Sophie Leman
Sophie Leman is an autistic advocate who shares her personal journey navigating Autism with a PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) profile, mental health struggles, and late diagnos...
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Who are you?
Hi, I am Sophie Lehman. I'm 23, and I have autism with a PDA profile.
When did you start noticing that something felt different for you, even before any diagnosis?
I think probably I first started noticing something was different. Not necessarily wrong, but it was when I was at home having these really big, they weren't quite tantrums. I couldn't control them in the same way, but other friends didn't seem to be having them, and I couldn't really talk about it at school. And I think it was different to my siblings as well. And that's a difference that I noticed really early on.
Do you think knowing about your diagnosis of autism earlier would have helped your journey?
So I think knowing about the autism diagnosis just as a word, wouldn't have made much difference to me. I think what would've done would be learning about the way it presented itself, the good bits, the bad bits, what it meant for me, what it meant. I struggled with maybe more than other kids and peers, and I think knowing about those things would've helped me understand it and been kinder to myself, and I wouldn't have been so self-critical.