find it hard to communicate and interact with other people. find it hard to understand how other people think or feel. find things like bright lights or loud noises overwhelming, stressful or uncomfortable. get anxious or upset about unfamiliar situations and social events.
Autistic individuals prefer predictability, routines, and patterns, making sudden changes difficult. It bothers them greatly when unexpected changes occur, and they become very upset about it. For instance, HFA individuals may stick with routines developed for them by other people or themselves.
Sensory Issues
Many people with autism experience sensory processing disorder. This is more commonly known as sensory overload. Noise, crowds, bright lights, strong tastes, smells, and being touched can feel unbearable to someone with HFA. This makes going to restaurants, movies, and shopping malls difficult.
In conclusion, there are many factors that can make autism worse. Sensory overload, changes in routine, social isolation, co-occurring conditions, and lack of support can all exacerbate the symptoms of autism.
The high rate—and high cost—of challenging behaviors
Aggression, destructiveness, and self-injury are common among children with ASD, with the Autism Research Institute's E-2 database of more than 2,300 cases indicating that 59% of those with ASD engage in one or more of these behaviors.
Individuals with autism often experience difficulties with executive functioning, which can impact their ability to manage daily tasks and activities. For example, a person with autism may struggle to break down a complex task into smaller steps or may find it challenging to prioritize tasks.
Impairment in social functioning is a central feature of ASD. Typical social skill deficits include: initiating interactions, responding to the initiations of others, maintaining eye contact, sharing enjoyment, reading the non-verbal cues of others, and taking another person's perspective.
They may appear to be too over-friendly.
People with autism may get easily attached to people, leading them to become over-friendly.
For many autistic people, social interaction can be a challenge. However, that doesn't mean that all autistic people are introverts. In fact, many autistic people are extroverted and enjoy social events. For some, the social interaction may be stimulation overload, but they still enjoy being around people.
Autistic people may act in a different way to other people
find it hard to communicate and interact with other people. find it hard to understand how other people think or feel. find things like bright lights or loud noises overwhelming, stressful or uncomfortable.
Many people with high-functioning autism have unusually intense emotional reactions when compared to their peers. For example, a frustrating experience like spilling coffee on their shirt or taking the wrong turn on the way to work can cause irritability and difficulty concentrating for the rest of their day.
People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention.
In fact, research has shown that autism symptoms tend to peak around the ages of 2-3 years old. During this time, children with autism may struggle with language development, social interaction, and behavior. They may have difficulty communicating their needs and understanding the needs of others.
Level 1 is the mildest, or “highest functioning” form of autism, which includes those who would have previously been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Individuals with ASD level 1 may have difficulty understanding social cues and may struggle to form and maintain personal relationships.
A recent National Autistic Society survey found 59% of autistic people said anxiety had a high impact on their ability to get on with life. Experiencing such high levels of anxiety can lead to exhaustion and meltdowns. It may also lead to autistic fatigue and burnout.
Although the exact cause of autism is still unknown, there is evidence to suggest that genetics play a significant role. Since autism is less prevalent in females, autism was always thought to be passed down from the mother. However, research suggests that autism genes are usually inherited from the father.
Autistic people who had other conditions, such as ADHD, anxiety or depression, reported a much lower quality of life than those who had none. These results reinforce the need for more targeted, personalised support to improve autistic people's mental health and quality of life.
Schriber et al[55] investigated personality differences between ASD adults and neurotypical control adults using self-reports of the Big Five personality traits. Individuals with ASD were more neurotic, and less extraverted, agreeable, conscientious and open to experience, than neurotypical controls.
Many autistic people experience hypersensitivity to bright lights or certain light wavelengths (e.g., LED or fluorescent lights). Certain sounds, smells, textures and tastes can also be overwhelming. This can result in sensory avoidance – trying to get away from stimuli that most people can easily tune out.