Doctors are 'failing to spot Asperger in girls'

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"It is a condition on the autistic spectrum that has long been known to affect boys, who may have obsessive interests or struggle to make friends. Now an expert says many more girls have it than was thought, and failure to diagnose them can lead to misery and self-harm": http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... gers-girls

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting it.

PS. Did you know that the Autscape banner in your posts is "stretching" pages that you post on significantly?

.

The Daily Mail also covered it:
"Doctors are failing to spot Asperger's syndrome in girls, a leading expert on autism has warned.
Judith Gould says the stereotype of it being a boy's condition means thousands of girls are going undiagnosed and turning to self-harm and eating disorders in their struggle to cope": http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... xpert.html

Very interesting and truthful article. If I didn't read an article about Autism by "accident" I never would have been diagnosed...

This is a serious problem for aspie girls. There are probably a lot more out there but they just don't get diagnosed.

Can cause " misery and self harm."

This article made me very sad because that is exactly what happened to me. And many others I have met on this site.

He said 20% of anorexics have AUT. I had supposed anorexia whioch was actually a result of my AUT. I could only eat a few foods but when I was young I did not understand what was happening. So they put me into an eating disorder clinic where I perceived I was veryyyyyyyy different. In all my years at ED clinics and treatment centers, I saw about 2 or 3 of us who were like this.

We never talked , never looked at people, rocked, were closed off to ourselves...... I did not CARE about "getting fat," that was not what it was about, I was not scared to become a woman ( I was so far delayed that when I was 15 I looked, thought, and behaved like a ten year old), was not trying to punish my parents, etc etc etc.... All over my records it has clues: Patient appears 5 years younger than stated age. Patient wearing pajamas made for a younger child, etc etc etc......pt not communicating......issues of headbanging and inflexibility with sleep issues, etc...........

But no one told me or my parents about this.

So it have many things on my record and it's been hell ever since.

When I went off gluten it made a huge difference, but I am still labled with every label you can think of. And it causes trouble when I go to certain doctors to this day.

AND because I did EXACTLY what he said in the article...because I observed and over the years was able to mimic- then talk and fake my way through for short periods and stay away when i can't, peple just think I am weird but don't have any idea.....

It's sheer hell, but NOT because I have AUT but because no one told me. If I had known it would have been an easier path, I would have known more about choices to make and avoid, people to befirend and avoid, and all sorts of other things that would have made life anjoyable as opposed to an unhappy expereince.

I am relieved to see this article. I was first diagnosed with OCD when I was a child. Had I had someone spot AS sooner, I might have had a much happier childhood.

It is strange how people refuse to see it in girls. My daughter is much more impaired socially than my son (she hides in the closet if people come over, curls up in a ball and covers her eyes with her hands)... but you know what they say... "Oh look, she's so shy."

Whereas when my son showed the slightest strange social behavior the attitude was, "What's wrong with that kid?"

I can feel for women and girls that could have had a happier childhood. I can relate to women that find out later, in their twenties or thirties and look back to see how it could have helped to know. Women in their fourties and fifties, long past the age for having families, making a career. I was in my late fifties when I found out . . . and I am just going through the motions in life now - knowing I missed the point all my life.

sorry, self pity isn't pretty, is it?
Merle

I am female and 18. When I mentioned to my GP (new - had never dealt with me or seen me before) that I thought I might be Aspie or mildly autistic, he dismissed it and laughed at me. I did some reading up on autism and I have ALOT of the symptoms. So my mum went to a duty doctor and they were much better and I go see the Ed Psych at school now.

The wonderful corollary of this result is that we can blame society, rather than let society blame us. Eventually they will figure out that the proportions of males and females on the spectrum are about 50:50.

I've been suggesting Aspism as a possible issue to two women I know with limited success for the very obvious reasons. THis is a good article for me to share with them. Thanks!