When you’ve just started to figure out that you might be autistic, it can be a really big and scary world to navigate. So here are some things I would say to my 18 year old self, as I just started going on that journey myself. Hopefully this might be useful to someone who has also just started their journey too. Things will settle At first, it feels like the whole world has been turned upside down. You’ve put on the autism goggles, and now everything, every interaction, every

The first and most important thing to understand about the diagnostic levels of autism, is that they are only implemented when one is diagnosed based of the DSM criteria. Anyone diagnosed based of the ICD or any other criteria, will most likely not be given a level upon diagnosis. Not everyone is diagnosed with a level, and that means that not everyone will know for sure what level they are. Another important thing to note, is that the diagnostic levels only serve a clinical

Autistic burnout is not a medical or scientific term, but it is something that has been researched and is widely accepted by the autistic community to be a true thing that we experience. Burnout exists for neurotypicals too, however it has a very different definition. Burnout in allistics usually referes to a feeling of exhaustion or depression brought on from overworking, usually as it pertains to their career. Autistic burnout exists separately from allistic burnout, becaus

A lot of late diagnosed autistic people, once realising they're autistic, also realise that they've spent their whole lives pretending to...