I have been working hard at getting to know myself and my responses better. Early on in this process I noticed the parallels between autism and trauma. As my understanding has grown so has my realisation of how multifaceted and complex the interactions between autism and trauma are.
I like playing with words, particularly making words that feel pleasurable to say and hear in my mind from a sensory perspective. And so Traumatism was born, a portmanteau (a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two distinct words) of trauma and autism.
I cannot fully separate out where my autism begins and trauma responses end. Often my ‘autistic responses’ and ‘trauma responses’ work together or amplify each other, at other times one response will trigger the other. It is very rare that I can single out an experience or response as purely down to autism or trauma.
This is something that Tony Attwood also identified during an e-mail exchange I had with him. He wrote;
‘as a clinician, I have difficulty disentangling trauma and ASD. Indeed, I find a very high proportion of those with ASD have experienced trauma in many ways including social, sensory and emotional trauma.’
This was such an affirming thing to read after I had repeatedly been told, by some, that the majority of my responses and experiences could be explained by autism. It’s true, they can, but they can also be explained by trauma and it is the combination of these two factors, that can often make things so complex.
I strongly believe that health care professionals and allies of people with autism and/or trauma related difficulties need to have a good understanding of both autism and trauma and how the two interact.
Just as Tony identified, I am not unique in my experiences. Being autistic leaves people vulnerable to trauma in a multitude of forms. Being autistic also makes the processing of and recovery from traumas, both great and seemingly small, more challenging, leaving us more vulnerable to developing post traumatic responses.
This little discussed and poorly understood issue is more common than we realise and it is not going away.
Having a forum that enables me contribute to the available literature on autism and trauma feels important to me. Of course what I write, despite usually being based on research or texts I have read, remains subjective. Never the less, lived experience has it’s place and the more people who contribute in this manner the greater the weight of evidence it provides. So I will endeavour to progress towards this end, despite concerns of being inadequate for the job, because;
‘When we reach out to others and share our stories, we increase our power and potential to create change’
(Brené Brown 2007)
References
Brené Brown (2007) I thought it was just me (but it isn’t). Avery: New York
Tony Attwood (2018) Personal correspondence.