Christine McGuiness: Unmasking my autism

I thought it was excellent and another good contribution to the growing awareness of autism in women, however I didn’t actually enjoy it and didn’t truly feel connected with her or most of the young women portrayed. Afterwards I had to resort to one of my go-to coping strategies- tidying and aligning, in this case my collection of old bottles and the drinks mats in my library.  Part of I couldn’t connect is that I’ve never experienced an eating disorder, nor sexual abuse or rape and at 64 I’m generations older than those featured. , I’m not diminishing it’s important contribution though at all, it just wasn’t me.  I preferred the Chris Packham documentaries and the phrase he used “when you’ve met one autistic person you’ve met one autistic person!”  

I think I've been searching a long time for another autistic person who I can 100% relate to. Books, youtube, tv, blogs etc. I've now realised this isn't going to happen because everyone is different, has different backgrounds and lives. I think we seek some sort of validation from others because, as later diagnosed adults,  we haven't felt accepted for so long (whether this is by ourselves or by others). I am just me really and autism explains how I process the world. There are a lot of autistic people just going about their daily lives who have found other coping strategies or been lucky enough not to have had such shitty things happen to them. But that doesn't make interesting tv.

I think I've been searching a long time for another autistic person who I can 100% relate to. Books, youtube, tv, blogs etc. I've now realised this isn't going to happen because everyone is different, has different backgrounds and lives. I think we seek some sort of validation from others because, as later diagnosed adults,  we haven't felt accepted for so long (whether this is by ourselves or by others). I am just me really and autism explains how I process the world. There are a lot of autistic people just going about their daily lives who have found other coping strategies or been lucky enough not to have had such shitty things happen to them. But that doesn't make interesting tv.

We had to adapt and mask heavily, it was survival mode. We do act differently, we couldn’t freely express ourselves as autistic children are now able to. This is an extract of something I read a few days ago.