What You Might Not Have Known About Autism

Disclaimer: The following text was neither generated nor corrected by AI or any other handy-dandy buzz tool. Therefore, you may find the content grammatically incorrect, controversial, and with sentiments that may influence your emotional state. In other words, the following text is 100% genuine, mirroring my thoughts during the time of writing.

Aspies. Unintentionally making neurotypical people freak out since the dawn of humanity. Throughout my career, I’ve encountered many people who either have received an autism diagnosis, or whom I suspected may be on the spectrum. Due to the lack of knowledge and awareness of the subject amongst neurotypicals, their behavioral characteristics were often viewed as disciplinary issues, leading to their potential being buried under denial, disrespect, and even bullying.

Some time ago, I wrote a detailed article about autistic traits and issues associated with the workplace. Fortunately, it rose some questions in the minds of people who have read it. As a result, I’ve decided to collect the most appropriate questions and provide some answers based on my personal experience and research I conducted on platforms like Quora and Reddit.

What are the causes of autism spectrum disorder?

Genetic, biological, and environmental factors, elevated concentrations of proteins in the blood at birth, stress during pregnancy, and faulty immune responses may contribute to the disorder. Autism is also strongly heritable.

What is the difference between autism and Asperger’s syndrome?

Asperger’s syndrome is a former classification for high-functioning autism, and it is no longer used by clinicians as an official diagnosis. It now falls under a general definition of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Asperger’s syndrome was named after an Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who is a rather controversial person due to newly surfaced evidence of his involvement with the Third Reich.

Is autism a disease?

Although autism is classified as a disease (under diagnosis code F84.5), it should be viewed as a personal identity instead. Many challenges people with ASD face are a result of the world being designed for neurotypicals. The clash in the communication between neurotypicals (NTs), which is a majority, and people with ASD, a minority, has led to their divergence being categorized as a mental disease.

Is autism curable?

To rephrase this question — can a person with ASD become neurotypical? No, due to a broad difference in brain wiring. ASD is not caused by the chemistry of neurotransmitters, it’s caused by different structural patterns in the brain. Yet, cognitive behavior therapy can help them develop new patterns of thinking to better cope with everyday challenges.

As the person gets older, coping mechanisms evolve, and get more adaptable. It all depends on how much support the person gets from his/her family, a therapist, and the environment in general.

In which way is an autistic brain different from a neurotypical one?

I haven’t come across any research that would uncover a characteristic brain structure for autism. However, there are several aspects that are more likely to occur in an autistic brain:

• Lack of synaptic pruning that filters out sensual input
• Hippocampus tends to be more developed (the area responsible for memories)
• Amounts of brain tissue in the cerebellum is decreased (movement coordination and social interaction)
• White matter tends to be developed more (messaging between different areas of the nervous system)
• There tend to be structural differences in Pineal Gland which is responsible for serotonin release. These differences are often responsible for insomnia.

What challenges are there for families with autism?

The experience differs a lot by who in the family has autism:

• Autistic parents with autistic children
• Neurotypical parents with autistic children
• Autistic parents with neurotypical children
• A combination of the above (one parent with ASD / one child with ASD)

I believe that there is a prevalence of cases where at least one parent and at least one child have autism, because:

• a) Autism is strongly heritable
• b) Autistic people are attracted to other autistic people, as they do understand each other’s special needs

Parents’ autism is linked to challenges in providing their children with necessary emotional support. Yet, with certain accommodations, they can develop the necessary skills and become very good and responsible parents.

Contrastingly, neurotypical parents who have an autistic child may feel pressure to raise them in a neurotypical way, leading to criticism for any “atypical behavior”.

“Why can’t you be like everyone else” is, sadly, a sentence many aspies have experienced throughout their childhood, as their parents haven’t been able to deal with their distinctive qualities.

How can you detect an autistic adult?

The diagnosis itself is quite difficult. People are diagnosed based on their developmental history and behavior. My previous article unfolds some of the traits that are typical for people with autism, such as:

• Tunnelling
• Social meltdowns
• Highly-developed areas of interest
• Repetitive patterns of behavior
• Black-and-white thinking
• Lack of natural social instincts
• Disinterest in small talk

It’s important to bear in mind that autism is a spectrum with a range of behavioral traits, and no two autistic people are the same.

What challenges can be found in communication between neurotypicals and autistics?

I’d highlight three major challenges: small talk, wording, and reciprocity.

• Regarding small talk, neurotypicals perceive other people through their tone, mannerism, and facial expressions. Autistic people have difficulties perceiving such nuances. Additionally, most spontaneous conversations start out with a question (“How are you?”), which is asked to strike up another conversation. The asker isn’t really interested in the answer, but aspies will give a direct answer and won’t say anything else.
• As for the wording, aspies may experience difficulties recognizing sarcasm, understanding idioms, and seeing through sugarcoating. They know the words used by their definition. What may not translate, however, is if a given phrase has some underlying context.
• Lastly, in terms of reciprocity, neurotypical people give a little and expect a little back. Autistic people may struggle to reciprocate because they don’t fully comprehend what is expected of them. This may result in them being mistakenly labeled narcissist, but in reality, they just have a hard time understanding the concept of giving and taking. Some of them don’t use greetings or giving/receiving compliments, as it holds no value for them.

How do neurotypicals and people with autism perceive each other?

As I mentioned in my previous article, NTs often label people with autism as strange, awkward, abnormal, wrong, or weird. Surprisingly, people with autism perceive the NTs in the same manner. Both sides will always be comparing the other to their standards.

Due to insufficient awareness regarding autism, NTs only have a rough understanding of what autism is. NTs also have a hard time reading autistic people’s body language which causes NTs to distrust and dislike them. NTs use the theory of mind which is inaccurate on people with autism.

If you asked a person with ASD what he/she thinks about neurotypical people, you may get really interesting responses about “disabilities of neurotypicals” that are worth taking into consideration. For instance:

• Superficiality in relationships — a “friend/buddy” is applied to anybody
• Inability to endure silence and solitude
• Obsession with social status
• Fascination with gossip and other peoples’ business
• Lack of knowledge of the meaning of honor
• Narrowmindedness

Culture and society are designed to accommodate and compensate for “disabilities” the majority (neurotypicals) have. But if we try to imagine an autistic world, it would render neurotypicals weird.

What super-skills do people with ASD have over neurotypicals?

Aspies have tendencies to be well-equipped in analytical thinking, pattern recognition, and design thinking. They are more logical and rational than the NTs. Moreover, they are good at organizing complex systems and can immerse themselves in something with high intensity (hyperfixation). It’s no wonder that many successful IT technologies and scientific breakthroughs were made possible by people with ASD.

Aspies are less likely prone to follow the crowd, simply due to the fact that many patterns embraced by neurotypicals do not resonate with them. Therefore, they can solve problems in more novel ways, following paths no neurotypical would dare to follow.

Why do many people with autism have problems with anger?

From a medical standpoint, it’s caused by a lower serotonin level that affects the brain’s response to anger. However, if we look at this issue from a social perspective, people with autism are simply frustrated by the world they were born into. Some of them who have neurotypical parents were raised to cope with standards that have no meaning to them. If your life is 2% happiness and 98% suffering, anger and frustration are natural instinctive responses you will get.

Why does high-functioning autism appear to be normal most of the time?

People with autism use a lot of “social masking”, which means monitoring the language and facial expressions of neurotypicals to make them comfortable. This is possible as human beings are able to observe and copy what others do, even if it’s not natural to them. Social masking comes with a cost, however, as it takes a lot of mental energy to pretend to be someone else, which eventually leads to mental health issues such as depression, fatigue, and anxiety.

Aspies may appear to be neurotypical to a casual inspection, but this deliberate effort is hard to maintain. That’s why it’s important to raise awareness about autism, and acceptance of it, so that there won’t be any need for social masking in the future. Especially in the working environment.

What traits can people with autism get into trouble at work?

Many things. Their natural behavior is not what society considers the norm, which leads to their potential violations and disciplinary issues. Moreover, admitting being on the spectrum is dangerous for employment status.

One of the issues is a preoccupation with honesty. Job interviews are often wired around unrealistic expectations and exaggerated statements.

“Can you demonstrate empathy with internal colleagues, stakeholders and customers?”

“Not Really.”

“Do you have proactive work style, especially as it relates to project, client and partner follow-up?”

“No.”

“Are you a strong team player?”

“No.”

Preoccupation with honesty also results in providing feedback that is hard for some people to swallow, especially if it’s negative yet constructive.

Other challenges include difficulties in adapting to changes of routine, disrespect for poor management, hyperfixation (difficulties in abandoning tasks), using raw logic that may result in politically incorrect statements, and of course, social aspects — aspies don’t understand the subtle games coworkers play, which has a negative impact on their promotion prospects.

A personal note

If you embrace diversity but ignore neurodiversity, you are doing it wrong. The challenges of people with autism spectrum disorder lie within the society in which they were produced, not within them as individuals.

I strongly believe that loving family support and support from the employer behind someone with ASD will help them achieve great things.

It’s difficult to live in a world that doesn’t love you back.

We need to work on our empathy to understand that not everyone copes with everyday life as we do. Raising awareness is not just a matter of inclusion, it’s a recognition of the unique abilities and contributions of individuals with ASD. By educating ourselves about the challenges and strengths of people with autism, we can create a more comfortable environment that would provide more opportunities for their potential.