If you’re Black and autistic, chances are you spent years thinking something was wrong with you. Maybe you were told you had anxiety, depression, or both… Maybe you tried therapy or medication, but something still felt off… Maybe you blamed yourself for struggling in ways others didn’t…
For many of us, autism was never even considered. Instead of being recognized as autistic, we were misdiagnosed, dismissed, or left to figure it out alone.
Let’s talk about why this happens and what it means for us.
Why Black Autistic People Get Misdiagnosed with Anxiety or Depression
Autism doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s deeply misunderstood in the medical field, especially when it comes to Black people, women, and nonbinary folks.
Here’s why so many of us were misdiagnosed instead of properly identified as autistic…
→ Doctors and therapists weren’t trained to recognize autism in people like us
- The standard autism diagnosis was built around white boys, not Black adults or non-male autistics
- If you made eye contact, spoke well, or held a job, they assumed you couldn’t be autistic
- If you struggled socially or emotionally, they defaulted to anxiety or depression instead
→ Anxiety and depression are common in autistic people… but they’re not the root cause
- Many of us develop anxiety and depression because of undiagnosed autism
- If your brain is wired differently, but you don’t know why, it’s easy to feel like a failure
- Living in a world that doesn’t accommodate you can lead to isolation, burnout, and deep exhaustion
→ Black people are less likely to be diagnosed with autism… period
- Medical racism means Black children and adults get diagnosed later or not at all
- Black autistic struggles are often seen as defiance, laziness, or personality flaws instead of neurodivergence
- The mental health system isn’t built to recognize how autism presents in Black, gender-diverse, or nontraditional cases
The Symptoms They Got Wrong
Many autistic traits look like anxiety or depression on the surface, so doctors misinterpret them…
■ Social exhaustion… looks like social anxiety
■ Shutdowns or meltdowns… look like panic attacks
■ Sensory overwhelm… looks like stress sensitivity
■ Monotone speech or flat affect… looks like depression
■ Routines and special interests… look like OCD
■ Trouble making eye contact… looks like shyness or avoidance
■ Struggling with executive function… looks like laziness or low motivation
Instead of asking why we struggled, they just put a label on the symptoms and called it a day.
How This Affected Us
Getting misdiagnosed changes everything…
✔ You might have spent years in therapy that didn’t actually help
✔ You may have been on meds that didn’t address the real issue
✔ You might have blamed yourself for struggling instead of understanding your brain
✔ You may have thought you were broken instead of realizing you were autistic
For many of us, the misdiagnosis was more damaging than no diagnosis at all. It led to self-doubt, masking, and burnout, because instead of getting the right tools, we were told we were just “too anxious” or “too sad.”
So What Now?
If you’re reading this and realizing this sounds like me, here’s what you can do next…
❤ Validate your own experience
- If anxiety and depression never fully explained your struggles, you are allowed to explore autism as an answer
- You don’t need permission to understand yourself better
❤ Look deeper into autism traits
- Research autism in Black adults and autism in women/nonbinary people
- If you relate, it’s worth considering whether autism is part of your story
❤ Self-diagnosis is valid
- Many Black autistic adults will never get a formal diagnosis due to cost, racism, or lack of access
- That doesn’t make your experiences any less real
❤ Shift from “fixing” to understanding
- You don’t need to “fix” yourself… you need to understand yourself
- The goal is to work with your brain, not against it
If the mental health system failed to see you, that’s not your fault. You were never broken… you were just misunderstood.
You are not alone in this. Your struggles make sense. Your experiences are real. And you deserve to exist as you are.
As always… take what resonates, leave what doesn’t, and know that you are not alone in this journey❤