In World Autism Acceptance Week, Woman’s Own speaks to two women about their experiences…
Imagine struggling to express how you feel, and finding the world around you a confusing and overwhelming place. That’s the reality for the 700,000* people in the UK living with autism. It is a lifelong developmental condition, and although everyone who has autism is born with it, some go undiagnosed until adulthood. Presenter Melanie Sykes, 52, revealed that her own diagnosis came at the age of 51, and Christine McGuinness, 35, who has three autistic children, announced that she had been diagnosed at 33.
While there is no cure or medication to treat autism, creating awareness, understanding symptoms and knowing how to manage them can be hugely beneficial. But according to recent figures, autistic children currently have to wait up to five years for an NHS assessment. And delays in diagnosis can have huge impacts on patients and their families.
We speak to two women about their experiences and why, for them, getting a diagnosis was key…
‘After 31 years, everything made sense’
Mahlia Amatina, 38, is a neurodivergent artist from Reading, where she lives with her dog, Jasper.
As bright light pierced my eyes, I pulled my hood up to shield my face. I hated waiting rooms. The ticking of the clock pulsated through me like a beating drum, and conversations buzzed irritatingly around me. When the healthcare worker called my name, it was a relief to escape the sensory overload that filled my head. ‘So, are you autistic?’ she asked, sensing my distress. I shook my head. ‘No,’ I replied.
It was 2015, and at 31, I’d been struggling with mental-health issues for the past few years. But now, as I sat with the mental-health nurse, she strongly disagreed with my answer. ‘I’m going to put through a referral,’ she said. Three months later, after being assessed by psychologists, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Shocked, I wondered how I could have gone 31 years without knowing something so fundamental about myself, but the more I learnt, the more it made sense.
Problems with coordination had plagued me my whole life. As a child, I was accident prone and at school I found social interaction difficult. As an adult, I found it impossible to keep up with the instructor at an aerobics class, and it took me nine times to pass my driving test! Sensory issues made working in an open-plan office for my job in market research a daily battle. Overlapping sounds, and my extreme sensitivity to light and even smells
