21/02/2024
https://www.facebook.com/TraumaGeek/posts/pfbid02pmeC9Bx4cfinRzJ47dpZUNouhs6WYT93Usqa4b4yMrtbEpkDfi3UC9cQNriMZgPml
If you’ve been reading on this page for a little while, you might have caught on to the fact that I comprehend autism as something entirely different from the stereotype many people have in their minds when someone says “autism.” Between the medical myths of social deficits and the Hollywood portrayal of autistics as severely lacking empathy, it’s not surprising that we aren’t all on the same page about this.
When I discovered that I am autistic, it changed my life in a good way. I finally had answers for why my brain doesn’t work like my parents and teachers and therapists expected it to. As I found neurological explanations for my atypical traits, I began to let go of my fixed beliefs of low self-esteem and build a positive self-concept.
Ever since discovering my autistic identity, I have rejected the medical paradigm and DSM understanding of autism. What I know about autism and other neurodivergence is primarily based on the evidence of the lived experience and reports of neurodivergent people and secondarily verified by evidence-based research.
Because I understand being autistic to be a cultural identity and not a medical disorder, I recognize people as experts on their own culture and I view neurotypical researchers as outsiders attempting to understand a culture they are not part of. As a tutor and nanny, I worked with many severely disabled autistic children, and this explanation of autistic identity includes them as well.
I realize that the idea of a trauma-informed positive autistic identity may be totally new to you, so I want to share with you our explanation for what autism is.
First, what is NOT autism? Lack of empathy and anti-social behavior are not autism. Stereotypical stress responses such as meltdowns and elopement are not autism. Trauma responses in autistic people are not autism. Intellectual disability is not autism. Physical disorders and illnesses such as IBS, food sensitivities, and hypermobility which commonly occur in autistic people are not autism.
So, what IS autism? Autism is a hereditary neurological identity or neurotype. The autistic neurological identity is unique in three particular ways. First autistic people have hyper-sensitivity throughout their entire body-mind. Second, autistic people use an attention filtering style called monotropism. Finally, autistic body-minds operate as sensory processing systems rather than as verbal processing systems.
The intense world theory is the first neurobiological explanation for autism that has been verified by the lived experience of autistic people. We have more neuronal branching than neurotypical people which means more opportunities for connection between parts of the mindbody that may not typically connect. This can result in biological dysfunctions as well as giftedness and synesthesia.
[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190130161640.htm]
Hyper-plasticity predisposes us to have strong associative reactions to trauma. Our threat-response learning system is turned to high alert. The flip side of this hyper-plasticity is that we also adapt quickly to environments that are truly safe for our nervous system. Our glimmer detectors and positive-sensation receptors are also turned way up.
Along with our hypersensitivity, autistic people have a cognition style called monotropism. “Monotropism is the tendency for our interests to pull us in more strongly than most people. It rests on a model of the mind as an ‘interest system’: we are all interested in many things, and our interests help direct our attention. Different interests are salient at different times. In a monotropic mind, fewer interests tend to be aroused at any time, and they attract more of our processing resources, making it harder to deal with things outside of our current attention tunnel.” [Source linked below]
The difference between sensory and verbal processing systems can best be explained by the words of Kristy Forbes - Autism & ND Support: “Energy is our first language. Words are our second.” Neurotypical people have verbal processing systems where words are their innate language. For autistic people, translating our sensory operating system into words is a skill that is learned, not innate.
That all sounds kinda nice, but the autistic neurotype is not just a difference in thinking, it affects our entire being. (Thus many of us prefer identity language to person-first language.) In modern society, having these kinds of neurological differences is disabling. The stereotypes of autism come from the fact that we frequently have stress responses to things that others do not perceive as distressing. Because our unique safety needs are not widely understood, growing up with extensive trauma has become our default.
There was a time long ago when autistic people were watchers for their villages, living on the edges of the town to detect any dangers to the entire community like an approaching storm or band of thieves. Because our societies no longer value interdependence, our differences are routinely pathologized.
Because of our different bio-social responses to stimulus, autistic people have significant barriers to accessing safety. We may need significant support throughout our lives. The threshold at which a stimulus is distressing to us is lower than most people, so we tend to accumulate more trauma than allistic people. There is unfortunately little to no understanding of sensory trauma in the medical paradigm, or of autistic trauma in general.
The DSM criteria for autism is such a messy mixture of innate neurodivergent traits and symptoms of autistic trauma that an autistic person without trauma may not even fit the criteria for diagnosis. I know of autistic parents who are raising autistic children in low stress, sensory friendly environments who cannot get a diagnosis for educational accommodations because their child is not stressed enough.
Any attempt to cure, treat, or eradicate autism is a form of oppression called ableism. No therapy can make an autistic person less autistic. However, there are many things we can do to lessen the distress of living with this disability. I wish for all autistic people to have full acceptance in our society, adequate support with disabilities, help with processing and healing from trauma, and a sensory-friendly home environment.
As an autistic person myself, this post about autistic identity is not an academic exercise. It is deeply personal. As such, everything I have just written is not open for debate on my page. If you disagree with this perspective, please take some time to read through the resources provided. This thread is not the place for vaccine conspiracies or suggestions on how to “treat” autism.
I want to warmly welcome questions, curiosities, and observations from neurotypicals and neurodivergents alike... After you have this lens, you may have many light-bulb moments where you realize WHY you do something that has always puzzled you or why your student’s behavior makes sense FOR THEM. Working with this identity framework, we can start to understand the differences between autism and trauma responses. I hope it’s as helpful for you as it has been for me!
Additional Reading on Autistic Identity:
📌 Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism by Fergus Murray – science teacher, writer and 'autist' – on single attention and associated cognition in autism; a theory with a family connection… https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-32/august-2019/me-and-monotropism-unified-theory-autism
📌 We might have autism backwards: What "broken mirror" and "broken mentalizing" theories could have wrong
https://www.salon.com/2014/09/01/we_might_have_autism_backwards_what_broken_mirror_and_broken_mentalizing_theories_could_have_wrong/
📌 The Intense World Theory – a unifying theory of the neurobiology of autism
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2010.00224/full
📌 Lost in Translation: The Social Language Theory of Neurodivergence
https://autietraumageek.medium.com/lost-in-translation-the-social-language-theory-of-neurodivergence-part-1-of-2-1963ba0073c5
📌 Lost in Translation: The Social Language Theory of Neurodivergence Part 2 - How neuro-cultural misunderstandings impact disabled people and how we can shift into a new paradigm of acceptance and accessibility for all neurotypes
(coming soon to an internet near you)
🧠 If you're new here and want to check out all the Trauma Geek infographics, you can find them on Facebook here (linktr.ee/TraumaGeek) and on Medium here (https://medium.com/). This free neuroscience education is made possible by my rockstar patron supporters at www.patreon.com/TraumaGeek.
👣 We have a Facebook group for neurodivergent people that you are welcome to join if you identify as neurodivergent (Neurodivergent = any non-normative neurology, including Autistic, ADHD, C-PTSD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or any mental health dX) https://www.facebook.com/groups/theNDSocialClub
👥 If you’d like to chat with me about trauma, neurodiversity, or polyvagal theory, you can click here to schedule. www.calendly.com/TraumaGeek (I am an educator, not a counselor or therapist.)
