Antony's Story - Autism Plus SES

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Antony’s Story

Antony was newly diagnosed with Autism in November 2022 and struggling with work related stress when he started working with Autism Plus. Antony decided to investigate the possibility that he may be autistic while he was training to become a Nursing associate with his previous employer as it was suggested to him by his trade union rep at the time. When supportive resources were scarce and he was already finding it stressful to juggle his demanding job and study expectations with his responsibilities as a parent of 3, 2 of whom have additional needs.
 
Antony had a horrific experience whilst studying for his nursing associate degree and had hope that moving to another job and in a different field of nursing would help, but unfortunately this move enhanced his struggles. Antony was sign posted to a workplace assessment team who diagnosed Antony with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, which gave Antony the evidence needed to be referred from an Autism assessment via his GP.
 
The stress of the busy sensory environment of the hospital setting he was working on was getting worse. This was beginning to affect his mental health, his home life, his studies,, and even his attendance as he started needing days or weeks off to recover from the stress and burnout. He felt unheard and under-supported and expected to fit in and work the way others did.
 
For the first time in his life, he was having unexpected meltdowns at work, stimming and experiencing tics.
 
Autism Plus were recommended to Antony by both Occupational Health Assessment and with seeking workplace adjustments to manage his stress levels, and to support him to come to terms with receiving an autism diagnosis at the age of 40.
 
Now, he is secondment to a role that suits his needs much better and enables him to be in a more sensory friendly office environment, where he is much happier and no longer actively looking for work in a different field. Antony began to do neurodiversity advocacy which he found hugely gratifying and personally meaningful. HE won EDI champion of the year 2025, and is now advocating for neurodivergent people, taking on speaking engagements, appearing on podcasts and writing book chapters. In 2024 he scripted and filmed an award-winning autism documentary called “Unmasking Man” with his old school friend Oliver Ibbotson for the staff disability and neurodiversity network autism presentation, which his coach supported him with.

My coach gave me the confidence to do [the documentary about my story], she listened every step of the way, she saw multiple versions of the script and made suggestions of how to make it more emotive which I took on board. She cheer leaded me through it and Autism Plus’ feedback that I had created something special was meaningful to me… Support with disability at work has helped me focus on things at home, how I spend my precious downtime, obviously my strict parenting demands restricts what I can do and means I need to manage my time and energy to spend on what I want to achieve for the greater good of the neurodiversity community.

You guys [Autism Plus] have been like my big weighted blanket for all things work-related, for future projects, and understanding what autism means to me personally, what special interests, PDA and autistic burnout look like for *ME*. When you are feeling terrible, that people are against you or you’re shouting into the void and you need a reset and then you get your weighted blanket out, it feels comforting, a reassurance, it’s soothing. I’d felt on my own but working with Autism Plus made me feel seen and heard and gave me somewhere to express myself without prejudice or having to mask.

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