The autistic women writing books to unmask their hidden world

After her medical diagnosis three years ago, Morgan, 62, set up The Autistic Woman website through which she collated information and stories.

“I realised we are often invisible,” she says. “We hide how we are because we are conditioned by society to blend in.”

Her memoir Mothertongue, in which she revisits key life events in light of her diagnosis, has been published this month.

Despite a successful career as a national newspaper journalist, Morgan, who grew up in Edinburgh and now lives in Cockermouth, Cumbria, says she always knew she did not fit in.

As a teenager, she had what her GP thought was a breakdown triggered by watching The War Game – a 1960s portrayal of the effects of a nuclear war on Britain.

“I’m shaking, I’m in tears all the time, I’m terrified. Every sound I hear I think is a nuclear bomb going off.”

She was given sedatives, but nothing changed. Now she recognises this as autistic burnout.

“It’s when you become totally exhausted with trying to exist in a world that is not designed for how your brain works,” she says.

“The world to a lot of us is very loud, very noisy, very crowded, very bright, very smelly, and it’s exhausting suppressing your response to all of this and carrying on.”