What happens when an autistic person has sensory overload?

Sometimes an autistic person may behave in a way that you wouldn’t immediately link to sensory differences. A person who finds it difficult to process everyday sensory information can experience sensory overload, or information overload. Too much information can cause stress, anxiety, and possibly physical pain.

What is Stimming ASD?

Stimming is repetitive or unusual movements or noises. Stimming seems to help some autistic children and teenagers manage emotions and cope with overwhelming situations. If stimming affects children in negative ways, you can look at ways to reduce their need to stim.

How do you stop an autistic person from shutting down?

Know the person you are supporting, as each person will need to be supported in their own way. Give them the time to withdraw and recover. Consider whether you can use their special interests to help them come out of their shutdown. Spend some time discussing what happened with the person with autism, if they are able.

What are stims?

The word “stimming” refers to self-stimulating behaviors, usually involving repetitive movements or sounds. Everybody stims in some way. It’s not always clear to others. Stimming is part of the diagnostic criteria for autism. That’s not because stimming is always related to autism.

How can we prevent masking autism from being harmful?

One way to minimize the harmful effects of masking autism is to work toward a world in which neurodiverse people are accepted as they are, and people are treated with respect and kindness whether they communicate in neurotypical ways or not. Last medically reviewed on March 10, 2021

How does Autism affect sensory processing?

Autism seems to cause problems in some people when it comes to interpreting and processing sensory information, to the point of causing confusion and pain: you may have difficulty remembering faces, and be either over- or under-sensitive to things like noise and smell.

Do autistic people have to hide neurodiverse behaviors?

For many autistic people, that experience is a daily reality. In places where the full spectrum of neurodiversity is not understood or welcomed, autistic people often feel the need to present or perform social behaviors that are considered neurotypical. Some people may also feel they have to hide neurodiverse behaviors in order to be accepted.

Do girls mask autism more often than boys?

People across the entire gender spectrum engage in masking, studies show, but people who identify as women may mask more often than people who identify as men. There’s been some debate about why girls and women may mask autistic traits more than boys and men do.