That was definitely my experience. I'm just glad I was so mind-blind that I didn't notice _all_ of the disapproval. But I still saw enough to know I wasn't fitting in.
I didn’t think I had trauma because I didn’t have any “traumatic events” - my parents were above average, lived in the same house my whole childhood, wasn’t bullied at school (much, certainly not consistently) or by my brothers. Did well in school. Teachers didn’t have a problem with me. I’m starting to finally realize that social isolation from not knowing how to make friends aside from being the kind, quiet kid in class and hoping someone picks me to be their friend - chronically not being taken an interest in by my peers - was traumatic. Not realizing that sensory shut downs are from sensory overload, not just what “depression” feels like, meant I had “depression triggers” that I couldn’t figure out how to avoid or protect myself from - and that was traumatic. And then when I got older and became an adult, learning that the world is messier and more chaotic than I was taught to believe broke my sense of safety and I haven’t been able to recreate it. This is the first time I actually developed PTSD.
Anyone who doesn't fit in with the group is going to have _some_ trauma, given that it's generally human nature to _need_ to feel part of the group. But there is definitely a wedge of the pie where people don't actually feel that need, and another where they somehow either get the support early on or they were successful enough not to be traumatized.
Trauma is different from just desiring to fit in of be popular; trauma is the consequence, usually intentional, of deliberate cruelty by those who hold social power to inflict their cruelty upon the socially disempowered. May I suggest reading a CPTSD support group internet forum.
@@merbst Do you _actually_ think that what you just said _isn't_ what I was _clearly and obviously_ talking about? Like... really? _Really?_ 🙄 May I suggest _you_ go read about the terms, "patronizing" and "mansplaining"?
@@Catlily5 Oh it definitely can and does. I met a full spectrum of bullies as a kid, partially thanks to my parents moving me around and changing schools. I met those who want you to feel bad about yourself, and/or want you never to feel safe, and/or mess with your social life, and/or outright attack you, etc. It really messed up my head. It's awful and schools are too cowardly to deal with litigious parents who are probably bullies themselves.
That's a really interesting topic! I guess not all autistic people grow up traumatised, but I don't think I've met any autistic adults who don't suffer the after effects of trauma.
I think most people experience at least some trauma in their lives. To me the important question is whether all autistic people live with trauma and I would say no. With a certain amount of luck and progress in life, it's possible to surround yourself with supportive people and give yourself a comfortable, secure life. At that point, you can heal from the trauma without constantly adding more.
I definitely relate to this. Even though I went to therapy for 8+ years before I knew I was autistic with multiple different therapists, I never really felt understood. Things would be good for the first few sessions but after a while I always got the sense they didn’t know what to do with all my sensitivities and my spiky profile. It gave me this sense that I shouldn’t need to be in therapy and whatever I was struggling with was not a valid struggle to have, and no one EVER suggested I should get an autism assessment. I felt so ashamed of my constant overwhelm and SO WEAK for asking for help, which definitely traumatized me.
Most therapists don't know much about autism. The first person to suggest that I have autism was a therapist. But most really don't know much in my experience. I have been to a lot of therapists.
Like most things, I feel that there are exceptions to all autistic people experiencing trauma. But I feel like it is fair to say most autistic people experience trauma, especially those of us who are late diagnosed. I mean for me, trauma is a large part of why I mask so heavily. Just my random thoughts on the topic, I also enjoy taking part of the discussion so thank you for bringing it up and giving us your thoughts
I think most *humans* are traumatized, but autists have certain characteristic patterns of trauma that we experience and quite possibly are more traumatized than average.
Gosh, yes, I can totally relate to this topic. Growing up on the periphery, never knowing where I stood, never feeling like I belonged, all contributed to a fundamental sense of not feeling safe. And as someone commented on a previous video, not feeling safe on a daily basis is akin to living in a state of trauma in and of itself! Add life events on top, such as family bereavement (parents and siblings), coupled with growing up undiagnosed and the cyclical burnout, and it's essentially my baseline state. Thank you for posting this (and all the other fab videos!).😊
I think fundamentally autism makes it to where I dont understand other peoples intentions and they generally misunderstand mine...which makes for a lot of clashing situations in general. I was bullied a lot by both my family and my peers and still struggle in my 30s with social interaction. Over time it has become so draining and there are numerous traumatic events. I think if you generally dont understand people and they dont understand you then youre bound to be traumatized...right?
The actual criteria for diagnosing autistics in adulthood are looking for behaviours of autistic people who are traumatised or suffering from PTSD. So it seems pretty endemic.
Dana, I just wanted to say that seeing you being so upfront and so communicative about your experience as an autistic person, helps me identify my own autistic experiences! There as just some things that I haven't really thought about my daily live, they are sort of "unspoken", things I thought everyone dealt with and now I'm slowly realising, maybe not everyone does. Like what you said about practically everything triggering some memory. I'm like that!!! Like, I'll smell a certain scent and remember something from 10 years ago. Or just certain colours. Oh, spring almost always have the same feeling to me. As well as the other seasons. Can't explain it, it's just a "feeling". It's just, seeing you talk about them helps me recognize them in myself too. So thank you for that!
I think the question might be "is everyone traumatized?" and i'm not just talking about "big T" traumas like accidents and war and abuse, but also "smaller T" traumas like neglect, isolation, social pressure, and of course the trauma of living under late stage capitalism. Not to say that autistic people don't have our unique traumas that are autism-related, but I think it's hard to get through this world untraumatized.
I'm sure there is some small subsection of ausitics. That made it unscathed to the point. That they were late diagnosed. Most of us weren't that lucky.
I have Septo Optic Dysplasia and CPTSD. My SOD caused me to be born totally blind, and SOD also caused my autism. The things I do because of my blindness and autism were frowned upon, mainly by a caregiver of mine, and people at school. My caregiver is the one who caused me CPTSD. Because I wasn’t allowed to do the things that benefited my blindness and autism. I wasn’t allowed to have meltdowns, or cry, or even be too happy. I wasn’t allowed to run into things, touch and explore everything in my surroundings, I just wasn’t allowed to make a mistake.
I don't know if that's related to autism, but sometimes I get this weird feeling when outside usually with people. Like, I can't even explain what it is!!! Just "strangeness". Kind of an existential thing. Not "I feel anxious", "sad" or whatever. Kind of like "hmm existence". Lol I don't know. A certain sense of being uncomfortable, but not too much. A "being"ness. Lol.
@@BipolarCourage Your not paying attention, your lower brain can prevent you ever knowing you experienced something, i didn't say all things and PS, have you learnt yet about why science says no one can remember thier childhood, before the age of 7 , but we can , have they explained that bit yet ? how your biology actually works, to clarify you can only remember something before the age of 7 if you became so traumatized you cortices were switched into record mode years before it naturally happens at age 7 and no matter how hard you try , you cant remember what caused that switch to happen, you can remember after the switch, but you cant remember the actual switch Like a memory of the worst nightmare in your life, that you believe you remember in full, but you dont, you only see a tiny little SAFE clip of the movie That's why the ancient Autistics wrote the religions to give you guidance in how to remember that event, behind the façade How to relax so much that the Thalamus realizes your ready to see it its not easy ,
@@BipolarCourage a message and a clue from the ancient autistics "Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow, but everywhere that Mary went that Lamb was sure to go"
Hi Dana - thanks for the content. For people not diagnosed as children or even young adults, the trauma could come from upbringing. We learned heavy masking early in life, which I suppose is trauma.
Yep, that's the case with me. My upbringing was getting hit with everything my dad could put in his hand, including a belt. I was diagnosed when I was 21. Now I am 43 and life basically sucks, because of stupid rules and laws here in the Netherlands when having a autistic benefit. To make a long story short, I am not allowed to urn money on top of my benefit, and if I do I lose it, and it's really hard to get back, if your job would go wrong later. And so running a risk to end up on the streets.
I think if your a late diagnosed especially your probably dealing with trauma no for myself I’ve definitely been threw a fare bit myself I think there’s a link with chronic illness to tbh . I just can’t imagine how life could possibly have been if someone had seen me and seen I was autistic would my life had been better? Different? This is the thing that makes me feel the saddest 😭 like you would I be able to work or have friends or avoiding the trauma I faced because it . Also like u say I have a daughter I think is autistic and I think because I see her for who she is she copes really well and I don’t see her needed to seek a diagnosis later on because of the support she’s always had from us I don’t think she even notices certain things and she’s really really happy unlike my own story x
Don’t give up your good qualities and trust in people. Just find better people to trust and avoid the demons at all cost. YOu are great Dana. You are helping keep me sane out here.
I think the way that Autism is diagnosed according to behavior, and that sometimes every unusual behavior is assumed to be inherent to Autism, makes it so that trauma is greatly undetected in the Autistic population. I think often if an Autistic person shows symptoms, that would be recognized as symptoms of trauma in a non Autistic person, they are assumed to just be inherent parts of the Autism. I think some things that can make us more likely to have PTSD or CPTSD is that sometimes neurotypicals may be more likely to shut us down if we try to vent because we "aren't venting in the right way," and we may not get much if any support if we go through something traumatic because it's not what non Autistic people would call traumatic.
Commenting before watching the video. I've heard people say "the diagnostic criteria describe trauma because we are all traumatised, all autistics are traumatised" I have particularly heard this from the self diagnosis crowd. I have a different perspective. I had a trauma diagnosis at 15, got first told, by psychologist assessment, I was needing autism assessment at 24 but I said "oh no I'm just traumatised". 15 years later I scored normal enough on trauma scores but still was having problems with all the autism things so agreed to assessment finally. There it was plain as day. Technically my assessor did a lot more than the usual assessments just to be extra clear. (She's given evidence in criminal trials and worked on famous research studies so she knows her stuff) so it's possible to separate out Autism from Trauma. And I don't think they are the same. I think there's a difference between Big T Trauma and small t Trauma (PTSD and c-ptsd) I can see a higher incidence of small T in autistic but I don't think it defines the autism. Autistic with Trauma is still autistic once they recover from the Trauma.
Have now watched the video. I think being chronically online you do encounter more traumatised people that's a good point and explains why I've never got on at IRL autism groups. I think my Trauma and trauma recovery was slower than usual because I have Alexithymia and have difficulty connecting with people which makes therapy extremely difficult. I find it hard to apply things I learn in therapy into real life.
I think that professionals could tell the difference between trauma and autism even if someone hasn't healed from their trauma. Personally I think that people with PSD have different social problems, different sensory problems, different executive functioning problems etc. etc. than people with autism. But that is my opinion. I base it on being on long term adolescent units where almost everyone had been through a lot of abuse. There are differences between PTSD and autism that are observable if they know what to look for.
I think that all Autistic people are traumatized to some degree due to the way our brains process information, particularly if we are diagnosed late in life. I found out that I was Autistic when I was nearly twice your age, and it has certainly allowed me to have a different perspective about things that have happened in my life. At the same time, it has made me much more aware of how different I am, and that has become a source of trauma as well. I saw myself as normal before, and now I am aware of how I appear to other people. Certain aspects of my life that I was proud of, I now recognize as typical symptoms of Autism. While I now understand why I have struggled so much in life, I also realize that I am the one who isn't normal. It is both a relief and a new source of trauma at the same time.
All humans have *some* trauma, usually relatively minor; autistic people (like myself) have more trauma due to spending most of our lives since toddlerhood being constantly told our way of being is wrong - we say the wrong things, we are different, we are perceived as odd etc. Late diagnosis leads to a lot of trauma when you don't understand your differences. But I have 3 autistic kids, raised by autistic parents, who don't seem to have any obvious trauma. So it's possible for autistic people to be relatively trauma-free, or at least have similar levels of trauma as neurotypicals.
While I wouldn't necessarily use the word "trauma" for my experiences there's no doubt I've been very badly damaged by certain events, principally from my working life. I have very bad memories relating to these and they are likely to persist for the rest of my life. I would agree that support makes a huge difference in helping someone cope.Good support often means a person doesn't even get involved in a difficult situations or with difficult people but if they do they have others who can help. Some autistic people do have that support, particularly from families, sometimes from friends or professionals. However a lot of that support disappears in adulthood. Even those autists who do have good support throughout their lives are more at risk of bad experiences or trauma because they are on "alien territory" and they are more vulnerable. They are also more likely to find it harder to reach out to others even when there are helpful others around. Dealing with problems alone is difficult for anyone.
Haven't actually watched the video, but the short answer is no, because I am an autistic person who is not traumatized. Thats probably due to being diagnosed early and imediatly put in classes for autistic students as soon as I started elementary, I don't have trauma from being bullied beause I wasn't bullied since I wasn't different. Mind you, even if that wasn't the case, I don't think I would have been traumatized from ''feeling like I don't fit in'' because I would have either not realized than I was different from others or either I would have but would still consider myself to be part of the group due to not caring about being different (I never felt than I had to ''fit'' with others in order to belong somewhere, to belong somewhere I just have to decide than I belong there regardless of what others think)
I feel that masking is a survival response. As a fairly “successful” late diagnosed autistic person the way I interact with others has been shaped by a lifetime of trying to survive in a neurotypical world. I have hope that younger generations have a different and more accepting experience, but just because someone looks like they have their sh*t together doesn’t mean their actions and responses aren’t trauma based, in fact I think it might be the opposite.
Some of us can't mask much even if we are abused. I was abused mostly sexually but also emotionally and slightly physically. But I can't mask very well.
My opinion is if you go your whole life not knowing and believing you're a failed human and late diagnosed, yes.
That was definitely my experience.
I'm just glad I was so mind-blind that I didn't notice _all_ of the disapproval. But I still saw enough to know I wasn't fitting in.
You are a deliberately and intentionally made human, nothing wrong about you at all
Except the Slavers sacrificed us and still do
I didn’t think I had trauma because I didn’t have any “traumatic events” - my parents were above average, lived in the same house my whole childhood, wasn’t bullied at school (much, certainly not consistently) or by my brothers. Did well in school. Teachers didn’t have a problem with me.
I’m starting to finally realize that social isolation from not knowing how to make friends aside from being the kind, quiet kid in class and hoping someone picks me to be their friend - chronically not being taken an interest in by my peers - was traumatic. Not realizing that sensory shut downs are from sensory overload, not just what “depression” feels like, meant I had “depression triggers” that I couldn’t figure out how to avoid or protect myself from - and that was traumatic.
And then when I got older and became an adult, learning that the world is messier and more chaotic than I was taught to believe broke my sense of safety and I haven’t been able to recreate it. This is the first time I actually developed PTSD.
Anyone who doesn't fit in with the group is going to have _some_ trauma, given that it's generally human nature to _need_ to feel part of the group. But there is definitely a wedge of the pie where people don't actually feel that need, and another where they somehow either get the support early on or they were successful enough not to be traumatized.
Trauma is different from just desiring to fit in of be popular; trauma is the consequence, usually intentional, of deliberate cruelty by those who hold social power to inflict their cruelty upon the socially disempowered.
May I suggest reading a CPTSD support group internet forum.
@@merbst Do you _actually_ think that what you just said _isn't_ what I was _clearly and obviously_ talking about? Like... really? _Really?_ 🙄
May I suggest _you_ go read about the terms, "patronizing" and "mansplaining"?
I think long term bullying can create trauma. There is such a thing as emotional abuse. Bullying is emotional abuse.
Some bullying goes beyond that.
@@Catlily5 Oh it definitely can and does. I met a full spectrum of bullies as a kid, partially thanks to my parents moving me around and changing schools. I met those who want you to feel bad about yourself, and/or want you never to feel safe, and/or mess with your social life, and/or outright attack you, etc. It really messed up my head. It's awful and schools are too cowardly to deal with litigious parents who are probably bullies themselves.
@@Felice_Enellen Sorry you had to go through that. I went through some crap also.
That's a really interesting topic! I guess not all autistic people grow up traumatised, but I don't think I've met any autistic adults who don't suffer the after effects of trauma.
I'm defiantly so traumatized, world is so not made for us >.
this world is so bad at the moment I don't think it works for 99% of anyone. that's why when people become rich they don't feel any happier.
@@forestsunset9617 True, sucks having the world thow so much at ya
True👽
I think most people experience at least some trauma in their lives. To me the important question is whether all autistic people live with trauma and I would say no. With a certain amount of luck and progress in life, it's possible to surround yourself with supportive people and give yourself a comfortable, secure life. At that point, you can heal from the trauma without constantly adding more.
I definitely relate to this. Even though I went to therapy for 8+ years before I knew I was autistic with multiple different therapists, I never really felt understood. Things would be good for the first few sessions but after a while I always got the sense they didn’t know what to do with all my sensitivities and my spiky profile. It gave me this sense that I shouldn’t need to be in therapy and whatever I was struggling with was not a valid struggle to have, and no one EVER suggested I should get an autism assessment. I felt so ashamed of my constant overwhelm and SO WEAK for asking for help, which definitely traumatized me.
The problem is therapy for nts isn't as effective with autistics and most therapist and psy are very bad at diagnosing it
Most therapists don't know much about autism.
The first person to suggest that I have autism was a therapist. But most really don't know much in my experience. I have been to a lot of therapists.
Like most things, I feel that there are exceptions to all autistic people experiencing trauma. But I feel like it is fair to say most autistic people experience trauma, especially those of us who are late diagnosed. I mean for me, trauma is a large part of why I mask so heavily.
Just my random thoughts on the topic, I also enjoy taking part of the discussion so thank you for bringing it up and giving us your thoughts
I think most *humans* are traumatized, but autists have certain characteristic patterns of trauma that we experience and quite possibly are more traumatized than average.
Gosh, yes, I can totally relate to this topic. Growing up on the periphery, never knowing where I stood, never feeling like I belonged, all contributed to a fundamental sense of not feeling safe. And as someone commented on a previous video, not feeling safe on a daily basis is akin to living in a state of trauma in and of itself! Add life events on top, such as family bereavement (parents and siblings), coupled with growing up undiagnosed and the cyclical burnout, and it's essentially my baseline state. Thank you for posting this (and all the other fab videos!).😊
I think fundamentally autism makes it to where I dont understand other peoples intentions and they generally misunderstand mine...which makes for a lot of clashing situations in general. I was bullied a lot by both my family and my peers and still struggle in my 30s with social interaction. Over time it has become so draining and there are numerous traumatic events. I think if you generally dont understand people and they dont understand you then youre bound to be traumatized...right?
The actual criteria for diagnosing autistics in adulthood are looking for behaviours of autistic people who are traumatised or suffering from PTSD. So it seems pretty endemic.
Dana, I just wanted to say that seeing you being so upfront and so communicative about your experience as an autistic person, helps me identify my own autistic experiences! There as just some things that I haven't really thought about my daily live, they are sort of "unspoken", things I thought everyone dealt with and now I'm slowly realising, maybe not everyone does. Like what you said about practically everything triggering some memory. I'm like that!!! Like, I'll smell a certain scent and remember something from 10 years ago. Or just certain colours. Oh, spring almost always have the same feeling to me. As well as the other seasons. Can't explain it, it's just a "feeling". It's just, seeing you talk about them helps me recognize them in myself too. So thank you for that!
I think the question might be "is everyone traumatized?" and i'm not just talking about "big T" traumas like accidents and war and abuse, but also "smaller T" traumas like neglect, isolation, social pressure, and of course the trauma of living under late stage capitalism.
Not to say that autistic people don't have our unique traumas that are autism-related, but I think it's hard to get through this world untraumatized.
I'm sure there is some small subsection of ausitics. That made it unscathed to the point. That they were late diagnosed. Most of us weren't that lucky.
I have Septo Optic Dysplasia and CPTSD. My SOD caused me to be born totally blind, and SOD also caused my autism. The things I do because of my blindness and autism were frowned upon, mainly by a caregiver of mine, and people at school. My caregiver is the one who caused me CPTSD. Because I wasn’t allowed to do the things that benefited my blindness and autism. I wasn’t allowed to have meltdowns, or cry, or even be too happy. I wasn’t allowed to run into things, touch and explore everything in my surroundings, I just wasn’t allowed to make a mistake.
Please never lose your intro. It is so sweet.
I don't know if that's related to autism, but sometimes I get this weird feeling when outside usually with people. Like, I can't even explain what it is!!! Just "strangeness". Kind of an existential thing. Not "I feel anxious", "sad" or whatever. Kind of like "hmm existence". Lol I don't know. A certain sense of being uncomfortable, but not too much. A "being"ness. Lol.
The effects of trauma affect me way more than autism spectrum features.
autism is not being able to remember or recall the trauma you excperinced as a child before the age of 7
@@gratefulkm I can remember trauma before age 7. It's why I have a mental injury of PTSD.
@@BipolarCourage Your not paying attention, your lower brain can prevent you ever knowing you experienced something, i didn't say all things and PS, have you learnt yet about why science says no one can remember thier childhood, before the age of 7 ,
but we can , have they explained that bit yet ?
how your biology actually works,
to clarify you can only remember something before the age of 7 if you became so traumatized you cortices were switched into record mode years before it naturally happens at age 7
and no matter how hard you try , you cant remember what caused that switch to happen, you can remember after the switch, but you cant remember the actual switch
Like a memory of the worst nightmare in your life, that you believe you remember in full, but you dont, you only see a tiny little SAFE clip of the movie
That's why the ancient Autistics wrote the religions to give you guidance in how to remember that event, behind the façade
How to relax so much that the Thalamus realizes your ready to see it
its not easy ,
@@BipolarCourage a message and a clue from the ancient autistics
"Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow, but everywhere that Mary went that Lamb was sure to go"
@@gratefulkm no idea what you are talking about, reciting children's rhymes
Hi Dana - thanks for the content. For people not diagnosed as children or even young adults, the trauma could come from upbringing. We learned heavy masking early in life, which I suppose is trauma.
Yep, that's the case with me. My upbringing was getting hit with everything my dad could put in his hand, including a belt. I was diagnosed when I was 21. Now I am 43 and life basically sucks, because of stupid rules and laws here in the Netherlands when having a autistic benefit. To make a long story short, I am not allowed to urn money on top of my benefit, and if I do I lose it, and it's really hard to get back, if your job would go wrong later. And so running a risk to end up on the streets.
I think if your a late diagnosed especially your probably dealing with trauma no for myself I’ve definitely been threw a fare bit myself I think there’s a link with chronic illness to tbh .
I just can’t imagine how life could possibly have been if someone had seen me and seen I was autistic would my life had been better? Different? This is the thing that makes me feel the saddest 😭 like you would I be able to work or have friends or avoiding the trauma I faced because it . Also like u say I have a daughter I think is autistic and I think because I see her for who she is she copes really well and I don’t see her needed to seek a diagnosis later on because of the support she’s always had from us I don’t think she even notices certain things and she’s really really happy unlike my own story x
Don’t give up your good qualities and trust in people. Just find better people to trust and avoid the demons at all cost. YOu are great Dana. You are helping keep me sane out here.
It’s a lifetime of trauma. I used to shove it down, but that doesn’t work anymore.
Gotta heal it unfortunately, at least in my experience 😅
I think the way that Autism is diagnosed according to behavior, and that sometimes every unusual behavior is assumed to be inherent to Autism, makes it so that trauma is greatly undetected in the Autistic population. I think often if an Autistic person shows symptoms, that would be recognized as symptoms of trauma in a non Autistic person, they are assumed to just be inherent parts of the Autism. I think some things that can make us more likely to have PTSD or CPTSD is that sometimes neurotypicals may be more likely to shut us down if we try to vent because we "aren't venting in the right way," and we may not get much if any support if we go through something traumatic because it's not what non Autistic people would call traumatic.
Commenting before watching the video. I've heard people say "the diagnostic criteria describe trauma because we are all traumatised, all autistics are traumatised" I have particularly heard this from the self diagnosis crowd. I have a different perspective. I had a trauma diagnosis at 15, got first told, by psychologist assessment, I was needing autism assessment at 24 but I said "oh no I'm just traumatised". 15 years later I scored normal enough on trauma scores but still was having problems with all the autism things so agreed to assessment finally. There it was plain as day. Technically my assessor did a lot more than the usual assessments just to be extra clear. (She's given evidence in criminal trials and worked on famous research studies so she knows her stuff) so it's possible to separate out Autism from Trauma. And I don't think they are the same. I think there's a difference between Big T Trauma and small t Trauma (PTSD and c-ptsd) I can see a higher incidence of small T in autistic but I don't think it defines the autism. Autistic with Trauma is still autistic once they recover from the Trauma.
Have now watched the video. I think being chronically online you do encounter more traumatised people that's a good point and explains why I've never got on at IRL autism groups.
I think my Trauma and trauma recovery was slower than usual because I have Alexithymia and have difficulty connecting with people which makes therapy extremely difficult. I find it hard to apply things I learn in therapy into real life.
I think that professionals could tell the difference between trauma and autism even if someone hasn't healed from their trauma. Personally I think that people with PSD have different social problems, different sensory problems, different executive functioning problems etc. etc. than people with autism.
But that is my opinion. I base it on being on long term adolescent units where almost everyone had been through a lot of abuse. There are differences between PTSD and autism that are observable if they know what to look for.
I think that all Autistic people are traumatized to some degree due to the way our brains process information, particularly if we are diagnosed late in life. I found out that I was Autistic when I was nearly twice your age, and it has certainly allowed me to have a different perspective about things that have happened in my life. At the same time, it has made me much more aware of how different I am, and that has become a source of trauma as well. I saw myself as normal before, and now I am aware of how I appear to other people. Certain aspects of my life that I was proud of, I now recognize as typical symptoms of Autism. While I now understand why I have struggled so much in life, I also realize that I am the one who isn't normal. It is both a relief and a new source of trauma at the same time.
All humans have *some* trauma, usually relatively minor; autistic people (like myself) have more trauma due to spending most of our lives since toddlerhood being constantly told our way of being is wrong - we say the wrong things, we are different, we are perceived as odd etc. Late diagnosis leads to a lot of trauma when you don't understand your differences. But I have 3 autistic kids, raised by autistic parents, who don't seem to have any obvious trauma. So it's possible for autistic people to be relatively trauma-free, or at least have similar levels of trauma as neurotypicals.
Yes, very.
While I wouldn't necessarily use the word "trauma" for my experiences there's no doubt I've been very badly damaged by certain events, principally from my working life. I have very bad memories relating to these and they are likely to persist for the rest of my life. I would agree that support makes a huge difference in helping someone cope.Good support often means a person doesn't even get involved in a difficult situations or with difficult people but if they do they have others who can help. Some autistic people do have that support, particularly from families, sometimes from friends or professionals. However a lot of that support disappears in adulthood. Even those autists who do have good support throughout their lives are more at risk of bad experiences or trauma because they are on "alien territory" and they are more vulnerable. They are also more likely to find it harder to reach out to others even when there are helpful others around. Dealing with problems alone is difficult for anyone.
Thx for the upload! Oh... and... like...probably. 🤷♀️
Haven't actually watched the video, but the short answer is no, because I am an autistic person who is not traumatized. Thats probably due to being diagnosed early and imediatly put in classes for autistic students as soon as I started elementary, I don't have trauma from being bullied beause I wasn't bullied since I wasn't different. Mind you, even if that wasn't the case, I don't think I would have been traumatized from ''feeling like I don't fit in'' because I would have either not realized than I was different from others or either I would have but would still consider myself to be part of the group due to not caring about being different (I never felt than I had to ''fit'' with others in order to belong somewhere, to belong somewhere I just have to decide than I belong there regardless of what others think)
I feel that masking is a survival response. As a fairly “successful” late diagnosed autistic person the way I interact with others has been shaped by a lifetime of trying to survive in a neurotypical world. I have hope that younger generations have a different and more accepting experience, but just because someone looks like they have their sh*t together doesn’t mean their actions and responses aren’t trauma based, in fact I think it might be the opposite.
Some of us can't mask much even if we are abused. I was abused mostly sexually but also emotionally and slightly physically. But I can't mask very well.
i definitely am in multiple ways...
most likely!
Nice closing screen! Mushrooms 🍄
Great video!!😁
The more I hear about what other autistic people have been through, the luckier I feel
What? Your beautifully long hair? 💚
Her hair looks great, doesn't it? She has a face shape that can pull off a lot of styles well.
@@f2dw Y E S !!!