As many as 80% of girls with autism are not diagnosed until they reach adulthood, which can cause significant mental health problems and incorrect early diagnoses.
As a 57 year old neurodivergent mom and teacher of neurodivergence, I am really happy you wrote this as I made this observation about 5 years ago and I wasn’t able to get ANYONE to listen. So thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really hope that something can be done about this bc I don’t believe it is good for neurodivergent people to change their identities medically without more thorough research and support for people facing these difficult battles.
Wow, this article sheds such an important light on the intersection between autism and gender dysphoria. As someone who cares deeply about mental health and understanding the complexities of the human experience, I found this to be a truly enlightening read. I highly recommend checking it out and expanding your knowledge on these important issues!
This almost all holds for boys, too. Differing from societal expectations for boys is very tricky right now (girls are told they can be anything, boys are told they are oppressors). It's all bad :(.
It is embarrassing for me to tell people I used to be “non-binary” from about ages 22-29. I didn’t even realize I probably had autism until I was 30, as well. Most people have no understanding or interest in autism as a factor in gender identity.
I’m very interested in the way these two factors, autism and genderism, interact. It seems like a huge part of the puzzle, and would likely explain why this trans trend exploded so suddenly in certain online social circles. I’m looking at you, tumblr.
While this is a helpful triangulation on this issue, we also need to be careful not to amplify Big Pharma's pushing of the vast *over* diagnosis of supposedly epidemic level "disorders" like "ADHD" and "Autism Spectrum Disorders". While these disorders are real, they effect *very* few people, and most behavior being diagnosed in these categories is actually perfectly normal human behavior which falls within a broad spectrum of personality types. We need to thread a fine needle between under-diagnosis and over-diagnosis so that we are not pushing millions unnecessarily onto dangerous psychiatric drugs which have hazardous side effects, that may very well have played a role in the recent mass shooting.
I disagree with you about the number of people on the spectrum as you have no way of proving the veracity of what you are saying. No one knows this. I do agree that certain symptoms of asd can mimic certain symptoms of ptsd and this is coming out into the open, which is really important.
The natural extension of what you just pointed out is that there is likewise no proof whatsoever of the current viral assumptions that supposedly tens or even hundreds of millions of people are on some 'autism' spectrum - a nonexistent epidemic that we are being aggressively pushed to believe in by the pharmaceutical industry and the psychiatric profession. The reality is that autism is *extremely* rare, yet I can't go for a week without hearing somebody with perfectly normal human behavior telling me they have 'autism' or are 'on the spectrum' (or have 'ADHD'). This stuff is absolute nonsense being peddled to make the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries rich.
This looks like very good information and I am forwarding it to a friend who has a daughter who fits much of this information.
But I did want to say that white on black is the very hardest color combination to read. I personally find it almost impossible and have to do work-arounds such as highlighting the entire text to change the color background, or cutting and pasting into a separate document to change the color. My friend has eye issues that will probably make it hard for her, too--and we can't be the only ones who experience difficulty. (I once sat through a presentation in a class on design that showed posters made with different colors to demonstrate which combinations were easiest and hardest to read. I don't remember most of them, since I didn't take notes and it was decades ago. I do remember that black on yellow was the easiest to read and white on black was the hardest.)
I find white on black the best as I have a lot of floaters in old age and they really show up on light backgrounds. But I do understand that others may have different issues.
Please, be carefull about writing that Norway has abandoned affirmative model. It is not true (yet!). There has come an official recommendation from the Health Investigation Board to reevaluate the guidelines for gender incongruence, but the authorities and health directorate are still very strongly supporting affirmative model. They may as well reject this recommendation, as it is not mandatory. Best regards from Norway.
As pedantic as you seem, Buttons, you're actually a scaremonger. Weaponizing medical terminology may fool your followers, however, you're explaining hirsutism (the biological condition of growing facial hair) as if it is the cause of gender non-conformity. It's not; it's these bogus ideas of how each gender needs to represent themselves in certain styles so that others can feel comfortable about their own choices.
However, medical terms aside, gender non-conformity has always been present. There is no amount of scientific data that will point to what you really want: an explanation for why someone may not want to conform to their gender like you do.
You may guise your discrimination in worries about suicide and wrongful diagnosis, however, most transgender and gender non-conforming peoples are incredibly aware of the decisions they make; they have to be when there are people like you who weaponize medical terminology as a reason that these people *should not exist.*
You want to do something for your community? It's not this. Whatever this is. This isn't it.
I think you’re misunderstanding the point. Of course no one is required to confirm to social conventions associated with their sex. I agree that gender stereotypes are bogus and arbitrary, and that’s certainly not what she’s saying. The point is that not wishing to conform to gender norms doesn’t actually make you the opposite sex, or require you to undergo medical treatments to change your body. Being nonconforming is some ways doesn’t have to mean anything dramatic - gender expectations are not written in stone and it’s ok to break them.
As the mother of a 17 year old daughter who has always been quirky, would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s if it were still a diagnosis but doesn’t quite meet the diagnostic criteria for autism, who was doing well before her descent into social media freshman year of high school and now considers herself a gay boy and has some severe mental health issues, everything written here rang true. I don’t care if my daughter wants to keep her hair short and dress in non-conforming ways. I do care if she’s living her entire life as a performance, trying to convince everyone she’s something she’s not because she hates the person she was, and actually still is. Because some people on the internet told her that her feelings meant something that they really don’t, and that there was only one possible course of actions.
I have 2 children with Autism. My oldest NOT diagnosed till their late teens. An Autisic mind is VERY open to the power of social conformity, putting aside the ridicule, bullying and at times feeling of a social outcast. I've seen it, I've lived it and watched as those like yourself attack those who've seen/experienced it. You can hide behind medical terminology and slander all you like. However, in the end there IS something to be debated. The fact you immediately jump to name calling proves the gender ideology is a fraud.
Sure gender dysphoria does exist, that being said....why is it only with younger groups and not so much in older ones? If there's that many people who suffer from this, wheres the 80yr olds "coming out in their true self?"
No, the target groups are those mentally challenged. Those who push this hard, those who defend and profit are no different than the tyrants of history.
Excellent! I also have a daughter diagnosed ASD in grade 5. I’m also a psychotherapist making it my mission to advocate for girls/women to be evaluated and diagnosed earlier.
I apologize, I just seen your post. Unfortunately, my oldest wasn't diagnosed until grade 10. He has CP, and other health issues, so the Autism was missed. However, with my 2nd we knew what to look for. So we were able to catch it early.
I do not understand what you're trying to say. If you are saying that Buttons is a tyrant, I agree. If you are saying that gender non-conformity has existed beyond our current age, I agree.
If you're saying anything else, I do not understand what it is. And that's because:
Everyone, not just people with autism, are conditioned by society they live in; my point being, from the very beginning, we are conditioned by others to become who we are, and in our American society, becoming who we are is often tied to our biological sex. That's because our society has prescribed roles for these sexes, though we know because of civil liberation movements, not everyone fits into these prescribed roles because, as intellectual beings, we expand our identities beyond our genitalia.
Truly, the debate is not about who is predisposed to gender dysphoria. The debate is actually how do we embrace one another without prescribing gender roles to each other, as gender is just a minute part of our identities. When we believe that gender is all of our identity, like Buttons does, we use the medical model to determine what is "wrong" with someone because they do not want to conform.
Really, why are y'all so obsessed with each others genitalia and chromosomes?
Well, this is confusing. "Gender is all of our identity" and believing people need to conform to their "genders" sounds like gender identity ideology.
Those opposed to gender identity ideology generally don't believe in gender beyond it being an often harmful social construct based on sex stereotypes.
Put another way (credit to Holly Math Nerd): two sexes, zero genders, infinite personalities.
No one should have to conform to anything. Believing there is a right way to be male or female, and if you don't fit into that, you might actually be the opposite and can medically and surgically alter your body in order to conform? That's regressive. That's gender identity ideology. That's what's being taught to impressionable and vulnerable children. And that's the opposite of what those who are gender critical are arguing for.
If gender is such a minute part of our identities, as you say, I'm not sure why you would support mentally unwell adolescents being medically and surgically transitioned long before they could possibly comprehend the lifelong consequences of those decisions.
I think the real issues is medical transitioning- taking or blocking sex hormones creates a second puberty. And this can have real devastating life long or ending effects on people. My middle child (27) has been experience severe suicide ideation and off and on homelessness since they have been taking these drugs, without being under consistent care from a doc I might add.
Dealing with an Autisic mind is far different than a child who is "normal". Add that to the already awkward stages of young children going through puberty as well as the social pressure of a young teen. I.E. if I tell my child "I'll be there in 5min"....I better be there in 5min, because the Autisic mind gets fixed on that, rather than how we normally mean the "5mins".
AGAIN the Autisic person is more likely to be persuadable, taken advantage of.
This is not organic movement.
Again, where's the 80yr olds coming out as trans? These are young children that are being targeted.
Now add all that to a late stage diagnosis, where that child grew up feeling different from everyone around them. Friends, teacher or a doctor tells them you're actually a different gender. WITHOUT a diagnosis for the original issue of Autism, along with concerned parents who take their kids to doctors and its diagnosed as gender dysphoria now and parents who are told to give them drugs and surgery...disfiguring them for life.
Those who push for the drugs and surgeries, as well as those who advocate for this ARE the tyrants.
Gender ideology is being pushed on children at schools and the internet.
Which begs the question, whats with the obsession the Left has with children and sexualizing them at such young ages?
As an autistic woman, diagnosed last year in my 30s, I very much relate to Buttons' experience of adolescence as well as the many stories of detransitioners who later realised autism was a factor.
As it is, most autistic people have a lifelong sense that we're putting on an act to try and appear normal -- "cosplaying a person" -- as well as many psychological and bodily discomforts (e.g. I had fairly intense body dysmorphia for at least a decade; faded somewhat now but always in the background).
I can see how ridiculously easily I could have latched on to being "born in the wrong body" as the ultimate answer, had gender ideology been the fad during my teen years... when the real answer went disguised for 30 years. Autism explains all of these things in my case.
Its role in the new cohort of "trans youth" I think hasn't been given enough attention.
I strongly disagree with what you are saying. Bringing light to this situation is really important. Non-binary gender identity should be part of understanding autism. It’s important for people on the spectrum to be fully supported if they confront this ideation bc jumping on the band wagon of medical transitioning early on without proper support is terrible bc of the potential for later life long regret. this article is a great intro to this concept.
As a neurodivergent teacher of kids with autism I can say that I am working on explicitly teaching my students to experience intrinsic motivation so that they are able to use that feeling of genuine accomplishment that will support them as they move forward in life. I make them work hard and they do. You can’t condition the autism out of you. But you can use it to your advantage if you are able to figure out your strengths and challenges. if I had learned earlier on, how to regulate my emotions- learning how now at 57- I could have accessed intrinsic motivation and been able to clearly understand all the many many blessings autism gave me, I would have been much better off. If you are still trying to figure shit out and emotional regulation is an issue for you- this does affect executive function profoundly - I would strongly encourage you to look into the best way you can do this for yourself.
As a teacher (and a neurodivergent female adult) I identify students and myself in terms of how autism impacts my life. So I use the words low impact, lower impact, moderately impacted and so forth bc I think it helps to understand how autism impacts the individual in terms of the kinds of supports a person might need.
As a 57 year old neurodivergent mom and teacher of neurodivergence, I am really happy you wrote this as I made this observation about 5 years ago and I wasn’t able to get ANYONE to listen. So thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really hope that something can be done about this bc I don’t believe it is good for neurodivergent people to change their identities medically without more thorough research and support for people facing these difficult battles.
Wow, this article sheds such an important light on the intersection between autism and gender dysphoria. As someone who cares deeply about mental health and understanding the complexities of the human experience, I found this to be a truly enlightening read. I highly recommend checking it out and expanding your knowledge on these important issues!
Thank you!
This almost all holds for boys, too. Differing from societal expectations for boys is very tricky right now (girls are told they can be anything, boys are told they are oppressors). It's all bad :(.
It is embarrassing for me to tell people I used to be “non-binary” from about ages 22-29. I didn’t even realize I probably had autism until I was 30, as well. Most people have no understanding or interest in autism as a factor in gender identity.
I’m very interested in the way these two factors, autism and genderism, interact. It seems like a huge part of the puzzle, and would likely explain why this trans trend exploded so suddenly in certain online social circles. I’m looking at you, tumblr.
Great writing, and thanks for sharing!
While this is a helpful triangulation on this issue, we also need to be careful not to amplify Big Pharma's pushing of the vast *over* diagnosis of supposedly epidemic level "disorders" like "ADHD" and "Autism Spectrum Disorders". While these disorders are real, they effect *very* few people, and most behavior being diagnosed in these categories is actually perfectly normal human behavior which falls within a broad spectrum of personality types. We need to thread a fine needle between under-diagnosis and over-diagnosis so that we are not pushing millions unnecessarily onto dangerous psychiatric drugs which have hazardous side effects, that may very well have played a role in the recent mass shooting.
There are no drugs specifically for autism.
I disagree with you about the number of people on the spectrum as you have no way of proving the veracity of what you are saying. No one knows this. I do agree that certain symptoms of asd can mimic certain symptoms of ptsd and this is coming out into the open, which is really important.
The natural extension of what you just pointed out is that there is likewise no proof whatsoever of the current viral assumptions that supposedly tens or even hundreds of millions of people are on some 'autism' spectrum - a nonexistent epidemic that we are being aggressively pushed to believe in by the pharmaceutical industry and the psychiatric profession. The reality is that autism is *extremely* rare, yet I can't go for a week without hearing somebody with perfectly normal human behavior telling me they have 'autism' or are 'on the spectrum' (or have 'ADHD'). This stuff is absolute nonsense being peddled to make the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries rich.
But psychiatric drugs are used on people diagnosed with ASDs. See: https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/treatments/medication-treatment
Keep it up!
This looks like very good information and I am forwarding it to a friend who has a daughter who fits much of this information.
But I did want to say that white on black is the very hardest color combination to read. I personally find it almost impossible and have to do work-arounds such as highlighting the entire text to change the color background, or cutting and pasting into a separate document to change the color. My friend has eye issues that will probably make it hard for her, too--and we can't be the only ones who experience difficulty. (I once sat through a presentation in a class on design that showed posters made with different colors to demonstrate which combinations were easiest and hardest to read. I don't remember most of them, since I didn't take notes and it was decades ago. I do remember that black on yellow was the easiest to read and white on black was the hardest.)
I find white on black the best as I have a lot of floaters in old age and they really show up on light backgrounds. But I do understand that others may have different issues.
Thank you!
This is really great.
Please, be carefull about writing that Norway has abandoned affirmative model. It is not true (yet!). There has come an official recommendation from the Health Investigation Board to reevaluate the guidelines for gender incongruence, but the authorities and health directorate are still very strongly supporting affirmative model. They may as well reject this recommendation, as it is not mandatory. Best regards from Norway.
As pedantic as you seem, Buttons, you're actually a scaremonger. Weaponizing medical terminology may fool your followers, however, you're explaining hirsutism (the biological condition of growing facial hair) as if it is the cause of gender non-conformity. It's not; it's these bogus ideas of how each gender needs to represent themselves in certain styles so that others can feel comfortable about their own choices.
However, medical terms aside, gender non-conformity has always been present. There is no amount of scientific data that will point to what you really want: an explanation for why someone may not want to conform to their gender like you do.
You may guise your discrimination in worries about suicide and wrongful diagnosis, however, most transgender and gender non-conforming peoples are incredibly aware of the decisions they make; they have to be when there are people like you who weaponize medical terminology as a reason that these people *should not exist.*
You want to do something for your community? It's not this. Whatever this is. This isn't it.
I think you’re misunderstanding the point. Of course no one is required to confirm to social conventions associated with their sex. I agree that gender stereotypes are bogus and arbitrary, and that’s certainly not what she’s saying. The point is that not wishing to conform to gender norms doesn’t actually make you the opposite sex, or require you to undergo medical treatments to change your body. Being nonconforming is some ways doesn’t have to mean anything dramatic - gender expectations are not written in stone and it’s ok to break them.
As the mother of a 17 year old daughter who has always been quirky, would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s if it were still a diagnosis but doesn’t quite meet the diagnostic criteria for autism, who was doing well before her descent into social media freshman year of high school and now considers herself a gay boy and has some severe mental health issues, everything written here rang true. I don’t care if my daughter wants to keep her hair short and dress in non-conforming ways. I do care if she’s living her entire life as a performance, trying to convince everyone she’s something she’s not because she hates the person she was, and actually still is. Because some people on the internet told her that her feelings meant something that they really don’t, and that there was only one possible course of actions.
I have 2 children with Autism. My oldest NOT diagnosed till their late teens. An Autisic mind is VERY open to the power of social conformity, putting aside the ridicule, bullying and at times feeling of a social outcast. I've seen it, I've lived it and watched as those like yourself attack those who've seen/experienced it. You can hide behind medical terminology and slander all you like. However, in the end there IS something to be debated. The fact you immediately jump to name calling proves the gender ideology is a fraud.
Sure gender dysphoria does exist, that being said....why is it only with younger groups and not so much in older ones? If there's that many people who suffer from this, wheres the 80yr olds "coming out in their true self?"
No, the target groups are those mentally challenged. Those who push this hard, those who defend and profit are no different than the tyrants of history.
Excellent! I also have a daughter diagnosed ASD in grade 5. I’m also a psychotherapist making it my mission to advocate for girls/women to be evaluated and diagnosed earlier.
I apologize, I just seen your post. Unfortunately, my oldest wasn't diagnosed until grade 10. He has CP, and other health issues, so the Autism was missed. However, with my 2nd we knew what to look for. So we were able to catch it early.
I often joke that I won the Autism lottery.
Good luck to you.
I do not understand what you're trying to say. If you are saying that Buttons is a tyrant, I agree. If you are saying that gender non-conformity has existed beyond our current age, I agree.
If you're saying anything else, I do not understand what it is. And that's because:
Everyone, not just people with autism, are conditioned by society they live in; my point being, from the very beginning, we are conditioned by others to become who we are, and in our American society, becoming who we are is often tied to our biological sex. That's because our society has prescribed roles for these sexes, though we know because of civil liberation movements, not everyone fits into these prescribed roles because, as intellectual beings, we expand our identities beyond our genitalia.
Truly, the debate is not about who is predisposed to gender dysphoria. The debate is actually how do we embrace one another without prescribing gender roles to each other, as gender is just a minute part of our identities. When we believe that gender is all of our identity, like Buttons does, we use the medical model to determine what is "wrong" with someone because they do not want to conform.
Really, why are y'all so obsessed with each others genitalia and chromosomes?
Well, this is confusing. "Gender is all of our identity" and believing people need to conform to their "genders" sounds like gender identity ideology.
Those opposed to gender identity ideology generally don't believe in gender beyond it being an often harmful social construct based on sex stereotypes.
Put another way (credit to Holly Math Nerd): two sexes, zero genders, infinite personalities.
No one should have to conform to anything. Believing there is a right way to be male or female, and if you don't fit into that, you might actually be the opposite and can medically and surgically alter your body in order to conform? That's regressive. That's gender identity ideology. That's what's being taught to impressionable and vulnerable children. And that's the opposite of what those who are gender critical are arguing for.
If gender is such a minute part of our identities, as you say, I'm not sure why you would support mentally unwell adolescents being medically and surgically transitioned long before they could possibly comprehend the lifelong consequences of those decisions.
I think the real issues is medical transitioning- taking or blocking sex hormones creates a second puberty. And this can have real devastating life long or ending effects on people. My middle child (27) has been experience severe suicide ideation and off and on homelessness since they have been taking these drugs, without being under consistent care from a doc I might add.
Dealing with an Autisic mind is far different than a child who is "normal". Add that to the already awkward stages of young children going through puberty as well as the social pressure of a young teen. I.E. if I tell my child "I'll be there in 5min"....I better be there in 5min, because the Autisic mind gets fixed on that, rather than how we normally mean the "5mins".
AGAIN the Autisic person is more likely to be persuadable, taken advantage of.
This is not organic movement.
Again, where's the 80yr olds coming out as trans? These are young children that are being targeted.
Now add all that to a late stage diagnosis, where that child grew up feeling different from everyone around them. Friends, teacher or a doctor tells them you're actually a different gender. WITHOUT a diagnosis for the original issue of Autism, along with concerned parents who take their kids to doctors and its diagnosed as gender dysphoria now and parents who are told to give them drugs and surgery...disfiguring them for life.
Those who push for the drugs and surgeries, as well as those who advocate for this ARE the tyrants.
Gender ideology is being pushed on children at schools and the internet.
Which begs the question, whats with the obsession the Left has with children and sexualizing them at such young ages?
As an autistic woman, diagnosed last year in my 30s, I very much relate to Buttons' experience of adolescence as well as the many stories of detransitioners who later realised autism was a factor.
As it is, most autistic people have a lifelong sense that we're putting on an act to try and appear normal -- "cosplaying a person" -- as well as many psychological and bodily discomforts (e.g. I had fairly intense body dysmorphia for at least a decade; faded somewhat now but always in the background).
I can see how ridiculously easily I could have latched on to being "born in the wrong body" as the ultimate answer, had gender ideology been the fad during my teen years... when the real answer went disguised for 30 years. Autism explains all of these things in my case.
Its role in the new cohort of "trans youth" I think hasn't been given enough attention.
I strongly disagree with what you are saying. Bringing light to this situation is really important. Non-binary gender identity should be part of understanding autism. It’s important for people on the spectrum to be fully supported if they confront this ideation bc jumping on the band wagon of medical transitioning early on without proper support is terrible bc of the potential for later life long regret. this article is a great intro to this concept.
As a neurodivergent teacher of kids with autism I can say that I am working on explicitly teaching my students to experience intrinsic motivation so that they are able to use that feeling of genuine accomplishment that will support them as they move forward in life. I make them work hard and they do. You can’t condition the autism out of you. But you can use it to your advantage if you are able to figure out your strengths and challenges. if I had learned earlier on, how to regulate my emotions- learning how now at 57- I could have accessed intrinsic motivation and been able to clearly understand all the many many blessings autism gave me, I would have been much better off. If you are still trying to figure shit out and emotional regulation is an issue for you- this does affect executive function profoundly - I would strongly encourage you to look into the best way you can do this for yourself.
As a teacher (and a neurodivergent female adult) I identify students and myself in terms of how autism impacts my life. So I use the words low impact, lower impact, moderately impacted and so forth bc I think it helps to understand how autism impacts the individual in terms of the kinds of supports a person might need.