Jinera

Hey I am glad I see someone else making the connection.

When I was in my teens I suffered from anorexia, for about 6 years. I have a disorder - which I didn't know about at the time - that, among other things, causes my skin to be very stretchy. I was convinced this was fat, despite being underweight. I knew when I looked in the mirror that I wasn't overweight, but I did see myself as "average", despite being functionally underweight. Until I learned of the disorder I have, and it was like a switch going on in my head: oh. I am not fat after all.

I will admit I still see myself as average, until every now and then I catch a glimpse of myself unexpectedly and I am surprised by how thin I really am.

I was also diagnosed with autism, although both the professionals and me aren't sure if I actually have it - and at this point I do not think I have it. Eating disorders and autism frequently go together. Eating less makes your mind quiet, can make you more numb. Also a lot of autistic people have issues with certain food textures.

For me, my disorder causes me to feel better when I eat small portions. My anorexia was actually rewarded by me feeling better.

Trans people often have autism, last time I checked it was about 20%, but it wouldn't surprise me if the number was higher.

I'll try to explain my theory:

Autism causes people to have a hard time dealing with changes. During puberty a girl's body changes a lot, very fast, without it being in our control. We feel uncomfortable with our body, because not only are these changes hard to deal with in general, but due to autism it is even harder to accept this constantly changing body as our own.

We'd rather have everything stay the same (my fixation was, not ever gaining any weight, rather than specifically losing weight) as it used to be.

Now what most closely resembles the body of a prepubescent girl? The body of a teen boy. No breasts, less fat, no hips.

A girl with autism will look at herself and potentionally see two things: 1. she has too much fat - and wants to lose weight. 2. She has breasts and she doesn't want them.

In the past, this usually resulted - at least I think so - in an eating disorder. Which of course, psychologists will treat appropriately. Now I won't claim the treatment for eating disorders is great, it isn't, but therapists won't go along in the delusions of their patients.

Now, a teen girl with autism, will go online and complain about the curves of her body: she must in fact be a boy!

It's the perfect solution for all her insecurities (or so she is told on social media).

Instead of having her therapists working on her insecurities, she will get medication and surgery to get what she wants: the changes that puberty caused, to be undone.

This is much the same for the girls without autism, with an eating disorder. Getting that curveless, shapeless body is now no longer framed as having an eating disorder, but instead you're told you have gender dysphoria and your self hatred is totally justified.

I know that within the trans community it is not uncommon for ftm's to starve themselves so they won't get bigger breasts - instead of that behaviour being met with horror, it is met with understanding. How different is that truly from anorexic girls starving themselves?

This is why I think that a lot of trans men are autistic. The "gender dysphoria" is a symptom of anorexia and autism, or the combination of both. And instead of getting the appropriate help, therapists feel forced to only treat the gender dysphoria. My(14 yo) sister is a great example of this as well, has anorexia, and autism and identifies as a 7yo boy. You'd say that the therapists would focus on issues like autism and anorexia, but they can't. Social media teaches trans people to be manipulative. "If you do not treat me as a 7yo boy, I will kill myself. If you do not get me to take hormones, I will kill myself." "I will not go to therapy if they do not go along with my identity." And then what? Forcing someone is essentially impossible.

So you're stuck with a cycle. Autistic, anorexic girls think their insecurity is gender dysphoria. They think they can cure their insecurity with testosterone and surgery to remove their breasts (spoiler alert: they can't). Therapists can't get to the core of the issue because either the patient acts like their eating disorder is simply caused by the gender dysphoria (hint: if you don't have an eating disorder, you wouldn't be starving yourself), or because if the therapist does not go along with them, they won't show up to therapy.

I sadly know two girls who were both autistic and anorexic, went on hormones and killed themselves not long after getting their breasts removed. This is a real issue, and I wish psychologists would be more aware/eager to research this.

Edit: and it is only logical that in this cycle, autism comes first, as we know by now that people are born autistic rather than developing it later in life, and that brain imaging can actually tell if people are autistic even from a really young age (in some countries, like Brazil, brain imaging is actually used to confirm the diagnosis of autism, rather than just using tests).