The case of a girl named Misha: shocking, masking and neurodivergence

Abstract

he article presents the case of a girl, Arina, who, based on psychological self-examination, discovered that she had autism spectrum disorder and insisted on receiving an official psychiatric diagnosis. She reported that for many years she had been engaged in masking – hiding existing communication disorders, as a result of which she developed emotional dysregulation and “autistic burnout.” In addition, she was dissatisfied with her name and asked those around her to call her Misha, but in the feminine gender. Misha's behavior was disharmonious; she was prone to conflict due to a misunderstanding of the non-verbal reactions of her interlocutors. An analysis of the literature on the issue of comorbidity of autism spectrum disorders was carried out. It was concluded that the Asperger syndrome identified in the patient was not combined with clearly defined comorbid mental and behavioral disorders, but with abortifacient elements of certain psychopathological symptoms. It is assumed that comorbid disorders did not develop in Misha in an expanded form precisely because of the presence of specific autistic traits that made it difficult to develop a full picture of any other disorders.

Keywords

• asperger's syndrome
• high-functioning autism
• neurodivergence
• autism spectrum disorders
• transsexualism
• masking
• psychiatric diagnosis