Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Undiagnosed for Years? Why Autism Looks Different in Women

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Undiagnosed for Years? Why Autism Looks Different in Women · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
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  Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
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  an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
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  spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
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  Did you know that there are more autistic females in the world
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  than autistic men? Yet there are more autistic men
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  diagnosed than autistic females? In this video, I'm going to talk
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  about why autism looks different and presents different in
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  females versus males. All that right now is coming up.
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  Don't go anywhere. See what's going on, guys.
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  My name is Dan. I have autism, ADHDOCD and
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  dyslexia and I make weekly videos all about this stuff.
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  So if you're new around here and you want to learn more about
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  these things, make sure to hit that subscribe button by
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  clicking notification bell down below.
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  And also, if you're watching on Facebook and Instagram and
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  TikTok, make sure to follow this to see more videos like this.
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  My hair is crazy, man. So what is it about autistic
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  females? That is an answer.
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  There is information about it and I I'm going to present that
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  to you right now. So autistic females, why are
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  they underrepresented? Why what, what is going on here?
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  So I wanted to discuss this with you.
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  What why it seems different, you know, females to males on the
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  autism spectrum. The first one is hidden signs of
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  autism in females. And some of the hidden signs can
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  look like this. When an autistic male is
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  distressed with something that there's something in their life,
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  their routine has changed and they're very distressed.
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  An autistic male may lash out and have a big meltdown and a
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  burnout and it can be visibly difficult to look and it can be
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  distressing to not just watch, but to for the person that's
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  going to be distressing, right? And they're going to feel that
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  quite intensely. Whereas if a routine or a, a
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  deviation from the expected norm happens for a autistic female,
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  what she will do with inherently internally meltdown.
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  So rather than a big outburst, a big emotional outburst, the
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  autistic female will actually kind of start breathing heavily,
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  getting really sweaty, anxious, nervous, shaking inside and
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  feeling that kind of like that kind of detriment happening
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  within the moment. And now this is this is this is
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  difficult because the the male autistics will feel more
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  outburst of anger due to testosterone and other kind of
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  factors. And the females are not
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  conservative in the way that they do it.
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  Now I'm not saying that all autistic females will do this,
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  but I am saying that most of the females will experience this
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  type of thing because of the difference between the males and
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  the females on the autism spectrum when they do this.
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  Now autistic girls actually mask a lot.
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  Now, masking is, I've covered this in another video and I'll
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  try and link it down below, but masking is where you pretend you
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  put on a front, a personality, a persona, a mask, somebody else,
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  an act. I'm going to act normal, you
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  know, whatever normal is so that people don't think I'm weird or
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  people won't get weirded out by my ability to be around other
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  people. I'm going to pretend that I can
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  understand social situations and social cues.
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  This happens from a very early age and autistic females do this
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  straight off the bat. They, they, one of the things
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  that autistic females want to do is they want to fit in.
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  They feel like they are wanting to fit into the world because
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  that's how they're going to be accepted.
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  Rather than try and accept themselves, they want to be
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  accepted in the social norms created by other people who are
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  neurotypical. But autistic females are
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  actually misdiagnosed so many times, misdiagnosed with things
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  like bipolar disorder, manic depressive disorder, some kind
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  of extreme depression episode. And this isn't always the case.
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  This is something that is because they go to the doctor
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  and the doctor doesn't know what is going on because they're not
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  trained in this. They're not trained properly or
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  professionally or proficiently. And this happens so many times.
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  And I'll give you an example in a minute how a late diagnosis is
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  going to really help you and how you can attain a more credible
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  late diagnosis. And here's a word from today's
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  sponsor. I just want to interject in this
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  video here to let you know that confidence is one of the main
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  issues that hold autistic individuals back from their full
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  potential. This is why I read a course
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  which is the Chaos to Confidence in 90 days blueprint, which
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  means I can take an autistic person from complete chaos to
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  being very confident and acing their life.
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  So if you're an autistic adult and you want access to this
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  program, you can check it out. The link is in description and
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  down below or you can go to the aspyworld.com/C to C right now,
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  the number 2 and get access to this program.
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  OK, So what are the implications of having a misdiagnosis?
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  Because thinking about it like women on the autism spectrum, if
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  they're undiagnosed, what normally happens is that they
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  are diagnosed with something else.
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  And it's not only bipolar disorder or kind of like someone
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  like depressive episode or some other kind of personality
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  disorder or trait that isn't really what's going on.
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  So how do we monitor this? How do we get over this?
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  I think one of the best ways, one of the main ways is to get
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  an accurate description diagnosis, so that when you are
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  applying for support or even medication, think about it.
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  If you are wanting to get the right medication, the right
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  support, the right therapy for your condition and you're being
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  diagnosed with something completely wrong, then it's not
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  going to turn out well, is it? I advise you to go to my
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  website, theaspworld.com/autism test.
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  Now you can do this test, it's an AQ test or an autism culture
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  test, and it will ask you a series of questions.
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  And these questions will indicate kind of more
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  symptomatic traits of autism that may align with you and your
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  personality and you as being a being, right.
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  But what does that mean? Well, you can take the print out
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  from the website, you can print out your score and it'll give
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  you an indication based on your answers if you're more likely
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  autistic or not. And then you can take those
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  answers to the doctor or your physician or whatever it is and
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  ask for a referral based on the findings of this type of report.
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  Now this is typically what they do anyway when the deal authors
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  a report, but the misdiagnosis of having bicolor or ADHD or
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  something else leaves women in a bit of a limbo where they don't
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  really feel accepted or heard in that environment.
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  So why? Because this also then leads you
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  underneath the radar when you're under the radar, when you're
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  flying low into the radar, you're outside of the support
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  mechanisms. Now we all have different
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  support mechanisms. We have like maybe it's therapy
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  and maybe it's group or it's our family, maybe it's our friends,
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  and all those things count. However, when you're flying
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  under the radar for the correct and right support, life's going
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  to be way harder. But the good news is, once you
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  as a person get the right diagnosis, if you are diagnosed
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  with autism and it is autism, then the good thing about it is
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  that you can start unmasking and learning to live life as you
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  want to live and do your conditions and do your rules.
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  And by doing that is celebrating so freeing.
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  And you will just feel a little bit more elated in life and feel
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  a bit more comfortable in your situation in your surroundings.
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  This is super awesome. Now if you want to learn any
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  more from me, I do want to learn coaching for people on the
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  autism inspection and I will leave a link for it down below
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  or you can just go to the link in my bio.
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  All right, guys, Peace. Hey guys, thank you so much for
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  checking out this podcast. Make sure you are subscribed
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  because there are people listening right now who are not
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  subscribed to this podcast. I can see you.
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  Make sure you subscribe. OK, guys.
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  See you in the next one. Peace.