Published on 12, July, 2020
As an artist I also have many artist friends, many of whom I suspect would fit the diagnostic criteria for ASC.
The majority of those same people experience anxiety & stomach issues (IBS, IBD, etc).
So, this thread asks: Do any of you not get stomach issues every day/week?
...because I suspect this might be an interesting commonality between us all on the spectrum?
Could the difficulties we have to navigate day to day be interrupting our 'gut-brain-axis' and so be an easy to spot sign of an autistic person?
Sounds random now I write it, but I'm curious
I have had digestive problems since birth. So has my father who is also autistic. Basically my digestive system runs at about three times the speed of a normal person's. I can either take immodium to slow it down, but that has side effects including headaches and extreme fatigue, or I can eat like I'm recovering from food poisoning: lots of bland, starchy foods, nothing raw, nothing greasy or overly fibrous. For the last few months I've eaten the same diet every day based around white bread, soy milk, tofu, white rice, peeled potatoes and soft-boiled root veg and it's helped a lot: I'm only going to the toilet 2-4 times a day now.
Apparently it's common for autistic people to have too much serotonin which affects the gut.