And this is my fourth and final case study for autism acceptance month!

Case Study 4: M has just started secondary school and has recently been diagnosed autistic. Her teachers describe her as high functioning as she achieved above average in her subjects at school. M enjoys the school environment and learning, and the school observe her as quiet, but otherwise able to communicate and manage socially. When M’s mum describes M’s difficulties with others, be it friends or health and social care professionals, she tries to explain that M still needs lots of help to manage daily life. M really struggles to wash and dry their own hair, cannot cope if someone knocks at the door unexpectedly (including a postman or a neighbour) and has frequent meltdowns. People who hear this seem shocked, and tell M’s mum that M is ‘very capable of fitting in’ because she is ‘high functioning’.

People don’t seem to understand that just because certain characteristics of your autism or how your autism presents isn’t visible to them, doesn’t mean you are ‘less autistic’. However, this expectation, this assumption..it’s a lack of acceptance, really. And I certainly end up feeling ashamed of myself and hiding all my struggles. I ‘work hard’ and have to do a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ in order to get out the house and appear how I might appear to my work colleagues, classmates, and even friends. Even when unmasking – I like to appear a certain way, even if it takes a lot of work/effort. However, just because people didn’t see that effort, doesn’t mean it wasn’t real. And that my differences aren’t as real.

I think this is both about self acceptance, and other people accepting and acknowledging. It’s everyone’s responsibility to I guess start to accept that autism IS a spectrum and that differences come in all shapes and forms. Everyone with autism has differences in a certain range of areas, but because it is a spectrum, the scale of those differences can be really different.
Personally, sensory issues around food, material/touch, and sound are really big for me, and while I generally do understand things like sarcasm, and can communicate fairly well, I find social situations really tiring, and overall struggle a lot with executive function. I also have strong obsessions and very rigid thinking, and have certain routines that I find it incredibly hard to change or manage without. However, I’m quite good at showing emotion, and passion!
What do you think about the spectrum and autism acceptance?

I’ve drawn an example of the spectrum, showing the ‘spiky profile’ of being autistic, as well as two little figures with different characteristics of autism!