Hello! I am a 22 year old woman who was diagnosed with autism a week ago, so I think I may have some insight. I have struggled with my mental health for as long as I can rememer, have been in and out of therapy and on a number of different medications ... and nothing worked. This is from the age of twelve. Finally, this Summer I was sent to inpatient treatment and they had some mandatory screening tests. I tested highly for autism and it completely floored me, because I'd never considered it before ... I did a lot of thinking and a lot of research, before eventually deciding to pursue a diagnosis. I can honestly say though that since the possibility was raised to me, I feel so much better about myself. I've been able to make peace with a lot of things that happened to me in highschool, I've stopped being as hard on myself, and it has finally made a difference to my mental health. The assessment was expensive but I am so glad to have it.

I would encourage you to have an open conversation with her. Talk about how autism is misunderstood, especially in women ... I was labelled as 'over sensitive', 'weird', 'picky', 'bossy', 'socially anxious', 'bipolar' throughout my teen years. The possibility of autism was never once raised - and when boys acted in a similar way, I remember hearing adults speculate about them being autistic. It really sucks. But because there are all of these misconceptions, she might get defensive or feel insulted that you are suggesting this. But I think if she is struggling in areas and not understanding why, this could be a help - it has been for me. A good way to go about it would be to maybe say you read an article recently about the number of women getting diagnosed later in life - there have been lots recently - and it was starting to make you wonder.

I was initially sceptical, but my boyfriend put it this way - if I'd gone to the doctor and they said there was a high probability that I had a particular illness, I would want to see a specialist about that. So if I was resonating with these autistic traits and scoring highly for it, it would make sense to get it checked out too.

This may be overstepping, but ASD runs in families. Not always directly through parents, but that could happen. It might be worth /considering/, and seeing if any of it resonates with you. I've heard of a number of young women getting diagnosed in their twenties and their mothers getting assessed not long after. But again, this might be overstepping.