According to this week’s news cycle, I’m part of ‘generation sicknote’. I’m a whiny, attention-seeking waste of oxygen who has the sheer audacity to let things like emotion get in the way of being a smoothly oiled cog in the machine.

In case you missed it, an article this week pointed out that a third of young people experience mental illness and that 5% of young people are currently signed off work for mental health reasons. That article went on to suggest that these youths are a generation of ‘snowflake’ layabouts who are tanking the economy. Of course.

Make no mistake, the figures the article cited are worryingly high. But in my view, that isn’t the damning indictment of my generation that the article proposes. I know first-hand what it’s like to have to take time away from work because of my mental health, and I know that doing this absolutely does not make you a lazy snowflake.

Up until recently, I was one of the 30% of autistic people in full-time employment. I worked as an entertainment journalist, and, to the outside world, I was living the dream. I attended film premiers, interviewed Hollywood stars in glamorous London hotels, and I had a buzzing social life. I adored my job, and the only thing I loved more was finally being able to live out the ‘big city journalist’ fantasy I built for myself in London.

But deep down, I knew that I was just a child playing dress-up, and I couldn’t keep playing the part forever. When I first started working full-time and learned about the 30% stat cited above, I was puzzled. I knew so many talented and driven autistic people, and I’d worked pretty much consistently ever since I was old enough to do so. I assumed that the data was simply wrong or under-researched, like so many things are when it comes to neurodiversity.

“I’m part of ‘generation sicknote’, and I’m tired of being called a snowflake for needing time off work for my mental health”