The terrifying truth is that certain deadly, dangerous, disfiguring specters haunt girls on the spectrum more than any other population: eating disorders, cutting, burning, hair pulling (trichotillomania), skin picking (dermatillomania). It makes sense if you just think about it; genetically, we are prime candidates. We’re socially programmed to judge ourselves harshly. We’re neurologically wired to be rigid and exacting. To be perfectionists with obsessive and depressive tendencies. To have minds that get stuck on something and replay the idea endlessly all day and night. And we don’t like to
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