Awesome Autistic traits
First things first, in case you didn’t know, Autistics do not have “symptoms,” we have traits. Words matter, and here’s why—when people frame Autistic traits as symptoms, they are:
completely ignoring how freakin’ awesome many of our traits are.
framing our struggles to thrive in allistic culture (which does not accept or accommodate us) as a personal problem rather than the result of discrimination and ostracization.
making it difficult for unidentified-Autistics to see themselves in our culture, denying them community, history, and legal protections. Before identification, we generally just have an odd lonely feeling. We know that we don’t understand the world and that the world doesn’t understand us, however, we don’t feel deficient—we feel misunderstood. We often feel lost…and we are. We NEED to be immersed in our culture where we can be valued for our authentic Autistic selves.
To illustrate why our traits should not be called symptoms, I thought I’d put together a list (because, yay lists!) of some of my favorite common Autistic traits:
Highly egalitarian: Autistic culture does not observe social hierarchies. We see all humans as equally valuable and worthy of agency, access, and respect. To us, hierarchies are fabricated systems of oppression that benefit the few to the detriment of the many. As children, we can frustrate adults who want us to defer to their “superior authority,” but we just don’t see it that way—we are equals. Our highly egalitarian world-view means that we often have fewer prejudices and respect people from all walks of life. To us, standing up for, and accepting others, just makes sense.
Hyper-connected brains: Yay Autistic brains! Our brains are full of intricate and intense connections that allow us to detect patterns all around us and draw logical conclusions about the world, a subject, or a particular problem. We literally have more synapses!
Deep empathy: Contrary to popular misinformation, many Autistics are hyper-empathetic and can physically feel the emotions of people around us. In allistic-designed spaces this can be overwhelming, but in sensory safe spaces, it allows us to come into a deep understanding with others. This deep non-verbal communication is probably why we get along so well with animals and often seek them out. When the people around us hurt, we hurt, and that means that we tend to spend a lot of time and energy trying to ease the suffering of others.
Creativity: Our different worldview, hyper-connected brains, and monotropism, generally leads to a great deal of creativity. We are creative problem solvers, scientists, designers, artists, and world builders.
Justice sensitivity/fair-minded: Many Autistics were deemed “tattle-tales” as children because we are highly concerned with fairness. If we see you cheating—that’s not fair—we will tell someone, in order to even the playing field again. As adults, we tend to gravitate towards social justice movements and may become advocates and/or avid volunteers. If we witness an injustice, we will become very emotional and NEED to do something.
Pre-emptive problem-solvers: We don’t like disruption and try to avoid chaos and uncertainty whenever possible. Due to this, we tend to use our hyper-connected brains to look ahead for potential problems and work to eliminate them in advance.
Collection and analysis of data: Yay data! Autistics like to gather vast amounts of information and then sort that information until we have neat categories or develop a new theory. As natural researchers, we thrive on spending hours alone, fact-finding, observing, and experimenting. “Because that’s the way it’s done,” is NOT good data, so we challenge this type of thinking with facts and logic. Relying on data to draw conclusions helps us to be less prejudiced and less susceptible to peer pressure and mob-mentality.
Monotropism: Monotropism is the ability to hyper-focus on a small number of interests. Monotropism helps us to not get distracted from our goals, to be able to collect and remember large amounts of data, and to easily make intricate connections that are not observable to most allistics (who literally have fewer synapses in the brain). To see how valuable and powerful this quality is, check out Greta Thunberg—our monotropic queen!
Sincerity/honesty: Autistics are sincere. We mostly say what we mean and mean what we say. When we offer to do something, we are not doing it in an allistic way of just saying the “polite” thing—we actually mean it. When we give you a compliment—we mean it! When we state our needs, boundaries, and limitations we mean those too. We are trustworthy in this way.
Integrity: When we research and analyze a situation, we generally come to strong conclusions backed by the data that we have collected. Once we see the “truth,” we cannot be moved from our positions (unless presented with superior data, in which case, yes we follow the data without ego) and are willing to “die on that hill.” Some turn this into a “symptom” and say that we are “rigid” or have “black and white thinking.” However, from our perspective, we actually have greater integrity than the general population who appear to flip and flop based on what they think other people want/expect from them. When we come to conclusions about what is right and wrong, good and bad, we will act accordingly, regardless of social pressures or expectations.
Loyalty: As a neuro-minority, we are often rejected by allistics. When this happens again and again over a lifetime, we become traumatized and may stop seeking out relationships. This isn’t because we don’t want them—it’s because we’ve concluded that it’s not in the cards for us to have meaningful, authentic relationships that allow us to communicate and bond in ways that feel good to us. However, when we do make friends (often with other Autistics or otherwise neurodivergent people), we are extremely loyal. We will stand up for you, help you, and love you just as you are and without judgement. We have lived our lives with people trying to change and control us—we don’t want to do the same.
Sponge Brains: You know how young children can soak up information like little sponges? Well, for Autistics, that sponge brain never goes away—probably because we don’t loose as many synaptic connections in adolescence as our allistic peers (fact!). When we become delightfully entranced by a new SpIn, our brains open up and the new data is easily absorbed.
Wonder: Much like “sponge brains,” Autistics don’t lose our sense of wonder as we age. Throughout our life span, we enjoy a pure, deep sense of wonder. We are especially dazzled by items, information, and experiences related to our SpIns, as well as interactions with animals and the natural world. Since allistics appear to lose this capability in adolescence when they lose about half of their neuro-connections (whereas autistics only loose about 16%), they view our wonder as “childish,” but to us, they are missing out on an invigorating and delightful experience due to their diminished sense of wonder. As adults, Autistics may spend hours with our collections, get hand-flappy excited to pet farm animals, or enjoy silently watching a sunset for a whole hour.
Honest, clear communication: Autistics are straight-forward and sometimes blunt. We don’t consider many topics to be taboo and are not shy about sharing about our bodily functions, deepest thoughts, or traumas. We don’t like when people dilly dally around the point—get to it! We will tell you exactly who we are, what we want, and what our boundaries are. Oddly, allistics seem to read into our Autistic body language (fidgeting, speaking in our Autistic accent, and making atypical eye-contact) and conclude that we can’t possibly just be saying what we mean, we must be lying (we’re not), or we must have secret, manipulative intentions (we don’t). This is one of the most frustrating culture-clashes that Autistics have to deal with on a daily basis.
Respect for Boundaries: We have lots of boundaries that help us to navigate a world that was not designed with our sensory or social needs in mind. Since our boundaries are important to us, we also recognize your boundaries as important. If you are allistic and state a boundary (which yes, you have to explicitly state it and not hint or be passive aggressive about it), and we question you on it, that isn’t us challenging your boundary—we are looking for clarity and understanding so that we can create a “rule” of how to observe and respect your boundaries, both now and in the future.
Consistent: Autistics love routine—but only if it’s the routine that we designed for ourselves. So often, I hear allistics misunderstand our routines and express how standard school or work schedules are good for our routine needs—false! We do NOT want a standard routine, your routine, or your idea of what our routine should be. We want the routine that we have created for ourselves that helps us to feel safe and secure in an allistic-dominated world. We don’t think our routines are “ruts” or otherwise “boring.” We LOVE them! Which means, you can count on us to keep doing what we’re doing more-or-less indefinitely. If you know our routine, then you can predict where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing possibly years into the future—isn’t that convenient?
Bad liars: We tend to be terrible liars because Autistic culture values clear communication, justice, integrity, and equity. It makes us feel fundamentally icky to lie and most of us can’t stomach it. On the flip side, because of our experience masking, we may be excellent actors and enjoy theater and film—but that’s different. That’s not dishonest, that’s world building and storytelling—some of our favorite pastimes. We can pretend to be someone else for art or entertainment, but we can’t be ourselves pretending that a lie is true. Just another quality that makes us trustworthy.
Intrinsically motivated: While it is very difficult to externally motivate us, we have an exceptional level of intrinsic motivation. Our justice sensitivity may drive us to go to great lengths to learn about systems of oppression, then volunteer to help where we can. The high value we place on integrity and (earned) loyalty means that we are likely to dedicate a tremendous amount of time and energy to helping a friend with no further incentive than knowing it would make them happy. Likewise, our special interests can be powerful drivers for learning, achieving, and acquiring new skills.
NOTE: I really wanted to included links (because, yay data!) to the studies that show we have more synapses, but I just couldn’t. I checked out several prestigious sources, and I could only find horrifically ableist interpretations of the data that wanted to use the information to develop a way to permanently alter under-age Autistics, so that they too could loose their synaptic connections, thereby severing them from their true identity and heritage. This possibility was exclusively discussed as a “needed remedy”…(Shudder!)
So here’s my quick summary for those who want to avoid the icky articles: Human babies have about twice as many synapses as allistic adults because during adolescence, brains go through “synaptic pruning,” and allistics lose about half of those connections. Autistics, on the otherhand, only lose around 16% and get to keep the rest. So, even though this sounds like the origin story of a super hero franchise, allistics look at that data and conclude: we must find a way to sever more of their connections in adolescence so that they can be more like us—the dominant neurotype. It’s neurological colonialism, and it is not okay.