia and the high technology sector.

So I wonder if there are a lot of spectrumites out there, more or less successfully getting by in the NT world in certain professions. I wonder how discovery of those people and their inclusion in statistics about how successful people with ASD can be would change the understanding of outcomes for people with these traits?

I have read the very high unemployment and divorce statistics and felt anxiety for myself and my children... Then realized I have already mostly beaten the odds (so far!). But I wonder if the odds are right? Perhaps they are skewed by people who are coping well enough to get by without being recorded in the statistics? I can't think of any way to test this idea so it may be idle speculation, but I wonder what others thought about this possibility.

The plural pf "anecdote" is not "evidence".

Where I work there are 8 employees. Two of us have AS (myself and my boss who owns the store) and one is a mother whose son has AS, and while she is NT she has some tendencies (plus she understands what it means that I have AS). It helps more than I can say to work in an environment with people who understand. I actually got refereed to my work place by my psych because my boss sees the same boss and my psych realized that I could do some of the things that my boss had trouble doing (I am good at math and better at computers) so he told her about me. It has worked out well.

I know it: Social Security?