Autism society

[HDDD]

I was just on their website for something else and noticed their autism and gender identity page so clicked through....www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism/autism-and-gender-identity
"Gender identity and biological sex are different things. People are usually assigned a gender at birth according to their genitalia – male or female. "
NOT HELPING ANYONE THIS ASSIGNED BUSINESS!

a friend who is a psychiatrist says it is not uncommon for those she diagnoses with Borderline Personality Disorder to arrive thinking they are autistic and it can take some explaining to help them adjust to their actual diagnosis

Unless she's trained and experienced in diagnosing autism in adult women, there's a fair chance they're right and she's wrong. I've known at least three women with BPD diagnoses who've later been assessed by (NHS) autism specialists who recognised that symptoms which looked like BPD to the general psychiatrist were better explained by an autism diagnosis. Additionally, I know a mother and daughter with BPD diagnoses whose son/brother had an ASD diagnosis, and another woman with a BPD diagnosis with a little boy with an autism diagnosis. Which, given the genetic factors involved, is highly suggestive to me that there's something there which is getting diagnosed as autism in males but as BPD in females.

Which is very convenient, because we can classify the men as logical thinkers who can't help having a neurological difference and are probably really good at maths or some shit, and the women as hysterical, manipulative attention-seekers, and thereby have all our prejudices neatly confirmed.

An awful lot of the most successful "BPD" therapy seems to be aimed at traits which are common in autism — mentalisation based therapy for understanding the neurotypicals, distress tolerance for the emotional regulation difficulties and sensory atypicalities, and so on — which is exactly what you would expect if a decent chunk of those diagnosed with BPD are actually (usually female, often traumatised) autistics .

I am diagnosed Autistoc myself, and fins so many Autistoc spaces are full of people who have bought into the whole Transwomen/men are women/men. I fear for my Autistic children, as well as mourning the loss of an online community which in lots of other ways is a haven from a confusing neurological world. It is ironic that within online Autistic community I have to mask my gender critical views or I would be ostracised.

Unless she's trained and experienced in diagnosing autism in adult women, there's a fair chance they're right and she's wrong. I've known at least three women with BPD diagnoses who've later been assessed by (NHS) autism specialists

She is. She is trained and experienced in diagnosing autism in men and women. However, she is not just trained in diagnosing autism, she is also trained in diagnosing BPD.

I have been reading all the posts on here. I know very little about autism, so it's been mostly enlightening. I remain horrified at that line on NAS website about assigned, so dangerous, wrong and dangerous.

@Tibtom

Unless she's trained and experienced in diagnosing autism in adult women, there's a fair chance they're right and she's wrong. I've known at least three women with BPD diagnoses who've later been assessed by (NHS) autism specialists

She is. She is trained and experienced in diagnosing autism in men and women. However, she is not just trained in diagnosing autism, she is also trained in diagnosing BPD.

That's fair enough — the NHS is full of general adult psychiatrists who aren't.

That is to say, they think they know about autism — enough to rule it out because the person sitting opposite them understands sarcasm or can do eye contact or has an expressive voice — but they're often out of date with knowledge on how autism without learning disability can look in adult women whose autism made them vulnerable to childhood/adolescent exploitation, and rather than referring to the overstretched diagnostic services for a proper assessment (one involving lengthy interviews and incorporating an examination of the person's developmental history and the use of thorough diagnostic instruments), look at the surface presentation and leap straight to BPD.