“I thought that I can’t be autistic, I really care about people. It’s really embarrassing to even say this now because it’s such a mistaken idea.”
When Charlotte’s autistic friend suggested to her that she too could be on the spectrum, she laughed it off at first
As a child, Charlotte was always seen as eccentric and living in her own world, but no one inquired about it. Her brother, who has ADHD, drew more attention because adults wanted to stop what they saw as his disruptive behaviour
At the time autism would rarely have been considered as a diagnosis for girls
Matters are slowly changing. This week a new report showed that there was an explosive growth in autism diagnoses in England between 1998 and 2018, largely owing to an increase in recognition
The rise has been greater in women than men
Charlotte isn’t alone in her experience
The 50 autistic people who spoke to the Times told similar stories of searching for answers, often for decades; being dismissed by healthcare professionals and struggling as they failed to fit the stereotypes of autism
One in a hundred people are on the autism spectrum. Yet the term still conjures up images of white boys lashing out or deep-diving into train timetables
What’s it really like to be diagnosed with autism in adulthood?
For Florence Leslie, it helped to put something previously intangible into words and allowed her to fully embrace being herself thetimes.co.uk/article/women-…
“I felt misunderstood at school and was desperate for a fresh start at university”
“My biggest sense of failure still came from feeling socially isolated, and the harder I tried to fit in, the more cheerful I tried to appear, the more distant I felt”
“Post-diagnosis, I finally had a name for this experience: masking, where autistic people, usually women, try to mask how being autistic can affect them.”
Historically, autism has been seen as a male condition, and estimates of the ratio of autistic males to females have ranged from 16:1 to 2:1
The present gender split is estimated to be 3:1 or 2:1
Some of that may reflect underlying biological factors that make autism more prevalent in men, but “The ratios have shifted because more girls are now included in terms of diagnosis.” thetimes.co.uk/article/women-…
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Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff has been accused of “subverting” cabinet ministers in an effort to secure a government bailout of up to £310m to rebuild a derelict stadium in Belfast thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…
Sue Gray has angered government officials and ministers by “personally dominating” negotiations for a bailout for Casement Park, a dilapidated Gaelic games venue due to host matches at the 2028 European football championship
Gray’s close interest in the project, which is politically contentious in Northern Ireland, has caused resentment among Labour ministers who have been told there is no money for new spending commitments
Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has been injured in a shooting and taken to hospital, according to local reports ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/slovak…
🔺 UPDATE: Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a life-threatening condition after being shot in the street ⬇️
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: The police investigation into Angela Rayner is examining multiple allegations and is not merely limited to potential electoral law offences ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/angela…
At least a dozen officers at Greater Manchester police are investigating the Labour deputy leader over where she lived in the 2010s and the sale of her former council house in Stockport
They are examining tax matters and other issues on top of the question of whether Rayner gave false information for the electoral register when she lived between two former council houses in Stockport in the 2010s
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: top universities recruit foreign students on low grades
Young Britons need straight As to get into Russell Group institutes. But their international classmates may have bought their way in through secret routes thetimes.co.uk/article/cash-f…
Foreign students can buy their way on to highly competitive degree courses with as little as a handful of C grades at GCSE. The courses require British students to have A or A* grades at A-level
Representatives of the elite Russell Group universities were secretly filmed discussing the “back door” routes used to recruit overseas students, who pay much higher fees than their UK counterparts
Ukrainians are resorting to extreme lengths to flee the war as Zelensky wants to lower that age of conscription to 25 as casualties mount in the war with Russia ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
More than 17,100 Ukrainians have been detained by the DPSU trying to leave the country illegally since the Russian invasion thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
Those numbers look set to climb as a contentious new bill seeks to mobilise another 500,000 men for military service
🔷 Could the China outbreak be the start of a new pandemic?
The simple answer is, almost certainly not — but we don’t know for sure
This is how the first days of a new pandemic would look, and the World Health Organisation has already made a request to China for more information on “clusters of pneumonia in children”