Women, ADHD and auto-immune conditions

Women with autoimmune conditions are up to 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are psychosomatic, according to Cambridge and UEA research published today (via The Guardian).

Men most often waited under three months for a diagnosis.
Women waited one to two years.
Many neurodivergent women will recognise this

Autistic women typically collect more mental health diagnoses before their autism is recognised than autistic men do, borderline personality disorder among them. And the overlap runs deeper, with large register studies linking ADHD and autoimmune conditions, some of them in women specifically.

So I picture an autistic woman, possibly already carrying an anxiety diagnosis, describing fatigue and pain in a way that doesn’t fit the script. Her existing diagnosis offers a ready explanation, and the curiosity her experience deserves never arrives...

The same researchers found last year that these misdiagnoses leave lasting harm to self-worth and to trust in doctors, sometimes for decades. Which is why this matters in therapy too.

When a client brings exhaustion or pain, our training can pull us toward meaning and metaphor first. I try to hold both: curiosity about what the body might be expressing, and a plain belief that it may simply be unwell and deserves investigating. Sometimes the most therapeutic thing I can do is help someone speak to their GP again, this time believing herself and her experience.

Link to study in comments.
(Can't believe we still live in the world which invalidates human experiences to this degree... - forever naive and hopeful, Polly).