Firsthand accounts of autistic women’s experiences
Firsthand accounts of autistic women’s experiences
Listening to Autistic Women's Voices
Sandra Law
Videos
Getting a Diagnosis
The children (e.g. girls) that present in a more anxious quiet kind of passive way are not getting the support they should be getting because they are not disrupting the school day. … That can lead to self-harm and depression and further anxiety so they should absolutely be getting that support and it should absolutely be as much of a priority as it is for the disruptive child.
Purple Ella (Jan 18, 2018)
… if you’re a girl with Asperger’s, things get even more tricky because all the diagnostic tools that professionals use were designed to spot Asperger’s in boys. Now this gender bias leaves thousands of Asperger girls undiagnosed, unsupported, sometimes even after they’ve taken the test. My younger brother was diagnosed as being on the spectrum when he was three and a half. His autism was obvious or stereotypical. He was late to talk, he bounced and flapped his hands, and he wouldn’t make eye contact. … within two months, he was diagnosed, and the proper supports were put in place to help him.
Fast forward eight years and he is doing just great. And then, there was me. I didn’t bounce. I didn’t flap. I was a shy but diligent student. I got good grades and I didn’t cause trouble. But what I did do was hide under the table and cover my ears at lunchtime because the noise of my chatting peers was too much for me to cope with. I was quiet, I let others make up the rules of the games we played, and I shared my sparkly pens when no one else would. And it took 14 years for anyone to notice that I was struggling, desperately. … by the time Asperger girls reach adolescence they are mentally exhausted and emotionally wrecked. … every conversation becomes like a math problem.
Niamh McCann Ted Talk (Oct 2018)
Dangers of Masking
Masking hides our true self. It hides our unique voice, and it replaces it with a more socially acceptable version of ourselves. Masking is exhausting, I am masking now, and I am masking all of the time when I am with people. I can’t switch it off … People are unaware they are teaching their children to mask, and they are unaware of how much damage it causes to our sense of identity. I learnt to mask my autism and my true self because I was taught to by my parents, and my teachers and my friends. … As I grew up into my teens, my early 20s, my autism fought back. It was tired of hiding and it was tired of being masked, so it showed itself in the only way it could. I was given psychiatric drugs that did not work, counseling and therapy that did not work. I was even given electric-shock therapy, which did not work.
Carrie Beckwith-Fellows (Jul 6, 2017)
Experiences in Postsecondary Education
University Orientations Customized for Autistic Students
Navigating Expectations of Women’s Behavior in Postsecondary Education
While navigating the educational system I face considerable pressure to mask or camouflage my auti