Cat Burns discusses ADHD and autism diagnosis: "there was a difference in my brain that I wanted to understand"

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Burns has shared her journey to being diagnosed with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, in the hopes that it will help others understand themselves better and get the help that they may need if they believe they may also be suffering with similar disorders.

"I knew I had ADHD but I still felt there was a difference in my brain that I wanted to understand and explore," she explains. "So once I got my autism diagnosis that helped me understand myself and just how much I've had to do in order to get to where I am."

Whilst it's a lot more difficult for women to be diagnosed with these disorders, Burns believes it was harder because she's a woman of colour. There are many symptoms for both ADHD and ASD but they present themselves differently in each person.

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"A lot of black women and women who believe they have ASD are under diagnosed and are often dismissed when brought up to their therapists & psychiatrists etc.," she said in an Instagram post earlier this year. "ASD shows up much differently in black people and POC, women & girls and folks who were assigned female at birth, due to gender & race socialisation."

One sign of autism is fidgeting, but Burns points out that a black woman could fidget in a different way to white man for example. "I guess being a black woman, there's certain experiences we have that people won't be able to pick up on," she says. "For a black girl, it could be taking out her braids and putting them back in or something else to do with her culture that's overlooked."