Thread by @thetimes

There has been a 787% increase in autism diagnoses over the past 20 years — particularly among women

Why has it been going undiagnosed for so long?
thetimes.co.uk/article/women-…

“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-…