Demi Burnett is educating her TikTok followers about the misconceptions about female autism.
She became part of The Bachelor Nation’s first same-sex couple when her now-ex-fiancée Kristian Haggerty joined her reality show, and she talked about how her autism manifests itself on a video-sharing app Wednesday. .
“I know that when you think of autism, you probably don’t think of me. But, the truth is, I’m autistic,” she said. “As with other mood disorders and personality disorders, women with autism are severely underestimated and misdiagnosed. It’s a big problem in the U.S. Most of the women I know with autism have been diagnosed as adults. Girls with autism fly under the radar and don’t get diagnosed because autism manifests differently in girls than it does in boys.”
Referring to research in the U.K., the TV personality said, “It explains a lot about autism and the way it manifests in me.
“There’s a term for it called ‘pathological demand avoidance,’” Burnett continued. “PDA is an anxiety-driven need for autonomy. I don’t like having demands placed on me and avoiding them, not because I’m being provocative, but because I just want to stop feeling anxious. People with PDA profiles are more sociable and better at maintaining eye contact. We can be better at socializing, but you’ll notice that socializing is very superficial. If you try to go deeper with me, you might turn into a lizard and it will be awkward. When it comes to deeper conversations, I don’t know the rules of what to say.”
She also promises to share her journey with her followers.
“I want to make sure that anyone who is/was feeling like me can know that you really aren’t alone,” she added. “It can get better! The most important thing is that it’s not your fault.”
Burnett isn’t the first celebrity to talk about autism misconceptions. Earlier this year, comedian Hannah Gadsby wrote about her own autism diagnosis in her book “Ten Steps to Nanette.
“I was right to be cautious, she wrote, because when I finally started telling the world about my diagnosis, the dismissals were mounting, and fast.” “I was told I was too fat to be self-absorbed. I was told I was too social to be self-absorbed. I was told I was too sociable to be autistic. I was told I was too feminine to be autistic. I was told that I was not autistic enough to be autistic.”