kraftiekortie wrote:
There is almost certainly an under-diagnosis of females when it comes to being diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum.
This is one of the reasons it's hard for me to decide who has it harder because there are just very different problems. I was told before I was diagnosed that girls are harder to find because they are often very good at learning how to seem more normal so even if the behaviour is not natural, it seems that way so they will be dismissed. I think that would be really harmful because those who aren't diagnosed will deal with all the same problems but with none of the support and it makes me sad to think of others going through that. Not being diagnosed was destroying my relationships with family members and friends due to frequent extreme misunderstandings going both ways. Then when I was diagnosed I had to deal with people not believing that I would be affected as bad as I am so I got less understanding and people thinking I was being lazy/manipulative. Thinking of that stretching over a life time if you are diagnosed or not seems difficult.
On the other hand males on average are easier to diagnose and are more obviously autistic. This may mean that their autism may be taken more seriously but I can only imagine how they are probably treated in school settings for "seeming weird". Young people can be incredibly cruel to people they know are vulnerable. In general being more obviously different comes with it's own set of problems so you may have people believing you but not respecting/making fun of you.
Both situations have their own difficulties but as every individual is different it's hard to say who has it harder and it doesn't really matter. Every difficulty matters and should get sympathy & help. If you break your leg I'll still feel bad for you when you are in pain, even if I know somewhere else someone is starving.
17 Sep 2019, 3:46 am
