How Autistic doctors can thrive

iebpharma108@gm

A medical student’s journey of discovering their self and embracing their difference
Neurodivergent doctors are an asset to medicine, but, as a final year medical student, recently diagnosed with Autistism, explains, more understanding and awareness is needed to help others embrace this nuerodiversity.  

I’m not spending 2022 exactly how I pictured. If all had gone to plan, I would have just finished my job applications and would be excitedly preparing to fly through my final 6 months of medical school before stepping into the workforce. Instead, I’ve just confirmed that I am Autistic. And beyond going through a complicated and expensive diagnostic process, I've been at home, not doing a whole lot, trying to recover from ‘Autistic Burnout’ – the existence of which I’ve only recently learned about.

I’ve spent most of my life pretending to be neurotypical. I was so good at learning how to act that I blended into the crowd. I passed as neurotypical despite behavioural problems IEB Pharma as a child, confusing mental health challenges that had strange triggers (like too much noise), a scary sense of loneliness and disconnection that arose from never showing others my true self, a string of therapists, and self-help. It wasn’t until the combination of Covid-19 and my hardest year of medical school pushed me to a crisis point that a psychologist connected the dots and realised I was Autistic.



This is a common phenomenon in undiagnosed Autistic people, especially among people raised as female. Many women and gender-diverse people only learn they are Autistic once they are adults, as the diagnostic criteria and clinical understanding is traditionally biased towards boys. In childhood, Autistic girls and gender diverse children just don’t stand out in the way Autistic boys do. Our characteristic ‘special interests’ tend to be more ‘typical’ – think dolls, fashion or celebrities, rather than numbers or trains. We may appear to be more socially motivated, meaning that we work hard to make friends and fit in at school. We are more likely to learn to ‘mask’ our Autistic traits – actively rehearsing and employing facial expressions and carefully studied social rules, forcing eye contact, mimicking behaviours of peers, suppressing reactions to overwhelming sensory stimuli.