Laura Anderson
It’s Autism Awareness Month once again! A time of raising awareness, accepting and appreciating our autistic peers!
Autism, a term nearly everyone has heard of yet a disorder that is widely misunderstood. It’s Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, which means it's time to listen to autistic voices and make ourselves aware of their struggles in this neurotypical world.
ASD ( Autism Spectrum Disorder ) is a developmental disability affecting every 1 in 100 people. Autistic people are part of a broad spectrum meaning that the disability can affect them in a variety of ways - from social skills to perception. For further information on autism you can read my previous article “Autism Acceptance Month” to develop a greater understanding of the disorder.
So why are there so many misconceptions? Autism was first diagnosed in the 1940s and our knowledge on the disorder is still limited. Despite this, the media continued to push certain ideas on what autism was “supposed to look like.” Much of this “representation” was heavily based around anti-social geniuses or tantrum-throwing children, creating a very stigmatised idea of what autism is.
Yet there is something these misconceptions have in common, and that is their relation to women. Since the idea of autism became a thing there has been a strange belief that women were unable to or unlikely to have autism. This is believed to have come from the sexist views of doctors who first researched the disorder; they claimed that women weren’t able to have autism because their brains weren’t as intelligent as those of men.
Shockingly, these sexist views are still ingrained in how autism is diagnosed today. In fact, women are way more likely to receive a late diagnosis: 50% of boys are diagnosed before the age of 11, whilst only 20% of girls are diagnosed. This doesn’t account for the hundreds of women who are still undiagnosed and those on 5 year long waiting lists - there are many who didn’t know they were autistic until their 40s!
But why is this? Researchers believe this has something to do with the late diagnosis of autistic women. The longer someone goes undiagnosed the more likely they are to pick up masking. Masking is a subconscious or conscious act of camouflaging neurodivergent traits in order to “fit in.” This means autistic women are more likely to imitate their peers’ behaviour. This can lead to autism going unreported by parents, family members and teachers.
Not only does this make autism harder to notice and diagnose but it can have devastating impacts on the woman’s mental health. Masking has shown to lead to a loss of self identity, low self esteem, depression and anxiety.
Fortunately, doctors and researchers are pushing forwards to break the stigmas surrounding both autistic women and autism in general! Recently, we have seen a rise of autism diagnosis in women thanks to our better understanding of the disorder.
However, there is still a lot that needs to be done. Lucky for you there are plenty of ways in which you can support and help your autistic peers! You can simply take the time to educate yourself, or show support by using the rainbow infinity sign and the hashtag #RedInstead. But most importantly, you should take the time to listen to autistic voices and learn about their experiences.
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