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Lived experience, Think Autism Sydney 2025
Sharon Zivkovic on growing up autistic when it was called childhood schizophrenia
In short
At Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, two autistic leaders described going through school without a diagnosis, and why an earlier label might have made things worse.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Sharon Zivkovic’s reply, when Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, told her that he wished he had been diagnosed earlier and that life would have been so much easier, was that “you’re better off that you didn’t because they would have locked us up back in the 70s”. Gold told the opening panel of Think Autism Sydney in May 2025 that he had been emotional when he said it and would never forget her answer, and he asked her to explain it to the room.
Zivkovic, who told the room she would turn 65 that year and thought she was the oldest person on the panel, began with the language of her childhood. She said that “back when I was a kid, it was childhood schizophrenia”, and that mothers were blamed for it. She summarised the blame plainly, saying “it was your parents not giving you enough love.”
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Sources the story draws on
- The evolution of 'autism' as a diagnosis, explained (opens in a new tab), The Transmitter (Simons Foundation supported), by Lina Zeldovich
- What are the age requirements (opens in a new tab), National Disability Insurance Agency
- National Autism Strategy 2025-2031, Older Autistic People Snapshot (opens in a new tab), Department of Social Services (dss.gov.au)
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