The Correlation Between Intelligence and Undiagnosed Autism in Women
I’m an autistic art therapist in private practice, which means I get to tailor my practice to my specialities. When I started to refine my niche, I chose to specialize in highly intelligent women with overwhelming thoughts and emotions.
What I didn’t realize is that my niche would attract a higher than normal amount of undiagnosed autistic women.
Why is that?
First, undiagnosed autistic adult women are often very intelligent. It is usually their intelligence that enabled them to go undiagnosed in school and throughout childhood.
They typically excelled in their classes and were heavily praised for their intellect.
They did so well that people did not stop to take a closer look at how the individual was feeling internally.
High intelligence also helped these individuals to learn masking and camouflage skills — skills that hide how they feel internally. They learn to control their external behavior to try and fit in. They may have a desire to rock side to hide or hum, but they quickly learn that behavior is perceived as “weird” or “socially different” and thus do not.
So why isn’t this the same with autistic boys? It’s largely due to the unconscious ways we socialize boys and…
