ASD Awareness - Part 1

April is Autism Acceptance/Awareness Month. Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability, which affects a person’s understanding and communication, as well as how they view the world.

Yes, I have CP and you can see my CP. Yes, I am Autistic, but you cannot see my Autism. People are so quick to judge a person on their behaviours and not accept people for who they are, but in fact, if they bothered to get to know the person inside, they would see a whole different perspective. I get overwhelmed a lot, and to other people, that comes across as anger or rudeness. I'm not a rude person; my parents raised me to be polite and have respect, and even when someone doesn't deserve respect, I am still polite.I may come across as blunt at times, but that's just me. I say things how I see them, and it's not my fault that people like to sugarcoat things. I don't understand things when people say things in a "roundabout" way, and it’s even worse when they don’t say anything at all because I can’t read facial expressions or body language.

People say that I could open up conversations, but that’s one of the things that I really struggle with; I always have, and I always will. I can’t explain why I find it difficult and I get so frustrated that I can’t explain things, but that’s just me. I just don’t know how.

I like to be on my own a lot, but I also enjoy company sometimes; I may not talk to people around me, but it’s nice to know that they are there. I do talk to people, but depending on their response, I may not be able to carry on the conversation.

Like many Autistic people, I stim. According to the National Autistic Society, stimming (also known as self-stimulating behaviour) can be identified when someone is carrying out a repetitive action or activity. Half the time, I don’t even realise that I’m doing it. Stimming is different for everyone; people stim in different ways, some tap, some rock, some verbally stim by repeating the same words or sounds, and some people stair at moving objects. People stim for a number of reasons: they may find it calming, it may be a reaction to a situation they’re in, or just because they need to. Stimming is not a sign of mental health issues like some other people think. If you see someone stim, just leave them, unless they are in some kind of danger.

Autism does not have any ‘look’, but you may be able to tell if someone might be Autistic. Sometimes you can’t tell because the person is masking. Masking is where an Autistic person acts like a nero-typical person to fit in with society. Masking can be extremely tiring, especially if you do it every day. Although this isn’t the only cause, masking can lead to burnouts and shutdowns.

An Autistic burnout is where the world becomes too much for the person because of too much sensory or emotional stimuli, and they feel drained, and they find it difficult to function and do every-day tasks. An Autistic burnout can last hours or days, depending on the severity.

Autistic shutdowns are similar to burnouts, but more severe. Unlike a burnout, shutdowns can result in a total lack of engagement from the person. Shutdowns happen when an Autistic person becomes so overwhelmed that they cannot cope anymore and they completely shut off from the world in order to reset themselves. As far as I am aware, unless they last a few weeks, neither a burnout or shutdown are detrimental to a person’s wellbeing, so you should leave them to it.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2.