What is autism?

Autism happens in the brain.

It's not a bunch of observable traits. 

It's a PROCESSING difference... in the brain.

That processing difference does sometimes lead to visible behaviors...

But as an autistic person with highly internalized autism, I say this with complete certainty... 

Autism can also be 100% invisible to the outside world. 

As in, unless you are a clinician or highly aware of the masked signs of autism, you would never know they were there.

So let's talk about how the autistic brain processes the world differently. 

I'll start with the easiest one to explain... 

Sensory processing differences. 

This is one of the main diagnostic criteria of autism (in the restricted repetitive behaviors category).

Our brain processes sensory inputs differently than nonautistic people. 

Some of us have brains that overrespond to sensory inputs (so we're extra sensitive to them).

Some of us have brains that under-respond (so we're under-sensitive and seek out additional inputs).

And some of us have a mix of over and under responses. 

But the vast majority of autistic people (over 90% according to research) have these sensory processing differences.

Some of us respond to these differences in obvious, visible ways.

Some of us don't.

Some of us respond in ways that would only be noticeable to a person trained to look for them. 

For example, wearing the same types of clothes every day and eating the same types of foods every day.

You can technically see these things, but the average person wouldn't notice them unless they were explicitly told to look for them.

Autism is not the BEHAVIOR of wearing the same clothes every day (even though that's reflected in another one of the main diagnostic criteria).

Autism is the PROCESSING difference that causes many autistic people to respond in that way.

Here's another processing difference example.

We process information differently. 

Our brains have a completely different method for storing and organizing information. 

Many of us can't hold onto new information if there is nothing already in our brains to connect the new information to. 

Which is why we have a hard time remembering information our brains don't consider "useful"... because our brains haven't created scaffolding for the information to attach to.

Our brains also hold onto *more* information than most nonautistic people. (Some research points to us having more synapses as a reason for this.)

So our process for *accessing* relevant information is also different... because there is so much more information to parse through.

And these are just some of the ways autism shows up in our brains. 

There are many, many others.

Sure, all of our processing differences can lead to observable behaviors... but that's not what makes autism autism. 

What makes autism autism is the way our brains take in, process, and understand the information.

For many autistic people (like me) our processing differences are completely invisible to the outside world (unless you are EXTREMELY familiar with what to look for).

Autism is NOT a cluster of behaviors. 

It's a cluster of PROCESSING differences.

All of which happen in the brain.

And these differences often create significant challenges for us... which disables many of us in our daily lives.

Which is precisely why autism is considered a disability... medically and legally.

I hope this helps!

P.s. Some of you may have noticed me answering this same question numerous times before. 

This is actually me answering the same question from numerous different angles, not just repeating the same answer in different ways. 

Because there are so many parts to the answer, and they all need to be understood individually in order for the full picture to make sense. 😊

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