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Thread: Something no-one warns you about, or at least didn't warn me about, is how tiring autism can be. I have two main jobs, advocacy/policy and fundraising. 1/
Now, as you can imagine both of these involve talking to people at length. That may be face to face with donors for example or giving interviews about a particular issue. 2/
I have no problems with any of this, and hope that I am a reasonable communicator, but they can be tiring. It's not just the actual act of interacting with people, although that can be wearing enough. 3/
I tend to plan for every eventuality, I'm a joy to go on holiday with you can imagine. Before an interview I will run through in my head every conceivable question. During the interview I'm normally fine because when under pressure I operate far better than normal. 4/
It's afterwards though that I struggle. I run through every conversation I have ever had at the best of times, checking and double checking that I haven't said anything wrong. When it is important that the facts are so accurate though I spend days rethinking it. 5/
I have a deep and abiding fear of getting something wrong, or sounding like I know something I don't. I'd rather say "I don't know" than try and blag a response, but I also know that some people will use that to undermine what I have said on things I do know about. 6/
Frankly it is all utterly exhausting. The weird thing is, I wouldn't change it for the world. I can see links others may miss. I can remember and connect obscure pieces of information into an argument. 7/
What I am trying to say is that, again this is only my personal take, being an autistic individual is tiring in ways which may not be automatically apparent to others, but it can also be one hell of a benefit when you do need to talk on a subject you know about. 8/
