Struggling to Socialize with Coworkers Outside of Work

so true! I say things like "i work better with the window light" or "sarcasm isn't my strong suit" or "my headphones help me focus". No one knows.

I know a lot of people don’t like to disclose that they’re autistic in the work place, but there are ways to disclose you’re autistic without disclosing you’re autistic. (Let me expand on that) Instead of “I’m autistic I have hard time picking up on subtext” You could said “I’m a little dense, are you trying to imply something” Instead of “I’m autistic I have trouble reading tone” You could say “I’m a bit literal, to me it sounds like you’re saying blank but it could be blank” Ect ect You can ask for people to accommodate autistic traits with out calling it autism and honestly like 80% of people will be nice about it and like 90% won’t even make the connection to autism. In the messages you could also just say your tone. “I’m so happy to hear” …. “Wow Im genuinely so glad…” “good for you (non sarcastically)”. Most NTs have accepted that tone on text can be hard and wont blink and eye at the addition.

Its reasonable that you'd feel that way after a life of trying to associate with people who are communicating a different way. Social anxiety is reasonable. Maybe put some boundaries in place so yoy have less anxiety about it ans for now keep chats to work related topics?