Autism diagnosis provided answers for Saints' Watts
For Southampton footballer Issy Watts, growing up provided obstacles and unanswered questions before learning of her autism diagnosis. The 19-year-old is currently part of Saints women's team, a place and a club she has called home since the start of her footballing journey. Through a number of struggles and barriers in Watts' early life at school, the sport provided a place for her to feel like herself.
"Growing up I have always felt different," she told BBC South Today. "I felt like I was having to mask every day to fit in and I didn't really understand why I felt different, I was always very anxious as a kid. "I just felt free with football, like the anxiety I had from school just disappeared and it was the one place that I felt comfortable in my own skin.
"The movement of running around and being active just helped me being able to regulate. " Autism is a neurological condition that affects a person's communication and interaction skills. It can also impact someone's anxiety around unfamiliar situations and social events.
Things then changed for Watts aged 15, when she picked up an injury and time away from football brought some tough times. Along with her family they sought professional help to try and get some answers, she was eventually diagnosed with autism which enabled her to have a different outlook on her life. "Having football taken away from me at that time was really difficult and I hit rock bottom," she added.
"But the diagnosis then gave me the clarity and almost the permission to be kinder to myself and know that my brain is different to a lot of other people. "It's wired differently and I experience things differently to the typical population, people say autism is a superpower and it does give you strengths. "On the pitch it allows me to hyperfocus, you can use the uniqueness of your own brain to plummet yourself into what you want to do, it sets you apart from everyone else.