“…when you ask for help, work on yourself, be open and honest to yourself and your surroundings, it can only get better.”
Bart gives readers a valuable insight to his experience working with autism and how CBT helped him along the way.
I have completed my education for Business Administration in 2012, at that moment I didn’t have my diagnosis yet however problems where already visible. After graduation I started searching for a job, this proved to be quite a challenge. There were only a few jobs available and because of my, at the time, undiagnosed autism I ended up with jobs not suited for me. Around that time, I also received my diagnosis stating that I have Autism and ADD. Then my journey to a suitable job began.
During my last unsuitable job, I developed a burnout because of the high work pressure and the high demands in being social. Therefore, I could no longer work. Because of my diagnosis I was appointed a job coach to help me find that in a million workplace.
It still wasn’t an easy road but eventually a company created a vacancy especially for me. They allowed me to do tasks that were even more difficult that my education trained me for but at my own pace. They also didn’t have high demands for my social skills.
Years gone by where my responsibilities increased but the mentoring didn’t. My autism also came with social anxiety; I was always afraid to let people down. This is not a great situation when you should tell your boss bad news about finances, which of course happens from time to time.
Because of the anxiety I started avoiding those difficult conversations but that only increased the anxiety and caused more problems. Then it all started to fall apart; the nice job, the nice colleagues and everything else I have worked for. I almost got fired because I did things I should not have done, fortunately they gave me a second chance. But the second chance was also my last chance, so I acknowledged that I had a problem with social anxiety and started cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for it.
“…I became more outgoing, more aware how to keep communication flowing and how I can keep myself from making the same mistakes again. “
The CBT gave a lot of insights about myself, how my fear works and how it affects me daily. It also taught me how to deal with difficult situations and make the right choices. But it also made me more accepting of my autism.
It was a process that took a lot of time and energy and even more commitment. It gave me a lot of tools to use at work but also in my private life. In general, I became more outgoing, more aware how to keep communication flowing and how I can keep myself from making the same mistakes again.
Over the course of one and a half years I grew quite a lot, my communications skills are sometimes even better than my colleagues. This is because I am more aware of communication then my neurotypical colleagues. This brings me to another subject: I like to think of autism as an ability, not a disability.
Autism in a workplace can be very useful. When given a task I am very committed to it, I also can be very thorough and precise. My special talent is everything with numbers. This is very useful when doing administrative work or making calculations. But my ADD sometimes gives me other difficulties such as concentration, working in a structured manner and I find it very hard to prioritize.
Because I included my bosses in my CBT I can share everything with them and they will help me where they can. Of course, they cannot help me with everything. My autism makes that sudden changes are quite difficult to process, thankfully I get all the time I need. And with structural changes my bosses help me to prepare and make it easier.
What I have learned over the last couple of years is that when you ask for help, work on yourself, be open and honest to yourself and your surroundings, it can only get better. I am happy where I am right now but continue to work hard on keeping improving myself.