Genna
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
‘We shouldn’t have to be suicidal before someone says maybe there’s something wrong. We shouldn’t have to be broken before we can find out that we’re just atypical.’
Genna is in her 50s and has complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctors recently diagnosed her with autism.
‘I’m just now trying to put myself back together as an autistic adult rather than the broken person who ended up in hospital because she can’t cope,’ Genna told the Royal Commission.
Genna recently spent six weeks in hospital where tests showed she was ‘fairly significantly on the autism spectrum’. But doctors told her they couldn’t officially diagnose autism.
‘Instead of giving me an autism diagnosis, they gave me a borderline personality disorder diagnosis because that was what they had available to them. And that seems ridiculous.’
Because she had no official autism diagnosis, doctors wouldn’t treat her as being autistic. Instead, she paid $2800 for a diagnosis from a clinical psychologist after she was discharged.
‘When you are given a cornucopia of mental health diagnoses you feel broken. You feel like garbage because your world is falling apart. But when you are given the opportunity to see yourself through a lens of autism – I’m not broken, I’m just different and that’s okay – you can readjust your self-image.’
Genna said some doctors still don’t take women’s mental health seriously, which is why so many women are misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated.
‘I have had doctors say to me, “If you just stopped being fat all your symptoms would go away.”’
Genna fears many adult women with undiagnosed autism ‘have missed the opportunity of having a respected neurodivergent position within society’.
‘They’re just written off as quirky, they’re written off as being the odd one out, when they could have a much more self-invested and dignified life.’
Genna said all adults ‘repeatedly referred to mental health units’ should be screened for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
‘Having that diagnosis can allow greater improvements and less reliance on the mental health service, less clogging of a system, if we could get more appropriate supports,’ Genna told the Royal Commission.
‘When you’ve gone half a lifetime being completely misunderstood, putting yourself in dangerous situations because you don’t understand the social set up, being misinterpreted, being frustrated, being unable to handle tertiary education … that made me a less productive person.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.