Autism symptoms

Autism is known as a ‘spectrum condition’ because its characteristics can range in severity. Some people’s autistic traits aren’t severe enough to affect their ability to function in day-to-day life – this was previously known by some people as ‘high functioning autism’. However, other people have severe autism, which is a lot more challenging and can mean they need daily support.

Usually, autistic traits become apparent in childhood, although some people don’t receive an autism diagnosis until adulthood. Both adults and children on the autism spectrum can experience difficulties or differences in:

• Communication and the nuances of language
• Behaviours (these can often be repetitive or restrictive)
• Speech (some autistic people are non-verbal)
• Social skills and interacting with others
• Processing sensory information

While everyone with autism may share some of the same characteristics, it’s important to understand that it affects everyone differently. No two people on the autism spectrum will have the same traits or experiences - they might just need different levels of support. In addition, it’s important to note that while some autistic people can experience difficulties in the above areas, others can excel and demonstrate great talent in these areas.

Symptoms of 'high-functioning' autism

'High-functioning' autism, or autism without a learning disability (which was once known as Asperger syndrome), tends to have traits that are much more subtle than other, more severe forms of autism. For this reason, people might not be diagnosed until adolescence or adulthood, as the impact of these symptoms on their day-to-day life is often not as extreme.

Symptoms of autism without a learning disability include:

• Fixation on certain topics or ideas. Fixating on certain topics during conversations, extensively researching certain things that interest you, or playing the same piece of music over and over again
• Your habits or manner when speaking may seem ‘odd’, ‘eccentric’ or simply ‘different’ to other people. This might be because you fixate on certain topics or don’t always follow the ‘rules’ of conversations. For example, you might interrupt people when they’re speaking
• Coming across as shy, awkward or ‘quirky’ when socialising with other people
• Struggling to process certain sensory information. For example, you might feel uncomfortable or stressed when you’re in a noisy crowd, or you might find the background music in a shop or a restaurant to be distracting or unbearably loud
• You prefer to have a routine or a plan and become frustrated when this changes
• Emotional sensitivity – becoming frustrated or upset more easily than people who don’t have autism

You might also have clear differences in your cognitive abilities than people without autism. Autism affects people at all levels of intelligence but can cause differences in the type of intelligence and abilities that someone has. Non-verbal skills tend to be much stronger than verbal skills in autistic people, and they often perform better on visual and memory tasks as opposed to abstract thinking or symbolic activities.

In addition, autistic people can also have varying IQs, depending on where they are on the spectrum. Autistic people without a learning disability often have above average IQs, whereas people with more severe autism tend to have below average IQs.

Plus, some autistic people are thought to have what's known as ‘savant’ abilities, which include extraordinary feats such as being able to multiply large numbers in their head, or memorise and play a complex piece of music after hearing it once.

Severe autism symptoms

Someone with severe autism will likely require support to help them function on a daily basis. The traits associated with severe autism are profound and can cause a number of challenges.

These include:

• Extreme sensitivity to sensory stimuli, leading to sensory overload
• Non-verbal – being unable to speak
• Appear not to notice other people or the environment around them
• Low to very low IQs
• Uncontrollable repetitive behaviours such as rocking backwards and forwards, flapping of arms, or making loud unintelligible noises over and over again. However, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether this is due to a person’s autism or potentially due to other factors such as a learning disability, sensory issues, or something that the person is unable to communicate
• Injuring themselves on purpose, for example, by banging their head against a wall
• Demonstrating aggressive behaviour towards others, for example, biting or hitting caregivers
• Wandering off and getting lost
• Experiencing autism ‘meltdowns’, whereby the person becomes so emotionally overwhelmed or overloaded with sensory information they’re unable to control their behaviour

Managing autism traits

Depending on the severity of your autism, there may be a number of things you can do to help manage the characteristics of your condition:

• Practise mindfulness, deep breathing or meditation to help you cope if you’re ever feeling anxious or upset
• Look after yourself physically – try to get enough sleep at night, eat healthily and exercise
• Talk about how you’re feeling with someone who cares about you, and let them know how they can help you
• Look for support groups so you can connect with other people who know how you feel

Autism and mental health

Autism itself isn’t a mental health condition. It just means that you think, feel and experience the world around you differently. However, it’s important to understand that autistic people might be more prone to developing mental health or other conditions such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), Tourette’s syndrome and sleep disorders.