Women 'better than men at disguising autism symptoms'

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firemonkey
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13 Sep 2019, 8:33 am

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Women may not be diagnosed with autism as frequently as men because they are better at hiding the common signs of the condition, according to new research.

Some autistic people use strategies to hide traits associated with the condition during social interactions, a phenomenon called social camouflaging. Scientists involved in the study say raising awareness of camouflaging among doctors could help reduce the number of missed autism diagnoses.

Scientists studied the results of an online survey designed to measure gender differences in camouflaging in autistic and non-autistic adults. They found autistic women exhibited more camouflaging behaviours than men, which supported previous observations from self-reported studies. No gender camouflaging differences were reported in non-autistic groups.




https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... m-symptoms



Last edited by SaveFerris on 13 Sep 2019, 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.: Edited link

Fnord
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13 Sep 2019, 8:39 am

Anyone who is capable of looking like they're having a good time while they actually feel miserable is capable of hiding the common signs of autism -- women are no exception.



BTDT
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13 Sep 2019, 8:45 am

No, it is because women's problems are often discounted as woman's issues. Nothing here really, just move along.



firemonkey
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13 Sep 2019, 9:07 am

BTDT wrote:
No, it is because women's problems are often discounted as woman's issues. Nothing here really, just move along.


Are you saying women don't camouflage better/more than men?



BTDT
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13 Sep 2019, 9:14 am

I think it doesn't matter if they can or not. What difference does eye contact make if the eyes never make it "up here?" Or does that count?



firemonkey
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13 Sep 2019, 9:18 am

^ I'm not at all sure what you mean .



SaveFerris
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13 Sep 2019, 9:19 am

I've seen advice to leave your social camouflaging at home when pursuing a diagnosis.

Maybe women are better at social camouflaging but maybe they might be less inclined to drop the social camouflaging ?


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13 Sep 2019, 1:19 pm

https://www.google.com/amp/s/everydayas ... craft/amp/


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13 Sep 2019, 5:41 pm

I read somewhere that it was due to the different way males and females are raised in this culture. Females exhibiting signs of ASD look more 'normal' than males exhibiting identically.



BDavro
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13 Sep 2019, 5:46 pm

If a girl isn't normal, she can be classed as a bit weird, but she is still a girl and therefore still on the market/table/in the cooking pot.


Men are afforded no such excuse.



racheypie666
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13 Sep 2019, 6:12 pm

article wrote:
No gender camouflaging differences were reported in non-autistic groups.


What were the non-autistic groups camouflaging?



dragonsanddemons
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13 Sep 2019, 7:41 pm

Just one of the many generalizations I don't fit.

Misslizard wrote:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/everydayaspie.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/females-with-aspergers-syndrome-checklist-by-samantha-craft/amp/


I only scored over 75 percent in four of the ten categories, plus the "optional" one, yet it seems very obvious to me that I'm on the autism spectrum. I think my autism presents itself in more of a masculine way.


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blazingstar
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13 Sep 2019, 7:57 pm

Misslizard wrote:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/everydayaspie.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/females-with-aspergers-syndrome-checklist-by-samantha-craft/amp/


This is one of the articles I stumbled on which pushed over the penny drop.

Leaving your camouflage at home works only if you know you are doing it. :D


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14 Sep 2019, 4:09 am

There's been a lot of talk about this on this forum, hasn't there?

One thing that might make things appear this way could be that the diagnosis criteria is set in a way that it'll fit a stereotypical autistic man, but that autism often shows itself differently on women and so professionals and other people have harder time noticing it.

Then there are also cultural things; if a man is a quiet bookworm since young age, people are more likely to think that something is wrong or that he's weird than they would if it was a woman who was that way, especially in old fashioned cultures where a woman must be seen but not heard.

Another thing is that there is the phrase "boys are boys", so when a boy does something socially unacceptable, it can get swept under the rug by claiming that boys are meant to be rebellious, but if a girl does something similiar, she'll quickly get scolded and thus learns at younger age than boys that certain things aren't okay. In other words, the people around them give them a headstart in learning social skills without realizing it. This too could especially be the case in old fashioned cultures and groups.



kraftiekortie
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14 Sep 2019, 4:19 am

This idea should be taken case by case.

There are some women whose autism is as evident as some males with autism. They don’t exhibit the “female” presentation at all.

Then you have some women who, through more enhanced attention to social aspects when young by parents and others, are able to “mask” very well—perhaps better than men who have the same “degree” of autism. They do exhibit the “female” presentation.



firemonkey
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14 Sep 2019, 4:39 am

I wonder how much attention the average parents pay to social aspects with regards to their offspring .