Getting candid.

If you’ve been keeping up with Bachelor Nation star Demi Burnett, you know that around two years ago, she got candid about her autism diagnosis on social media.

Since being diagnosed by her doctor, Demi has continued to discuss autism openly online and share educational videos about autism, pathological demand avoidance, and ADHD.

Now, Demi is opening up amid Autism Acceptance Month about a struggle she faces regularly while sharing about her autism online.

She started off by saying, “I am in fact autistic. It is very obvious to other autistic people. It’s just the not autistic people who want to challenge it. When you say ‘You’re nothing like my eight year old autistic nephew, you have no idea what he goes through.’ That’s true. I have no idea what he goes through and you have no idea what I go through. Negative comments saying I’m not autistic are so triggering that I had to pay thousands of dollars and go to a neuropsychologist in order to have it proved to me that I am indeed autistic.”

Demi went on, sharing, “I doubted myself more than any of you could ever doubt me. I overcame this self doubt, so when you come up in my comments saying I’m not autistic, I’m triggered. I just got over that mountain, so why are you throwing boulders at me now? It’s actually exhausting. It’s like the ultimate gaslighting. If you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person. Another autistic person is going to be completely different than that autistic person.”

She encouraged people to do their research before commenting on her videos and knows she’s not the only autistic person who experiences this.

Demi added, “I know this is something a lot of late diagnosed autistic people experience — people discrediting their diagnosis. And it feels so personal because we are still wounded from the battle we just fought with ourselves for sooo long. I know we have to do our part to strengthen ourselves/be less affected by these dismissals. It’s hard work and it’s so much easier said than done.”

She said she tries ignoring these kinds of comments and has tried to stop caring what people think, but “it’s really hard.”