Autism

Also called Autism spectrum condition, ASC, Asperger syndrome

A different way of processing the world, socially and sensorily. A difference, not a fault.

What it is

Start here, because it reframes everything that follows: autism is a difference in how a brain is built, not a malfunction of a standard one. Around one in a hundred people are autistic. Most autistic adults in the UK have never been diagnosed.

It shows up in two broad places. Social communication works differently, so the unwritten rules other people absorb without noticing have to be worked out consciously. And sensory processing works differently, so noise, light, texture and smell arrive at volumes other people are not experiencing.

There is no single autistic profile. The old idea of a line from mild to severe was abandoned for a good reason: it described how much the person inconvenienced others, not how much support they actually needed.

Signs you might notice

A deep, sustained, genuinely expert interest in something specific.

Routine that matters, and distress when it breaks without warning.

Sensory reactions that look disproportionate until you understand the input was not proportionate either.

Communication that is direct and literal. Sarcasm and hints landing oddly, or not at all.

Stimming: rocking, flapping, pacing, repeating. It regulates, and it is not a problem to be stopped.

And, especially in girls and women, none of the above visibly. Just masking, followed by collapse at home.

How it can affect day-to-day life

The gap between how autistic people are doing and how they appear to be doing is the whole story for many of them.

Masking costs enormously. Copying expressions, rehearsing conversations, suppressing every natural response for eight hours: people describe it as running a background program all day. Autistic burnout follows, and it gets mistaken for depression, laziness or a sudden regression.

The employment figures are the ones that should be uncomfortable. Around three in ten autistic adults in the UK are in any kind of work. That is not a statement about capability. It is a statement about how recruitment and workplaces are built.

Meltdowns and shutdowns are not tantrums. A meltdown is a nervous system that has run out of capacity, and by then nothing is being chosen.

Supporting someone well

Change the environment before you try to change the person. Dim the lights, cut the background noise, allow the headphones. Most of what gets called challenging behaviour is a sensory environment nobody has fixed.

Say what you mean. Drop the hints, the euphemisms and the tone-based instructions. Directness is a kindness here, not a rudeness.

Warn about changes. Not as a courtesy, as a requirement. Ten minutes of notice prevents an hour of distress.

Never suppress stimming. It is regulation, and removing it removes the person's own coping mechanism.

Presume competence. Always. Someone who cannot speak may read fluently, and plenty of autistic people have spent years being talked about in front of them.

Two things of ours are built directly on this. Our neurodiversity and SEND pre-screening produces a written profile, mapped to the four areas of the SEND Code of Practice, in the language a school or a GP will actually act on. And Fiducia Talk is a free AAC app for anybody whose speech is unreliable or disappears under stress, which is far more common than the stereotype allows.

Many autistic people also have ADHD. If both descriptions half-fit, that is likely why.

Where to get help

Ask a GP for a referral to an autism assessment service. Waits are long, so ask about the Right to Choose route in England as well.

Support does not wait for a diagnosis, and this is the sentence worth repeating in every meeting. Schools can put adjustments in place today under the Equality Act 2010, and employers must make reasonable adjustments whether or not anybody has a letter.

The National Autistic Society helpline is 0808 800 4104.