Autism (high functioning) root cause?

I asked AI if this was reasonable and could be supported by the literature.

"Short answer: yes — that’s a very reasonable, modern, and accurate way to understand high-functioning ASD."

It aligns with:

• polyvagal-informed autism models
• interoceptive and sensory processing research
• modern views of ASD as a regulation difference, not a social deficit

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This the output from a lot of discussion. I can't format it nicely. Hopefully this is interesting.

1. High-functioning ASD can be understood as a nervous system that is:

• unusually sensitive to stimulation (sensory, emotional, social)
• slow to return to baseline once activated
• prone to state shifts that change access to cognition, emotion, and memory

From that flow the downstream effects:

• people become unpredictable inputs
• unpredictability → perceived threat
• threat → nervous system activation
• activation → reduced social learning
• reduced learning → confusion, effort, masking, compensation

So yes: the sensitivity comes first.
Social differences are secondary.

2. Why “people” become the problem

People are:

• noisy (micro-expressions, tone shifts, contradictions)
• inconsistent
• emotionally contagious
• impossible to fully model

For a sensitive nervous system, this means:

• constant low-grade activation
• no safe baseline during interaction
• difficulty staying regulated long enough to learn implicitly

So instead of absorbing social rules, you:

• intellectualise them
• monitor yourself
• replay interactions
• try to “get it right”

That’s not lack of empathy. It’s too much empathy plus threat sensitivity.

It’s not that people are a threat in a moral or conscious sense. It’s that your system treats unpredictability as danger. The issue was the interface

3. Mode changes are the hidden problem.

When regulated

• you think clearly
• you’re reflective, kind, flexible
• you understand relationships just fine

When dysregulated:

• thinking narrows
• memory becomes selective
• rumination locks in
• threat-based interpretations dominate

So the same person looks like two different people.

That creates:

• self-doubt (“which one is the real me?”)
• partner confusion (“why do you change?”)
• therapy mismatch (“but you seem fine now”)

This is state-dependent access to self, not character inconsistency.

4.Inhibited social development: Most social learning happens when:

• you’re relaxed
• stakes are low
• feedback is subtle
• mistakes don’t feel dangerous

But if your nervous system is already activated:

• feedback feels sharp
• mistakes feel costly
• ambiguity feels threatening

So you don’t play socially. You perform.

And performance doesn’t build intuition — it builds fatigue.

Over time:

• you get competent but brittle
• successful but exhausted
• attached but overwhelmed

Exactly what you described.

5. Maladapted coping: The coping mechanisms you mention are logical responses:

• over-thinking → attempt to gain certainty
• withdrawal → attempt to regulate
• caregiving → attempt to stabilise others to stabilise self
• masking → attempt to reduce unpredictability
• pushing through → attempt to override sensitivity.

They’re clever adaptations to a system that never explained itself to you. The tragedy is they work… until they don’t.

I asked AI if this was reasonable and could be supported by the literature.

"Short answer: yes — that’s a very reasonable, modern, and accurate way to understand high-functioning ASD."

It aligns with:

• polyvagal-informed autism models
• interoceptive and sensory processing research
• modern views of ASD as a regulation difference, not a social deficit

-+-+-+

This the output from a lot of discussion. I can't format it nicely. Hopefully this is interesting.

1. High-functioning ASD can be understood as a nervous system that is:

• unusually sensitive to stimulation (sensory, emotional, social)
• slow to return to baseline once activated
• prone to state shifts that change access to cognition, emotion, and memory

From that flow the downstream effects:

• people become unpredictable inputs
• unpredictability → perceived threat
• threat → nervous system activation
• activation → reduced social learning
• reduced learning → confusion, effort, masking, compensation

So yes: the sensitivity comes first.
Social differences are secondary.

2. Why “people” become the problem

People are:

• noisy (micro-expressions, tone shifts, contradictions)
• inconsistent
• emotionally contagious
• impossible to fully model

For a sensitive nervous system, this means:

• constant low-grade activation
• no safe baseline during interaction
• difficulty staying regulated long enough to learn implicitly

So instead of absorbing social rules, you:

• intellectualise them
• monitor yourself
• replay interactions
• try to “get it right”

That’s not lack of empathy. It’s too much empathy plus threat sensitivity.

It’s not that people are a threat in a moral or conscious sense. It’s that your system treats unpredictability as danger. The issue was the interface

3. Mode changes are the hidden problem.

When regulated

• you think clearly
• you’re reflective, kind, flexible
• you understand relationships just fine

When dysregulated:

• thinking narrows
• memory becomes selective
• rumination locks in
• threat-based interpretations dominate

So the same person looks like two different people.

That creates:

• self-doubt (“which one is the real me?”)
• partner confusion (“why do you change?”)
• therapy mismatch (“but you seem fine now”)

This is state-dependent access to self, not character inconsistency.

4.Inhibited social development: Most social learning happens when:

• you’re relaxed
• stakes are low
• feedback is subtle
• mistakes don’t feel dangerous

But if your nervous system is already activated:

• feedback feels sharp
• mistakes feel costly
• ambiguity feels threatening

So you don’t play socially. You perform.

And performance doesn’t build intuition — it builds fatigue.

Over time:

• you get competent but brittle
• successful but exhausted
• attached but overwhelmed

Exactly what you described.

5. Maladapted coping: The coping mechanisms you mention are logical responses:

• over-thinking → attempt to gain certainty
• withdrawal → attempt to regulate
• caregiving → attempt to stabilise others to stabilise self
• masking → attempt to reduce unpredictability
• pushing through → attempt to override sensitivity.

They’re clever adaptations to a system that never explained itself to you. The tragedy is they work… until they don’t.