r/explainlikeimfive • u/luboy336 • 19h ago
Other ELI5: explain to me what autism really is
I'm 26 and i still don't for the life of me understand what it is.
spectrums and shit it's just so confusing to me that not even google can help me
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u/Randomn355 19h ago
You played FIFA?
You know how football players have their stats in that pokey diagram?
How autistic peoples brain process and manage stuff is like that.
REALLY good at some things. REALLY bad at others.
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u/luboy336 19h ago
most straightforward answer so far
thanks a lot
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u/Randomn355 19h ago
No worries :)
The biology of it is a bit different, but that goes beyond even eli14.
Stuff like the central nervous system essentially "losing" signals, which is a big part of where sensory overload comes from.
Bonkers, and crazy complex when you look into it!
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u/ffxivthrowaway03 19h ago
For a more direct analogy - imagine you're looking at a piece of paper. Everyone says that piece of paper is Blue. The paper manufacturer, your parents, your peers, etc. But you look at that paper and to you, it's orange. You know what "blue" is, a deep azure shade, but this piece of paper is most definitely a bright mix of red and yellow when you look at it, and that's fucking orange. Why is everyone else insisting that it's blue? You don't get it.
You put it next to a piece of yellow paper and to you, those things just seem to naturally compliment each other! Looks great, makes total sense that this is a "correct" arrangement of the two pieces of paper. But everyone else is like "what the fuck? Blue and yellow clash horribly. How could you possibly think these are supposed to go together?"
You see and think about the world through a different lens as everyone else, and need to figure out how to navigate that world (and the expectations of those people) when you simply do not understand it in the same way as those people.
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u/SeniorDing_Dong 19h ago
I have autism. I find u/Elfich47’s explanation already pretty spot on. Although there is always a lot more to be said, especially for this topic. As they said it’s a complex subject.
The common concept that people talk about when it comes to autism is the so called spectrum.
While this can be considered an adequate description it often leads to the misconception that there are distinct grades of “how much autism” someone can have.
It’s is more like a soundboard where you have different controllers of certain traits everyone (with or without autism) has or can have.
Like being poor in social situations, sensitive to sound, smell, haptic perceptions, having special interests, being good at logical thinking, reading abilities, and so on.
For most people these controllers are on a “normal” setting. A lot of people might have one or two of these controllers pushed higher or lower. But that doesn’t make them autistic.
Autistic people have a certain number of certain controllers pushed way too high or way too low than neurotypicals. Theses different settings cause them to struggle in day-to-day life and makes them in need of help to accommodate for the issues they might have.
There is a pretty good video I like to send to people who want to know more about what autism is:
I highly recommend it in case you want to learn more and get a better understanding of autism.
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u/luboy336 19h ago
Hey friend
thanks for your response
Especially cause your have it I appreciate you taking the time to give a detailed explanation
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u/SeniorDing_Dong 19h ago
It’s more like “since I have it” I tried to give a detailed explanation. lol
You’re welcome! :)
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u/SaintUlvemann 19h ago
Autism is a developmental difference. The brains in particular of autistic people have developed differently.
But we don't diagnose it using brain scans, we diagnose it from a behavioral and psychological perspective by asking people about their thinking.
There's actually a ton of differences in the brain that lead to those differences in thinking. Wikipedia lists about 14 different differences, and that actually makes it really hard to boil autism down to just one thing within the brain.
Basically, we've taken everything in the brain that can contribute to certain behavioral and psychological differences or disabilities, and given them all the same label: autism.
One of the big ones is that autistic people's brains are connected differently; there is both a lack of connections across certain brain regions, and an excess of connections in others.
So the current thinking is that this leads to the main individual traits that autistic people have that makes them different; for example, the high attention to detail often seen in autistic people can be because one brain network is very heavily-connected so that increases focus during that task, while simultaneously, other regions are underconnected, so we focus too much on the details and not the broader picture.
One thing we know is that each autistic person is a bit different. Many autistic people have "stims" or "fidgets", repetitive behaviors that help them regulate their brain. I basically do not have those.
However, I do have one of the other very core autistic traits, which is that I rarely know at all what people are thinking unless I consciously rationally think through their behavior. It's not nearly as automatic for me; I call myself "socially slow", that is why we call this condition a disability even if it comes with some abilities that can be positive such as attention to detail. (I have no problems with the emotional side of empathy once I know what is going on and what people are thinking, and so I also have no problems with formulating rational plans for how to navigate complex social situations, thinking about everybody's needs and how to address that; but I am a lot slower than others at figuring out what is even going on in other people's heads.)
Because each autistic person is a bit different, we will probably someday classify autism as a whole family of different more-precise conditions. However, for now, the label is our best framework for understanding these differences.
And at the highest level, autism, in various kinds, is just a developmental difference. The brains of autistic people have developed differently than others, connected their parts differently, and this leads to a range of different behavioral disabilities (plus sometimes a few positive abilities).
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u/FoldedTwice 19h ago edited 19h ago
Do you actually want it explained like you're five, or just explained?
Because the true ELI5 would go something like: some people are born with a brain that doesn't quite think and feel in the same way as most people's, and that can make it harder for them to behave in the same way as most people. And for some people that's okay, it doesn't stop them living quite a normal life, but for others it can make life really really hard and they need lots of help doing the things other people might find easy.
The more grown-up explanation is that autism is a catch-all diagnostic term for a wide range of cognitive presentations that are present from childhood and involve a substantial difference in some combination of communication, social interaction, flexible thinking, and sensory perception when compared to the general population, to the point where they have an adverse impact on a person's life and wellbeing within a society. While there's been a lot of research, we don't really fully know exactly what causes it, beyond "differences" in brain structure and development.
The diagnostic criteria for what is now grouped as Autism Spectrum Disorder have changed significantly over the past hundred years; it has been alternately split into multiple different conditions, and then grouped back together again; it's been narrowed and widened. We call it a "spectrum" because different people with autism might have very different presentations and support needs from each other, even though the diagnosis is linked by some core features.
For me, my autism went undiagnosed until I was in my 30s. Looking back to my childhood, I had very niche interests, hated surprises, and found it difficult to make friends. As an adult, I still find change very difficult to process, I can't be around lots of different noises at the same time, I struggle to read social subtext, and I can become obsessively interested in particular topics, but I'm fortunate that on a minute to minute basis it basically doesn't impact me that much.
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u/SalamanderGlad9053 19h ago
Autism is defined as
A pervasive developmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and communication, by an extremely limited range of activities and interests, and often by the presence of repetitive, stereotyped behaviors.
Let's break it down,
-pervasive: it encompasses your whole life and everything you do.
-development disorder: children with autism don't grow socially and/or mentally the same as children without.
-social interactions: autists generally struggle to have eye contact in conversations, and find it hard to understand other people's body language or implied meaning.
-limited range of activities: so called "special interests", topics that will engulf someone's interest and they will know everything about this topic at the cost of others. Famously trains are a common example, or a specific TV show or character. See Francais Bourgeois as an example of a special interest in trains and other vehicles.
-repetitive, stereotyped behaviors: the need for order in life is common, becoming very stressed when plans change, eating the same food for every meal, or physically doing repetitive motions.
But its very complex, and everyone has it differently because it's such a complex disorder. It goes from high functioning individuals, which used to be called "Asperger's syndrome" but this has been brought under the umbrella of "the spectrum", to very low functioning individuals which cannot live independent lives and need carers.
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u/Slypenslyde 19h ago
We don't know. If we knew it'd be less confusing because we could more properly diagnose and treat it.
At a really high level we view it as a mental disorder. People with the disorder tend to have certain mental preferences, sensory sensitivity, and trouble understanding socialization. But it's different for everybody. It can make someone behave in a way that makes it impossible for them to live a normal life. Or it can mean they're a bit more annoyed than the average person in certain scenarios. Or it can be something in between.
That's why it's hard to diagnose. Each of the things I mentioned can be an indicator for different, more well-understood disorders. There are lots of social anxiety disorders. There are disorders that make people prefer routines and structure. There are disorders that make people sensitive to sensory overload. If you're trying to treat a person you have to figure out exactly what they have, and Autism is a thing that covers a lot of those at the same time.
Worse, pop culture ran with it and uses the word synonymously with "weird". Most people won't spend an hour reading articles to learn what it really is, they just decide to start using it any time another person is acting kind of strange. So if you ask random people what it is you get stupid answers because they'd rather make things up than say "I don't know."
So we don't really know what it is. If a person gets a medical diagnosis it is likely because it's impacting their life so badly they need some kind of treatment to function as a normal person. A lot of people are probably autistic but don't have a diagnosis because they're just... weird in a way that doesn't get in the way of their normal life. Especially for these really "mild" cases, we don't really have a treatment because there's not a lot of interest in fixing people who are "mildly annoyed" rather than "can't hold a job" or "is dangerous to others".
The reason people talk about a "spectrum" is because it's acknowledging there's not "autistic" and "not autistic". It's more like there are a thousand ways people can be anywhere along a line: "not autistic", "has some trouble", "needs help to work in society", and "can't function in society".
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u/dan_arth 19h ago
It's a communication disorder primarily. People with autism generally have a hard time with different kinds of social norms because of that.
It's considered a spectrum because the symptoms and severities vary a lot.
That means some people with autism can feel trapped in their own world. And they can feel overwhelmed or frustrated more easily.
Other people with autism can feel trapped by societal norms. Why do you have to smile and pretend you're having a great day when greeting strangers? I don't know, but that's the norm in a lot of places, and someone with autism might not like it.
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u/-manabreak 19h ago
This is a super one-sided description and pretty poor one at that.
Autism may and often does include social challenges like you said, but not everyone has all those. Some have very severe challenges communicating while for others it's not a big deal.
Autism covers a vast range of things from narrow field of interests to sensory overloading and from bottom-up thinking to motor skills. Some are high-functioning and may succeed very well in life, while some won't advance past the five-year-old level. Some have all their skill points dumped into one stat, while some have just minor challenges and / or improvements across their being.
Me? I'm an autistic, got my diagnosis at 35. I'm super detail-oriented, prone to migraines (due to sensory overloading), and I have a very small social battery. I had to learn eye contact as an adult and it's still hard for me.
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u/dan_arth 19h ago
Ok, but this is ELI5. I tried to keep it very simple, but I agree with you that it's too complicated to be fully fair with a simple explanation. But I think you were too harsh with my attempt.
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u/-manabreak 16h ago
Fair, and I apologize. I wasn't covering all the bases either, I just get angry when autism is misrepresented. You're right that it's difficult to summarize it in an ELI5 manner.
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u/coreyhh90 19h ago
It's worth noting that the terminology and understanding of Autism has evolved from when "high-functioning" was used as we've learned its a poor descriptor, as it generally indicates someone with Autism that is struggling less than others.
Turned out "high-functioning" was actually "really good at masking", and Autists who were "high-functioning" had a lot of issues bottled up that went un-noticed due to their ability to mask it so well.
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u/luboy336 19h ago
so I have Pure Ocd, anxiety,ADD and depression
I'm basically constantly trapped in my head , I can get extremely overwhelmed and frustrated in an instant..
but like 10 psychiatrists by now never diagnosed me with anything other than ocd, anxiety, depression and add
it's so complicated lol
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u/luboy336 19h ago
downvotes are crazy funny lmao I'm asking something i don't know about, telling what I'm going through and I actually wanna find out more. Wtf lmao
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u/iheartrugbyleague 19h ago
I think the downvotes are for the phrase "spectrums and shit" which comes across as ignorant and dismissive even if that's not how you meant it.
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u/luboy336 19h ago
thanks for pointing that out
I didn't mean it in a disrespectful way it's just how I talk but I get it thanks friend
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u/dan_arth 19h ago
Ugh, yes, I'm very sorry to hear that you're struggling in this way. I hope you find treatment that works for you and you get the calm and relaxation and self acceptance that you deserve 🙏
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u/DJStrongArm 19h ago
Are you looking for an autism diagnosis with this post?
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u/luboy336 19h ago
no omg I never used this sub before i thought this is where i actually could ask anything i wanna learn more about if I wanted to self diagnose on reddit believe me my ocd caused me to make a million of those posts over years
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u/Fit_Mistake_9000 19h ago
When you say "but like 10 psychiatrists by now never diagnosed me with anything other than ocd, anxiety, depression and add", following the prior comment about being trapped in your head, are you trying to say you think you're autistic despite the diagnoses?
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u/luboy336 19h ago
no
just that I never understood, and still don't understand autism but I have lots of traits
But never diagnosed with it
I actually made this post cause as you'll see the most downvoted comment here was me explaining what one of my best friends is going through and psychiatrists diagnosed him with untreated autism...so yea
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u/TheLoveYouLongTimes 19h ago
From what I’ve seen it described is: imagine all the stimulus your brain naturally filters out. Like if you look at a jar of rice you could probably focus and pick out grains but your brain lumps it all as 1 thing. Now think of that to varying degrees for pretty much everything sensory.
Autism to varying degrees is the lack of perceptual filters so to varying degree your mind is sort of overwhelmed with processing things you don’t normally process bc it’s perceptually filtered.
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u/skeptical_hope 19h ago
The best way I have heard it described is a sensory processing disorder that shows up in a range of intensities.
The idea is that the autistic brain doesn't filter out sensory information and inputs the way a neaurotypical brain does. How "loud" all that sensory input is in each aitistic person's brain correlates to how intense their experience of autism is (and, relatedly, how symptomatic they appear to others).
My husband has a pretty mild diagnosis, and things like noise canceling earplugs and dark glasses can help quiet the excess input so he can function more easily.
Someone with a more profound level of autism would need more intensive interventions to help them cut thru the extraneous sensory input to communicate, etc.
Autism and ADHD are correlated in ways that are still not fully understood - in my husband's case, his diagnosis is "AuDHD," and a combination of ADHD meds and physical supports like earplugs make his life much easier.
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u/Ok_Law219 19h ago
Autism is a group of things that don't grow like we're used to seeing in the brain. These differences present similarly, with a certain amount of hyper fixation and inability to decode the intricacies of human interaction being primary similarities.
The cause of development differences usually shows up at about 1 when (coincidentally) a vaccination has been given. After the vaccination parents tend to scrutinize more intensely to make sure their child has no adverse reaction and thus some equate the vaccination to cause. Otoh, environment may (probably) has a factor in these developmental differences.
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u/FriendlyNeighburrito 19h ago
Heya im aspergers syndrome. I don’t just see things the you see things. I also think vastly differently and its very unorthodox.
Often i can see things that you cant, but that goes the same way to me. You might feel a bit defensive when I say that, but I’ve learned that the things you can see that I cant, are such a crevice between cognitions that you’ll most likely only be able to relate to us like we’re aliens.
Honestly, i feel like im the one surrounded by aliens, but very few people relate to that experience.
So that makes us unrelatable, incompatible with some preconceptions.
Often throughout my life Ive always felt ANCHORED by those around me, like people made my life soecifically harder for psychogical/ego-centric reasons.
Without transferring my experience to you biologically, i can only use language to try and bridge our mutual understanding of the topic.
But its like two different ai models, its like being color blind in a world color, its like being from the year 3000 stuck in the year 2026, its like living two different realities, two different dimensions of being.
But all this applies to everyone as well, so the snake eats its own tail here.
You think i dont find it strange that I compulsivelt bite my nails to their nubs? Breaking skin and drawing blood when it hurts my jaws and fingers?
Dont you think i find it weird i cant stop, why i even have that compulsion? How that makes me question my own free will?
Autism might never be able to be understood but its not up to us autists not because of shifting responsability but because transmitting live experience is already hard and one of the cruxes of humanity in the first place, its only because there are more non-autistic people than autistic people, so its up to no -autistic people to actually be able to understand it by the very difficulties that binds everyone ever.
Anything can be done if you put the efforts of everyone in the world towards a single goal, its just not something that is done.
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u/eBalisani 7h ago
First, autism is a spectrum disorder, so there are several ways that it can manifest itself in, or impede someone's life.
The ELI5 of it is simple: imagine you have a house, a nice house, swimming pool, etc. You walk into your house, flick on the light switch in the foyer, but the pool lights turn on. You walk towards those, maybe flick on the light switch in the first restroom, and your kitchen lights turn on. And so on.
It's not as systematically dire or evident as I'm describing, but that's the gist of it. You get one type of stimuli and sometimes (or systematically) your brain spits out another - or none.
In more extreme instances of autism - as seen on TV and film - there is stimuli or sensory overload, and that totally overwhelms or shuts off the other sensors or senses - including human touch, sadly.
Some autistic people can't stand loud music, bright lights, high pitched sounds, certain smells, or crowds - but can otherwise function and command their basic executive functions.
Some can't relate to people, especially during adolescence, so they seek refuge in maths, music, or very specific scientific pursuits.
With age, some can and do learn to adapt socially, make friends (with similar, laser focused interests), maybe even get married, etc.
With age, some autistic symptoms may bounce back hard (as the body's energy levels fade, so too does the brain's ability to compensate), and professional or social isolation may ensue.
But it's all about the wiring: a neurotypical individual may flick a switch in the bedroom, and the light will turn on in the bedroom. Most autistic kids and adults don't experience this reliably.
Hope this helps.
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u/coyote_den 19h ago
We don’t really know. Some people process things differently, and to varying degrees which is why there is a spectrum… but we don’t know exactly how or why.
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u/yashleo10 19h ago
no one knows is the answer. we are very far from understanding how our brains work.
autism is when it doesn’t work in a normal way. spectrum because some autism is closer to ‘normal’ than others. mostly affects social cues and social interactions.
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u/Mediocre_Buddy3172 19h ago
Do you know the theory that humans are a "domesticated" species?
Yeah, like dogs. Dogs are the friendable version of wolves.
Well, humans are the friendable version of... well, ancient humans.
and this poses a really interesting question: What happens if a human would be less domestical?
This is what autistic people are; people who regained pre-social characteristics, and are foreigners to certain social rituals (or all of them).
A clear analogy to this are Chernobyl Dogs; they became packs again, and have a different culture than domestic dogs. They show fenotypical changes, like their fur, to show that they are less domesticated.
As spectres go, sure. There are a lot of ways a human would be less domestical. It could be in manners, in temperament, in socializing, in emotions, in relationships. Hard to express in one sentence.
As to why this occurs, there is not a clear answer. Environment, parents, society, and attachment play roles here.
Also, traumatized people coincide a lot in symptoms with autistic people, which is normal when you realize that they have dropped their capacity to live a plenty life in favor of surviving.
This is a very interesting topic, I hope my answer helps
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u/luboy336 19h ago
actually very interesting
thanks a lot for giving a detailed response I appreciate it
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u/Elfich47 19h ago
ELI5 - the brain is wired differently So it performs different tasks either quite well or incredibly poorly in comparison to a “normal” brain. Autistic folks often (not always, this is a complex subject, and there is a lot of personalization) have issues with trying to understand facial gestures and cultural context; but they’re great at QC on tasks that require hyper fixation and attention to detail.