7 internal autistic experiences I wish more people understood...

2 min read

(These are not universal, but extremely common)

1. We rarely meet people with the same interests and struggle to find things to talk about with them

2. We don't know what's considered socially "appropriate" and when we try to act "appropriately" we never quite hit the mark

3. We often end up with our "foot in our mouth" and have no idea how we got there or how to stop it from happening again

4. We find socializing draining because of these things and therefore prefer to be alone

5. We have extreme sensory overload and create a safe sensory world around us with foods, clothes, and physical environments that don't trigger us... and retreat from environments that do

6. We create routines that minimize triggers. Morning routines, afternoon routines, evening routines. Our routines are trusted and safe

7. We channel our autistic anxiety through repeated movements... many of which we've learned to minimize so we don't stand out and look "weird"

A lot of these are also reasons many of us don't "look autistic"...

Because we've learned to adjust our environments to not trigger us...

And to adjust OURSELVES to not trigger others.

I do want to note that this list is most applicable to level 1 (lower support needs) autistic people. Levels 2 and 3 (higher support needs) autistic people have a much harder time masking their differences so they do tend to be more visible.