“I think I might be autistic… what now?” is probably the number one question I get in comments, e-mails and Instagram.
As we are learning more about autism, more and more adults are getting their autism diagnoses later in life. (Myself included, I was diagnosed at the age of 33)
There are many reasons why this might have been missed as a child: lack of knowledge about how autism can present (especially in women and minority groups), no developmental delays, or perhaps an ability to “mask” autistic traits.
The official criteria for autism
Generally, autism assessment is done using the DSM-5 or ICD-11 criteria (this varies according to your country). These are written for psychology professionals and can be very hard to understand. Furthermore, they were written by (presumably) neurotypicals (non-autistics) who are viewing autism from the outside.
This is why I wanted to create more resources to understand what it actually feels like to be autistic.
