I appreciated the article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (Culture warriors see not sick Britain, but a plague of ‘overdiagnosis.’ How convenient, 19 March), particularly the points she makes about autism. Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, I struggled with friendships and with any kind of social interaction outside the wider family. I was selectively mute as a young child, and as a teen developed anorexia in a desperate attempt to control something – anything – in a confusing and overwhelming world. I shrank to a ghost of a person, but somehow managed to regain weight and live an outwardly normal life, despite severe anxiety sometimes that I became expert at hiding.
A diagnosis as autistic in my 50s has brought immeasurable relief as I finally understand why I’ve struggled all my life to fit in. Increased diagnosis of autism is, at least for some, a blessing. It saddens me that so many articles misunderstand the condition and what it means for autistic people, who may indeed be “verbal and able to attend mainstream school”, as Cosslett writes, but may suffer in ways that aren’t obvious, yet still profound. I think that today’s world is even harder and less forgiving to navigate than in my childhood.
Julia Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink
London
