What is autism? – Mind The Gap

Focuses/Special interests (not restricted, just certain!)

An ‘autistic focus’ is my personal term for a ‘special interest’ – you’re welcome to use it, too! I prefer it sometimes to ‘special interest’ because of the negative associations with the word ‘special’ when used to refer to autistics. I also feel that ‘interest’ doesn’t quite do justice to the intensity of the feeling of love we have towards our focuses. For me, there’s a difference between a regular interest and a focus. We have more than just curiosity about the subjects we love – we devote ourselves to them to an extent that allistics (non-autistic people) don’t. Our…

Senses

Autistic people have a much more complex and intimate relationship with our senses and sometimes an extremely difficult one. Personally, I’m a really olfactory (smell) and auditory (hearing) sensitive person. These are common autistic traits; and in addition, some people are physically sensitive too (to touch, pressure on their body, etc). But also, a lot of us are physically under-sensitive. This can be events like not feeling a burn or injury, or realising you have seriously banged your arm/leg etc until hours later, where it sort of hurts to touch. Personally, it’s taken me a long time to figure out…

Meltdowns and Shutdowns: differences between them, from an actually autistic perspective (the experts themselves!)

What is a meltdown? A meltdown is an intense response to an overwhelming situation, it happens when someone is facing so many emotions, and their situation is overwhelming, hence an intense reaction for a certain amount of time, which is temporary. Its an outward response to external stressors. What is a shutdown? A shutdown is a more muted response to a situation. It happens when the individual is under extreme stress and sensory overload. It is commonly known to happen to autistic people quite frequently. This is an inward response to external stressors. What’s the difference between the two?A meltdown…

Autism symbols:

Symbols can be quite powerful, as they can hold a lot of meaning. People identify by and feel represented by symbols. However sadly with autism there are some harmful symbols that are more commonly known than the ones we as autistic people actually identify with and wish others used instead. Gold or rainbow infinity symbol: This rainbow symbol is used to represent neurodiversity. This is the symbol that is associated positively with mostly autism, because the rainbow represents the spectrum that we exist on. The spectrum is more like a colour wheel, with different sliders/adjusters for each section – not…

Is it ‘have autism’, or ‘is autistic’?:

While I don’t speak for everyone, the majority of the autistic community do prefer “is autistic”, “are autistic”, which is called Identity first language (IFL). This is based on the social model of disability, seeing that there isn’t something ‘wrong’ with the person, but they are in fact disabled by society’s barriers and failures to accommodate that person’s differences. ‘Autistic’ is preferred because IFL reflects how autism is an integral part of our identity, you can’t separate it from us. If you took away our autism then we wouldn’t be us. The autism symbol associated with this perspective is either…

Masking:

There is a misconception that Autistic Masking is about ‘fitting in’ or wanting to appear to be more non-Autistic (Neurotypical). That implies that conscious choices are being made to Mask, which further implies that it is a deceit. Even the names that are used: masking, camouflaging, assimilating all imply that notion. There is also a misconception that Autistic Masking is a series of social strategies, used by Autistic people to navigate social situations. Things that are picked up, used and then discarded. It is so much more complicated than that though. Our understanding of Autistic Masking needs to be reframed,…

So, what is autism?

So, what is autism? Well, in the American psychiatric association (APA), autism is classified as a developmental disorder. APA use a manual called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and the latest manual (5) says that in order to diagnose someone as autistic, they need to hit specific criteria, such as: However, you’ll find pretty quickly if you search for this, that the DSM-5 focuses on the deficits and things ‘wrong’ with the person, rather than acknowledging that there are strengths and differences in autistic people compared to allistics (non-autistic people). However, it can be seen in a recent push in…