Nearly seven years ago, I had dropped out of university, despite good academic results, due to poor mental health and spent the last of my savings self-funding my first AAT course – an internationally recognised accounting qualification. It would be a few more years before I was diagnosed with both autism and ADHD at 23 and 24 respectively. 

When you’ve spent so long struggling to keep your head above water, you learn how to make it look so effortless that to the untrained eye it doesn’t seem as though you’re drowning at all. As a result of this ability to effectively mask — twinned with the stereotype that autism and ADHD are predominantly male conditions — I, like many other people assigned female at birth, flew under the radar.

I became one of the numerous people finding out partway through their career that they are neurodivergent. Many of us start our careers a little out of our depth. Navigating a world designed for people other than you is like swimming against the tide. You face additional barriers such as sensory overwhelm from loud office spaces, figuring out how to network effectively when you don’t understand the need for small talk, or navigating implied expectations when your brain is built to take everything literally. 

READ Why diversity is good business

Looking back, I feel fortunate that although I started my career undiagnosed, I didn’t do it entirely unsupported. When I joined Deloitte in 2019, I was lucky enough to have managers who went above and beyond, even when I didn’t fully know or understand what I needed at the time. After being diagnosed, I quickly learnt that there was no handbook for what tools and techniques would work perfectly for my brain. While there was, and still is, a lot of advice out there, autism and ADHD both exist within a wide spectrum of experience.

Strength in numbers

During this period of trial and error, I realised that there were other people like me in the workplace. As I developed these connections, I was able to build a community of people around me who shared similar experiences. Together we created a culture of peer support.

I hadn’t realised how alone I had felt until I had this community of people who understood me, sometimes better than I understood myself. This community that I built would experience exponential growth until it became the heart and soul of Deloitte’s neurodiversity network.

The network, which I proudly co-lead, was set up in 2022. The newest of Deloitte’s 12 diversity networks, it now has more than 600 members and allies.

READ Helena Morrissey on why the fight for diversity is far from over

I have learnt so much since the launch of the neurodiversity network, and my role in the network has given me numerous opportunities to raise awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace, not just through events, but also by having a direct line of communication with senior leadership. The network is now a place for people to feel understood and less alone, where we can help each other to stay afloat. One of my biggest takeaways is how much a sense of community matters to people. This, combined with leadership fostering a culture of inclusion, can be the difference between surviving and thriving in the workplace. 

It is now a few years since I was diagnosed. Whilst I still don’t fully understand certain terms like what is meant by ‘business casual’, I no longer feel like I’m drowning. After completing the AAT qualification that started my career, I moved into the tax discipline and recently finished my Association of Taxation Technicians qualifications with three distinctions in my written exams, showing how all the amazing support I have received has allowed me to flourish.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week runs 18 to 24 March. Financial News will be showcasing more stories from financial services in the coming days. Sign up to our newsletters for more.