From the outside looking in, perhaps eating disorders and autism couldn’t look more different. Supposedly, people with autism aren’t attuned to their emotions, whereas people with eating disorders are highly sensitive and turn to food/eating behaviours to cope. But strip off the misconceptions, and the two conditions are far more similar than anyone believed.
Until recently autism has been viewed as a male disorder and even, for a short period an “extreme male brain” theory was used to understand the disorder. However, as more understanding is developed, research is finding that autistic females tend to be able to camouflage their symptoms of autism and use compensatory behaviours that mask their social challenges.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by communication and social interaction difficulties and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities present from childhood that limit and impair everyday functioning.
