Childhood Trauma.

Yes. Living as an ND In a world not designed for you can convert a thousand tiny or great traumas in child or adulthood into a complex  PTSD.

Living with it as a long term cause of suffering is not inevitable however, if you get the right diagnosis and right ASD informed support now.

But do be careful. The right therapy for NTs is not necessarily the right therapy for us. Your support needs to work with not against your neurology, whatever that is.

This has been a minefield question of mine for a couple of years now as there are so many similarities, traits, co-morbidities  and symptoms between ASC & Trauma, it seems impossible to differentiate or separate.  

For me it has been a frustrating question like ' The chicken & Egg ' and what came first type of question. Whilst we are now being told by science that ASC is genetic as over 100 autistic genes have been identified, it doesn't seem to help if you have experienced childhood trauma as trauma can be experienced as far back as being in the womb. 

I did a quick search regarding the two subjects but couldn't find anything on the joint topic. Has anyone else found anything ? 

Everyday

Oh early to mid high-school was awful. Probably the worst time in my life. So I can relate to that. Some kids can be mean. 

Exams were an insanely stressful time, of course I never highlighted it to my teachers and pushed myself near the brink of a breakdown. 

Such an awful time. 

University is so much different though and I say less stressful cause you're doing what you've always wanted to do. 

I am still suffering from childhood trauma.

I was brought up by naive parents who overestimated their own abilities. They fed me an awful diet and didn't teach me any practical skills beyond simple things like tying shoelaces or fixing a tie on a shirt. I was bullied badly in high school, nothing adequate was done about it when I complained and I never finished it and lost all my childhood friends.

This! Thanks so much for replying. You basically wrote what I was trying to piece together.

I'm not sure that being autistic makes trauma worse in itself.  However, looking back at my own childhood experiences, i would say that being autistic but not realising it, getting no support but instead just blame and exclusion for being different, did contribute towards feeling traumatised.  

Similarly, I think that, my family being neurodivergent but, again, never being identified as such, led to other difficulties which impacted us all quite severely.  This included difficulties holding jobs, consequent money worries, isolation from others and feeling different in what we were made to think we're negative ways, all adding to the load.  Childhood poverty and marginalisation in particular have, I think, installed some lifelong fears and beliefs that, even now, I have to consciously challenge in myself.  The core beliefs developed in our formative years can cast a long shadow and can be quite hard to unravel.  In my own case I'd say my relationships with other people and with money have been distorted by negative childhood experiences.

Overall, though, I don't think that much of this is related intrinsically to being autistic.  If I'd been identified in childhood and my education tailored towards my learning style and abilities, for example, things would have been much easier.  And a few workplace adjustments for the main earner in the family might have eased a lot of workplace tension, the impact on the family and the poverty resulting from insecure work.

So I'd say that being identified is a positive and the thing that bothers me is that, for various reasons, I didn't have this vital piece of information about myself until much later on in life.  I quite like being autistic and, in itself, I haven't found it to be traumatising.  On the other hand, lack of acceptance, inclusion and any kind of allowances for differences have been.