Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi! I’m a 19 year old autistic adult who’s almost completed her first year of university. Since turning 19 I’ve had the typical experience of feeling like things ‘shifted’ in my mind, just generally starting to see the world differently which I know is common as you reach young adulthood, and have seen this discussed a lot. However something I don’t see spoken about is how this relates to autistic young adults. As a teenager I had meltdowns every few weeks that involved screaming/crying/self-injurious behaviour/treating others poorly/going non-verbal etc etc. However since coming to university, this has only happened twice and even then they were much less intense as my previous meltdowns. This change was sudden, especially considering that just weeks before actually starting university I had 4 public meltdowns like this across 2 weeks at a summer programme for my now uni. This change makes me worry a lot about the validity of my autism, even though I’ve been diagnosed for almost 2 years now. I was wondering if anyone knows if my experience is common, and expected as one transitions from an autistic teenager to an autistic adult?
Distress and meltdowns are not a part of being autistic, they are a result of being under excessive stress/or in an environment that doesn’t suit your autistic neurology.
You may find this golden equation from Luke Beardon useful- ‘Autism + Environment = Outcome.
So the likelihood is that you are currently in an environment that you have more control and autonomy over which has had a dramatically positive effect on your mental wellbeing! You are just a happier and better regulated autistic person. This by no means invalidates your autistic experience as distress is not inherent to being autistic. It is concerning if anyone has meltdowns regularly regardless of neurotype because no one should be experiencing such a high level of stress.