Male Centric Autism Narrative and Undiagnosed Autistic Women

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How I am supposed to give examples if they are not diagnosed? I can only give examples of diagnosed people. There was one study of autistic and ADHD girls who evaded diagnosis before the study picked them up, but they where just overlooked for being girls, nothing about empathy was mentioned. That's why this is just a hypothesis, I haven't been able to investigate it and I don't think anyone else has. I was more of focusing on appearing more feminine than appearing more empathic, I was just predicting a hole from different trends in girls diagnosed with autism than boys diagnosed. Well, actually, I do think there are at least a few examples here on this forum of people, both male and female, who were dismissed for autism at one point for being too empathetic, but found to be autistic on subsequent evaluations. Lets see if any of them show up.

"What is "empathic"?" Showing distress when others are distressed, sympathy and consideration for those who they know are hurt. Generally being nice and kind. Basically what people usually mean by empathy in everyday speech even though strictly speaking it isn't necessarily empathetic in the technical sense.

I don't understand what is difference between "empathic" in common usage and empathic in technical sense or why you are distinguishing between them?
I thought "empathic" might be a fake kind of empathy, while empathic means real empathy?
Do these children show spontaneous displays of empathy, like they can tell if someone is sad then they comfort them?

Also, that autistic girls with certain personalities may be more be less likely to diagnosed than autistic girls with other personalities for those reasons. Continuing to use pony examples, let's say there are three groups of aspies based on personality, violet (Fluttershy), tomboy (Rainbow Dash), and nerd (Twilight Sparkle). Twilight Sparkle has a very stereotypically autistic personality, and an autistic girl with a personality similar to her would probably be only slightly less likely to be diagnosed than an autistic boy with the same general personality. An autistic girl with a personality similar to Rainbow Dash may be even more likely to be diagnosed than an autistic boy with the same personality. However, I'm pretty sure a boy with a personality similar to Fluttershy is much more likely to be diagnosed than an autistic girl with a personality similar to Fluttershy because it seems off in a boy, but not in a girl.

"Do these children show spontaneous displays of empathy, like they can tell if someone is sad then they comfort them?" Depends on the situation and the person. For myself, I can often tell if someone is sad and will become distressed, but I usually won't comfort them simply because I don't know how to even though I want to. If the display is apparent and they aren't too anxious, probably. I really can't answer beyond that. The critical part is if they can tell they are sad, they would be distressed and would want to help, that what I mean by highly empathetic. This is in the normal range of autistic behavior, it just may be interpreted differently if it's from a girl rather than a boy.

But outside observers wouldn't be able to tell if a child is eggsperiencing empathic response if the child doesn't show the behaviors, so it seems that they wouldn't be dismissed as too empathic to be autistic without showing empathy behaviorally.

It's important to remember that "introverted" and "shy" are not synonyms. Also that such people need not be either...

Or maybe they do send out similar signals, but these only tend to be considered "red flags" when comming from men. In many societies what's considered "normal" can vary markedly between men and women.

They do demonstrate empathetic behavior, just not of the variety which would rule them out from being considered autistic if the psychiatrist knew anything. but some psychiatrists don't know anything.



I'm aware of this, though someone who is socially consciousness but lacks social ability is likely to experience anxiety, and thus come across as shy.

What behaviors do they demonstrate?

"Empathetic: ones. I don't know! It's not important what specific behavior they demonstrate, for all I know it's just what they say when asked. Ask some who actually has experience with this regard, I'm just going off of hearsay.

Wouldn't it be about how they react during testing, not how they act in real life? Because how would the psych see them in real life? I don't know what they do during testing, but I imagine they would give them fake scenarios and ask them how they feel about it or how they think the other person feels - maybe like that Sallie Ann thing or whatever it's called.

Diagnosis of autism is based on behaviors, so it is really important to know what are behaviors that some autistic girls are showing that might indicate high empathy.

Okay fine, like crying for toys getting hurt or being unable to watch sad movies. That work for you?

OP what is fascinating to consider, for me, is the future, when diagnosis shifts from behavioural symptoms (which are assumed to be constant across the spectrum but may not be, especially for women) to reliable biomarkers. Once that shift is made, the range of the "cat family" will be more accurately known in all its varieties.

I believe their going to find a few different cat families, which is going to complicate things quite a bit.

It may well go that way. I suspect we will look back on current assumptions one day as theorists floundering in the dark, just as we now look back on Bruno Bettelheim's theories in the 1950s and 60s as ridiculous.

I like this comment from Donna Williams 6 Mar 2012:

"For me, Autism is a 'fruit salad' and that fruit salad and the personality package it comes in differs from person to person".

She is giving demonstration to that perspective in her Autistic Voices Project.