What autism is… and isn’t

Autism is a social disability. It's also a sensory disability.

What it isn't is an empathy disability

Or a rigidity disability

Or an intellectual disability

Breaking this one down because not all of this is self explanatory...

Autism is a social disability.

Not because our way of existing socially is wrong. But because it's mismatched with the way others around us are expecting us to behave.

So, our mismatched social behaviors cause us to have difficulty interacting with others.

This is why so many of us have difficulty developing and maintaining relationships. Familial, romantic, platonic, work, even (especially) acquaintance relationships... they are all impacted.

Autism is also a sensory disability.

Not all autistic people have sensory difficulties, but the vast majority of us do. That's why it's one of the 7 diagnostic criteria (4th in the category of restricted repetitive behaviors).

This is also why I don't agree with the idea that if all social aspects of autism were somehow removed, autism would no longer be disabling.

Now, back to what makes autism a sensory disability.

The sensory element is also a mismatch issue.

If all humans had the same sensory sensitivities, more of our man made environments would be constructed to minimize them.

But because that's not the case, autistic people need special accommodations. And without them, we are, in fact, disabled by our sensory sensitivities.

Now, let's talk about why autism is not an empathy, rigidity, or intellectual disability. Three things that are commonly mischaracterized as reasons for autism being a disability.

Autism is not an empathy disability.

Some autistic people do have lower empathy, but it's not a feature of autism itself. Not according to the DSM or any of the most current autism research.

The research does indicate that we have differences in the way we empathize, particularly in the way we communicate our empathy.

These differences more than likely contribute to the social mismatch I mentioned earlier.

Which would contribute to autism being a social disability.

But the way we empathize is not, in and of itself, disabling.

In fact, I would go as far as to say it is extremely abling in many ways. Something I can get into more thoroughly in another post.

But back to the misconceptions about autism and what makes them misconceptions...

Autism is not a rigidity disability.

We appear rigid when our needs are unmet because we are desperately trying to fix that.

And a significant percentage of the time, what we are being rigid about is actually getting our needs met... often extremely urgent ones.

So, in many cases, our rigidity is not disabling us. It's actually ABLING us.

But similarly to how there's a social/communication mismatch in the way we express empathy... rigidity often does the same thing.

So, though rigidity itself is not what's disabling us... it does contribute to autism being a social disability.

And lastly, autism is not an intellectual disability.

This is explicitly stated in the diagnostic criteria.

Intellectual disabilities do co-occur frequently enough to be mentioned in the DSM as a common comorbidity, but they are not considered a trait of autism itself. And most autistic people do not have intellectual disabilities.

So... as I said...

Autism is a social disability.

It's also a sensory disability.

What it isn't is an empathy disability.

Or a rigidity disability.

Or an intellectual disability.

I hope this helps 😊