What is autism?

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What is autism? It's very hard to give a short answer to this question because there's so much variety. It's a neurotype, which means it's a way that the brain is wired. It's a disability because the world is mostly set up to support neurotypical needs rather than autistic ones.

The quickest way that I summarize it is autism means I'm good at different things from most people and I need help with different things from most people. For example, I'm kind of a stereotype where I got my doctorate before I could handle my own laundry. But there are a lot of different ways that can look from one person to another. So, autism is usually about extremes, and those extremes can often go in either direction. Like, there are autistic people who talk a lot and have a huge vocabulary. And there are other autistic people who don't use words at all. Some people might really avoid sensory input, such as loud sounds or strong smells. Or they might seek out sensory experiences like chewing on things or crashing into things. You might even see both extremes in the same person and even in the same sense, like someone who hates gentle touch but loves tight squeezes. When I diagnose people with autism, I tell them what this means is, you know, the whole like common sense idea of how to live your life, like if you do these things and you don't do these other things and you'll be successful and happy. You need to throw that in the trash because it was not written for how your brain works. And unfortunately, I don't have a new guide for you because we're all so different. So, your job now is to go do trial and error with the things that different people have tried or things that you come up with yourself and write your own guide for your own unique brain. We cover topics like this in our professional development sessions. Visit socialcipher.com to learn more.

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