Written by: Farnaz Khan
I found it nearly impossible to accept the fact that I had autism spectrum disorder. At first, when I was confronted with this reality, I went into total denial. I refused to admit that I could have such a condition, even though the signs were all there. I kept moving through the motions of life, pretending that I wasn’t autistic, or that I had never seen any materials related to it.
After I began to realise how the symptoms were affecting areas of my life such as work, social relationships and daily occupational functioning – I realised that it was high time to discuss this matter with a therapist. I was blessed to have a therapist who specialised in autism and helped to confirm my doubts. Initially, I did not want to go public with my diagnosis, but after realising that silence was in fact more dangerous than the diagnosis itself, I decided to come clean about it on social media and through my writings.
I joined autism support groups and began to document my experiences as a woman with autism. I connected with friends and classmates who were autistic, or who had been concerned about their own neurodiversity. Eventually, I began to participate in research on autism, and also discussed this matter with my family. I started writing regularly on autism-related matters on The Mighty – a popular website for mental health and chronic illness.
Today, I am a proud neurodiverse individual. I am glad that I began to accept myself for who I truly am and embraced my differences. Ultimately, it is self acceptance that allows one to build the highway towards authentic self-worth and self-empowerment.
Farnaz currently documents her experiences and writes about neurodiversity, mental health, self-worth and self-empowerment at https://thehighwaytoworth.wordpress.com. She is also a Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT), Ambassador, a Beautiful People (BP) Mentor, and part of Resilience Collective.
