Pediatrician opened up about her autism, stating that it helped her understand her patients. Rochelle Flynn was diagnosed with Mild Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of 42.
Dr. Rochelle Flynn opened up about her disorder, viewing it into a positive light instead of treating it as a disorder. Flynn used her autism to relate to her patients diagnosed with special needs. Things were never easy for her before she found out that she has mild autism as mentioned in Parenting.
She juggled school work and social life, despite going through autism symptoms. Since autism classification only focused on non-verbal autism back in the days, Rochelle Flynn's case was not labelled.
Due to the fact that she was not able to get proper diagnosis for her condition, Rochelle was forced to fit into the norms of being a regular student. Despite going through several obstacles, she managed to juggle her schoolwork and her undiagnosed mild autism.
Upon getting the proper diagnoses, Rochelle shared that she's more comfortable in who she is and on what she accomplished. She even shared details as to how her autism helped her in providing maximum health care for her patients with special needs.
"Another of my "Aspie" skills is being very detail-oriented. Sometimes this focus allows me to pick up a single clue that leads to a diagnosis that otherwise might have been missed. This skill is also the one that causes me the most stress, however, because it means that I am frequently one or two hours behind schedule. The more burdened I become by time-pressure (a notorious detriment to most of us with ASD), the less efficient I become."
Several individuals with mild autism are often misdiagnosed. "American Journal of Medical Genetics," noted that autism cases increased by three folds from 2000 to 2010. The staggering increase was due to misdiagnosis due to several symptoms of other disorder which surfaced at the same time.
"Every individual can show a different combination of features. The tricky part is how to deal with individuals who have multiple diagnoses because the set of features that define autism is commonly found in individuals with other cognitive or neurological deficits," lead researcher Santhosh Girirajan said.
Rochelle Flynn's story proved that mild autism shouldn't be a hindrance to doing what you are passionate about. As parents of a child with special needs, it is important to support and encourage the passion of your child, especially in the area of which he/she excel. Do you have any inspiring stories about people with special needs? do let us know in the comment section below.
