The Trauma/Autism overlap

That looks a bit fishy to me. AFAIK ASD is genetic, while PTSD is environmental. 

This is an interesting topic and there are so many aspects to it.

Many autistic traits can be considered a response to some kind of traumatic event. Events which can be traumatic to an autistic person may be very different to those perceived as traumatic by general society. For example school trauma or sensory trauma. The trauma responses we experience are very real even though the 'event' that gave rise to it is not considered traumatic by most people. That in itself can cause further difficulties as we become afraid to show or talk about the trauma and it escalates.

When someone is assessed for autism the assessor will seek to satisfy themselves that the autistic traits were present from a very early age and not as a response to trauma later in life. During my assessment I was questioned about childhood trauma, something which I wasn't expecting. 

When the trauma happens at a very young age I guess it can be difficult for the assessor to make that judgement accurately. I guess it's possible that some people can be diagnosed autistic when it is actually CPTSD. However the autism diagnosis process is usually quite thorough and intensive, so I would expect that to be quite rare. Much more commonly people, in particular females, are given a CPTSD or PTSD diagnosis when they are autistic. The autism is only picked up much later, if at all.

I do believe that autistic people (again females in particular) are much more likely to be manipulated and abused by those with malevolent intentions. The autistic person is likely to be socially naive and not able to pick up on social cues which others would. An autistic person is also much more likely to be spending time alone and therefore seen as an easier target. The presence of a group of friends around them would be protective and act as an extra means of spotting when an person is being manipulated or taken advantage of.

Much more research is need on why some people seem more susceptible to trauma responses than others. For example soldiers can have similar experiences but some will go on to develop PTSD and others do not. 

Some articles I have previously bookmarked and you may find interesting.

https://emergentdivergence.com/2021/09/29/creating-autistic-suffering-in-the-beginning-there-was-trauma/

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/ptsd-autism

https://neurodivergentinsights.com/autism-infographics/autismandtrauma

https://www.ptsduk.org/can-childhood-ptsd-be-mistaken-for-autism/

Autumn_Trees said:

I'm picturing a Venn diagram.

https://neurodivergentinsights.com/misdiagnosis-monday/ptsd-and-autism

I definitely feel like some of the traumatic events in my life happened because I'm autistic- I was bullied really badly at school and while not all of it was because I'm autistic (I was also poor AND queer, so a target regardless) a great deal of it certainly was.

I've read that some of the autistic traits looked for in diagnostic assessments might actually be trauma responses or reactions to extreme stress and they're just considered inherently autistic because society is designed for NT people and we're all constantly under enormous pressure. I don't know how true that is. For me personally, I only stim when I'm very upset, so on an individual level it does feel like there's something to it.

Yes, better decision making is definitely a factor for me, and trust. Taking everything literally has been an issue. A big part of trauma can be the lack of understanding, care, or unkindness from other people. 

That's really interesting. 

I am on the fence as to whether my traumas would have happened or not...I guess maybe if I was NT I could have made better decisions about where to go or who to trust.

I have been told I am too trusting before and that I always try and see the good in people. Some people just aren't good though.

Hi Autumn Trees 

Interesting topic.

I suppose the autism is there first, and due to the many perils of life as an ND person in an NT world, trauma is likely to follow.

Thinking back over all the trauma in my life, would it have happened if I hadn't been autistic? For the most part, I doubt it. 

I defnitely have trauma issues. So many let downs over the years when I have tried my best to fit in / be reasonable / trust in people.

Some are due to being Autistic. Some are due to people just being horrible.

They concluded that autists use stimming to mitigate over-stimulation and compensate for under-stimulation.  
And additional studies confirmed the relationship, between hyper-sensitivity and anxiety, and anxiety and insistence-on-sameness.

Anxiety and sensory anomaly, together was dropped a as a research topic in the 80s, but was recently picked up again last decade..