"A woman felt like an outsider at work. She was diagnosed with autism at age 46."
Quote:
When Sofie Day first started working full-time in her 20s, she began to notice she felt different from everyone around her. Up until then, she never felt she struggled socially. She'd had one close friend at each school, preferred one-on-one interactions, and disliked parties — but she never felt lonely or like an outsider.
Being thrust into office environments changed that. Suddenly, there was pressure to go to happy hour drinks. "I was always hating it," Day, now 49, told Insider.
Everyday workplace interactions were difficult, too. "I didn't know when people used sarcasm towards me," she said. "I would thank people for a compliment that wasn't a compliment, and then there would be laughter."
Hiding her discomfort led to extreme burnout. "I was just fed up and exhausted by encountering the same difficulties of being misunderstood," Day said.
20 years later, in 2019, a friend mentioned that Day exhibited many of the same symptoms as the friend's autistic neighbor. Day, who said she didn't know much about autism outside of the movie "Rain Man," started to research it online.
_________________
When diagnosed I bought champagne!
I finally knew why people were strange.
26 Oct 2023, 4:28 pm
