The Importance of Validating Self-Identification

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The research has historically been on middle-class white like General voice. There's now all of this different diagnostics that are Adult women the way it's showing. We don't actually have very good like You know Standardized methods of understanding who we are and so there's a lot of innovation going on in at the moment. But I think it's one of the reasons why it is so important to to really validate people who self-identify as well.

Author Katherine May recounts the moment she – at age 37 – discovered she is autistic and recognized herself for the first time.

Living as an autistic person in a world that often misunderstands her, Katherine shares:

How the prevailing understandings of autism erase the lived experiences of autistic women and girls;
The way autism looks and feels for adult women; and
How she navigates social interactions and sensory overload.

Katherine also reveals what she hears most often from people who think they might be autistic, which has Glennon asking: “Katherine, am I one of those people?”

For more information about how autism may show up in the lives of adult women, listen to the end of this podcast, and visit Katherine May’s Autism Resource Page at https://katherine-may.co.uk/autism-resource-page.

Don’t miss our We Can Do Hard Things conversation with Hannah Gadsby, who was also diagnosed with autism in adulthood: Episode 82 Hannah Gadsby: How to Communicate Better.

About Katherine:

Katherine May is the New York Times–bestselling author of Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age and Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, which has been translated into twenty-five languages around the world. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times and The Times of London. She lives by the sea in Whitstable, England.

IG: @katherinemay

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