The Truth About Being Autistic And Gifted

and 5 Surprising Signs That You Could Be Both

Image created on Canva by author (Shamiha Said)

Before I was late diagnosed with autism, I was known as ‘gifted’ and weird, particularly throughout my childhood, eventually crashing into autistic burnout in adulthood. My ‘giftedness’ started early, and I began to talk at an early age and met my communication and language milestones before my peers and siblings did. For this reason, my autism was not picked up in the first few years of my life, even though I struggled to meet my other physical, social and emotional milestones at the age I was expected to. I started crawling and walking a lot later than my peers and struggled to regulate my emotions or play with others.

As I started school, my ‘giftedness’ became more apparent, and because I could exceed all my learning targets, my teachers did not see a cause for concern in my behaviour. The only children who were given additional support and assessments were those who performed badly, so I fell under the radar. My giftedness became a crucial aid in masking my neurodivergent traits, and I desperately wanted to prove that I was the perfect student, so my giftedness and high-masking nature meant that my autism and ADHD were never detected whilst I was in school.

The weight and the pressure of maintaining my ‘giftedness’ without addressing my…