art by mjfitz on Redbubble
I was recently diagnosed as autistic after a lifetime of missed social cues, baffling misunderstandings, bullying, sensory overload, and atypical / “inappropriate” emotional reactions, among other things…
Apparently, unless there’s an accompanying intellectual disability, most girls aren’t diagnosed as autistic until their 40s! (And only then, often because their own child was being diagnosed).
This is mostly for two reasons:
art by artsaflame on Neuroclastic
First, most diagnostic criteria are centered around the more typical “male” expression of autism (obsession with numbers & things like trains; not trying to fit in with their peers, etc) when many autistic females present differently. (Here is a great little artistic piece by the same artist featured on the right about several of the multitude of different ways autism can present – some more stereotypically “male” or “female” – all presented in a fun format).
And second, because girls are generally better than boys at “masking” their autism to try and fit in to societal norms (whether this is due to the societal conditioning of boys vs. girls is another topic of conversation (e.g. boys are allowed to be loners, eccentric, etc; girls have far more pressure to be “nice” and “pleasant” and “participate”)).
But masking creates a lot of physical and mental health problems due to the constant stress it puts on the autistic person who is unable to simply be themselves. (read more about masking here)
So aside from wanting to spread awareness and acceptance about autism in females (April is Autism Awareness Month but I didn’t want to publish this on April 1st and have people think it was an April Fool’s joke), I’d also like to apologize to anyone I may have obliviously offended in the past with words or actions that seemed rude or callous. I want to assure you that in no way was that my intention, and it pains me just thinking I may have hurt people without even knowing it…
I also still have chronic PTSD. So I’m willing to answer questions at my own pace, and welcome any KIND observations from people who know/knew me who either suspected or this comes as an “aha!” moment to due to any specific incident or interaction in my past, etc…
infographic by Autism_sketches on Instagram
REMEMBER: what was previously labeled “Aspergers” is a harmful and outdated label (google why if you’re curious) and is now recognized to be part of the Autism Spectrum….