At secondary school, they become the “leftover girls”, drifting, alienated and often miserably lonely because the other teenage girls won’t accept them. It’s not that autistic girls don’t want friends – they are as desperate for friends as any teenager – but in a world which denies, rejects and ignores them, they are simply not wired to understand the only social role available to them: that of a neurotypical girl living an ordinary life.
Dr Sarah Bargiela wants to reach these girls. With illustrator Sophie Standing, she has written Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women, a graphic novel that transforms the growing mass of dry, scholarly research on autism and women into intriguing science facts and moving personal accounts.
I wanted to post about how autism may be experienced differently for girls in your thread about that young lady with ASD, but didnt want to start a crap show.
I think it is hard for girls with ASD to fit in and find belonging. At least that’s what I noticed when I was in high school.
Do autistic people get more help and support than schizophrenic people?
It also seems more acceptable to be autistic.
My mum says I am autistic and that’s all that’s wrong with me.
She said I am not schizophrenic despite that I had voices,screams,gunshots and moans for years torturing me and despite that I had delusions,paranoia etc and despite that at least seven psychiatrist have diagnosed me as schizophrenic.
Someone with autism and schizophrenia can have similar symptoms though.
My friend I had is a special needs teacher and works with autistic children and said I’m definitely not autistic.
But something was wrong with me when I was a child.
I suffered as a child and was mentally ill as a child.
We often have difficulties socialising too.
And some similar symptoms.
My mum wants me to be autistic?
It’s seen as something positive…
It’s quite hard to get it recognised if you’re an adult. If you do there’s not much support from health services. For many people it’s about getting answers to a lifelong puzzle.