1. Sensory – Imagine your senses like a superpower hero. You have sight, smell hearing, taste and touch. For autistic people, sometimes these superpowers are super strong! Lights might be too bright, sounds might be too loud, or clothes might feel scratchy. It’s like being able to feel and notice everything around you all at once.

Autistic people may experience over or under-sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light, colours, temperatures or pain. They may find certain background sounds like music in a restaurant, which other people ignore, unbearably loud. As well as anxiety this can cause physical pain causing the person to put their fingers in their ears to block out the distraction. Many autistic people find hugging or cuddling uncomfortable, even touch, which come across as them being cold or aloof.

Schools, workplaces and shopping centres can be particularly overwhelming and cause sensory overload, causing them to avoid such situations. Simple adjustments within the workplace or schools can be altered to create a more autistic friendly environment.

2. Thinking and Learning – Autistic brains might think about things in a very different way. Like a detective noticing every tiny clue at a crime scene. It can be great for solving puzzles or focusing more deeply on a topic. However, this might make other things like social interaction trickier.

Anxiety is a real difficulty for many autistic adults, particularly in social and learning situations. It can affect a person psychologically and physically affecting their quality of life, for autistic people and their families.  

When everything becomes too much for an autistic person, they can go into meltdown or shutdown. These are very intense experiences. A meltdown happens when someone becomes completely overwhelmed by their current situation and temporarily loses behavioural control.  This loss of control can be verbal (shouting, screaming, crying) or physical ( kicking, lashing out, biting) or both. Often taken for bad behaviour and autistic people often experience hurtful comments and judgmental stares from less understanding members of the public.   

Shutdowns are also a response to being overwhelmed but may appear more passive where a person goes quiet or even switches off. This results in not being able to figure out how to react or not being able to react at all and the mind feels like it is past a state of being able to successfully interpret situations. All of this can make thinking and learning an exhausting experience.

3. Socializing - It’s like the social ‘rulebook’ your brain comes with and neurotypical brains seem to have this rulebook built in, while autistic brains might need extra help understanding it. It is like speaking in another language.

They have difficulties with interpreting both verbal and non-verbal language, especially tone and body language. Some autistic people are unable to speak or have limited language, others have very good language skills, however will not understand jokes or tone. Other challenges include:

• abstract concepts are not understood, things are taken literally with black and white thinking.
• to process information, they need time to think before answering
• they will often repeat what is said to them (this is called echolalia)

‘Reading' other people is difficult for them – not recognising others' feelings and intentions – not being able to express their own emotions. Trans versing social situations are very hard. 

Autistic people may:

• be thought of as insensitive
• need time alone to stop overload and meltdown
• rarely seek comfort from others
• often be thought to be inappropriate or acting ‘weird' and 'strange'
• find it difficult to make friends

4. Routine and Predictability – Autistic brains often feel comfortable in a world that is predictable with strict routine. Like having a map of how your day should go. Any change can unsettle this map, which is confusing and upsetting. Sometimes causing challenging behaviour.

With no rules, the world can seem an unpredictable, frightening and confusing place for autistic people. They will often need to know a beginning, middle and end to their day, allowing them to feel safe.  They often choose to travel the same way to places, wear same clothes, sometimes inappropriate. Often choosing the same meals. 

Autistic people may use ‘stimming’ which is repeat movements such as flapping hands, rocking, repetitive twirling of an object, perhaps stick or pen or closing of doors repetitively.  This is found sometimes enjoyable to them or because it quietens their anxiety, making them feel safer.

Changing a routine for an autistic person can induce acute anxiety. This can be anything from having to change an event or appointment, a work schedule being altered or something as simple as a late bus or something not being a the time it was told it would be. These small changes can instigate extreme anxiety and even cause challenging behaviour and self-harm.

5. Interests and Passions - Many autistic people have intense interests that they are highly focused on and this can happen at a young age. Sometimes they change over time but also can last a lifetime. Autistic people can become expert in their special knowledge, often a rare condition called ‘Servants’. Stephen Wiltshire, Autistic architect  is an example of a Savant, he can view a setting one time, including large cityscape and draw it in minute detail.

Like all people, autistic people can gain pleasure from pursuing their interests and see them as essential to their security and happiness. Being highly focused helps many autistic people do well academically and they can become engrossed in a topic in a  workplace or college, however this can become so absorbing that they neglect other aspects of their lives. 

It is very important that autistic people learn to recognise triggers and find coping skills to help reduce their anxieties. However, many of them cannot recognise and regulate their emotions. Some autistic people have serious mental health issues and too many are being failed by mental health services, long waiting, to establish a diagnosis. 

The definition of autism has changed over decades and hopefully in future years we will begin to fully understand more.  We often find that autistic people and their families with varied support needs share many of the same challenges. This includes whether they are getting enough support from mental health, education and social care services or just misunderstood by people close to them. We will continue fighting to make life easier for autistic people, to gain recognition and the respect they deserve.

Being autistic means having a brain that perceives, processes, and responds to the world uniquely. It's not a matter of better or worse, it is simply a different experience. Like any brain, it comes with its own set of strengths and challenges.

Understanding whether their interaction with the world is influenced by autism can assist us in developing strategies and empower them to seek support from others, enabling them to lead fulfilling lives.