Autistic / Artistic
“I was ashamed of myself when I realised life was a costume party and I attended with my real face” • Franz Kafka
As Dr. Stephen Shore said, "If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism."
I am not a scientist. This is not an academic research paper. I am an adult diagnosed autistic, and this is a personal essay. While I understand the diagnostic criteria that led to this, I don’t embrace the overbroad label. I relate more to the non-medical term “Neurodivergent“, and I prefer it to the alienating “Gifted and Talented” label I was stamped with in Kindergarten.
I’m shocked that folks are surprised when I explain my intricacy to them. It seems so obvious to me, but Neurodivergence, especially for women and girls, tends to be experienced internally rather than expressed overtly, due to societal pressures to conform that are not imposed on boys and men.
This contributes to late and under diagnosis in women, as well as the co-occurring symptoms between Neurodivergence and Trauma. Neurodivergence, in itself, can cause trauma, but, while girls are five times more likely to endure sexual abuse in childhood, Autistic women tend to experience abuse at an even higher rate than Neurotypical females, due to their…our…difficulty in picking up on social cues and non-verbal communication.