A spectrum of emotions

ACCORDING to tonight's documentary ARE YOU AUTISTIC? (5, 7pm), there are more people seeking an autism diagnosis than ever before. "NHS waiting lists are growing," reports Dr Claire Taylor, the show's presenter, "with numbers five times larger than before the pandemic."

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I don't doubt it. And once this programme has aired, who's to say it won't be nearer six?

It's a fascinating documentary in many respects, a real eye-opener, but I also find it frustrating.

If I was confused beforehand as to how to define autism, I'm left even more so by the end. Or maybe that's the point.

"Autism is not an illness, like many you'd go to your GP for," Dr Taylor explains. "It's a condition with a huge spectrum that covers a diverse range of people in different ways."

Which sounds perfectly reasonable, except there surely comes a point when a spectrum's hugeness becomes a hindrance, diagnosis-wise, rather than a help, making everything feel kind of vague.