“When I was growing up, I would observe people around me, see how they were behaving, and develop a script to get myself through it”

What led to you being diagnosed so late, when you were 23?

I’d had a lot of isolated problems that nobody had really pieced together as I was growing up. I was in therapy when somebody finally said: “I think all these difficulties you’ve been having could actually be autism rather than mental illness.”

How did you react to that idea?

It was a massive shock. Despite studying autism in my psychology degree, I had …