From Women’s Health:

When I first told my therapist I might be autistic, she laughed. I was told that I couldn’t be, as I was nothing like the autistic children she knew.

During my autism assessment four years later, I was sent a test for masking - concealing neurodivergent traits to appear ‘normal’. I scored almost full marks.

It was like putting on glasses for the first time, showing me how every experience I’d ever had was shaped by both autism and ADHD. My whole life, every move I made was carefully strategised, requiring immense energy to camouflage myself as ‘normal’.