I think one of the main problems with being #ActuallyAutistic within mental health services is psychiatrists constantly looking for subtext even when there is none.

They are trained to look for hidden motivations and to ‘read between the lines’ from what a patient says to work out what are they actually thinking.

For autistic people, who often have no filter and always say exactly what we are thinking, holding nothing back, it can be very disorientating when they desperately search for the “meaning behind our words” rather than listening to what we are actually saying.

It can feel like a form of gaslighting where they ignore everything we actually say and instead write their own theories about our thoughts and the motivations behind our behaviour.

As the hidden motivations they ascribe are all based upon a NT (Neurotypical) way of thinking, these theories rarely have anything in common with our internal experience and we often end up feeling voiceless and very confused by the experience.

#mentalhealth