"Without autism, I wouldn't be me." Nadine's Story.

Nadine uses the Autism East Midlands employment service with dreams of finding a job where she can write. She describes her experiences as an autistic person and how our employment service has helped her.

My name is Nadine Acharki, I am an autistic adult and this is the story of me.

I was bullied in primary school, by my peers and even my teachers, just because I am different. The way I act in situations, the way I stim when I'm nervous or how I'm sensitive to certain sounds. To other people, that's strange. When I left primary school, I was cyberbullied online by people from my primary class, and the bullying didn't stop when I went to secondary.

I was made to feel like I was made wrong, like an experiment went wrong, a Frankenstein or like a polar bear in a rainforest trying to find its way back to its cold home and back to its own, but I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried. I never found a way to make myself fit in.

It felt like people hated me. As I spent 5 years in that school, I felt out of place and I always felt so different it hurt because no one understood me. I was bullied and picked on, I was told "Nadine, they are teasing it'll stop" but it continued until I reached year 11 and finally left that horrible place.

When I got to college, I felt like I fit much better and I met new people and I felt like I didn't have to hide who I was. I started to wear clothes that made me stick out from other people. I started to act differently too and I was much happier.