Some autistic people are sensory avoidant, meaning they self-soothe by getting away from sounds, smells and other stimuli. Other people with autism regulate their emotions by seeking out more sensory input from the environment. For example, they may make loud noises, fidget, pace or rock back and forth.
Around a half of autistic people have difficulties understanding and describing their own emotions. This is known as Alexithymia. Alexithymia can make anxiety feel worse for autistic people.
Some research, for example that of Baron-Cohen, has concluded that those living with autism are lacking in the ability to identify and understand the thoughts and feelings of others and therefore do not tend to respond to these with appropriate emotion.
The findings suggest that some social-communication difficulties seen in autism — such as the inability to recognize emotions in others or to respond to others' feelings — may sometimes be due to alexithymia, Bird says.
Just as many autistic people are hypersensitive to senses such as sight and sound, they may also be hypersensitive to emotions, so may be much more significantly affected by emotional triggers than others. Their other areas of hypersensitivity can also contribute to a strong emotional reaction.
Empathy and autism. Some characterizations suggest that autistic people do not feel empathy. However, research indicates that rather than lacking empathy, autistic people may have imbalances in empathy skills compared with neurotypical people.
Associative Thinking: Most individuals on the spectrum are associative thinkers rather than linear thinkers. In other words, one thought connects to another and so on through sometimes loose or seemingly irrelevant connections.
While some people with autism merely yell or stamp, many really do become overwhelmed by their own emotions. 3 Bolting, hitting, self-abuse, crying, and screaming are all possibilities. These can be particularly frightening—and even dangerous—when the autistic individual is physically large.
Love and affection may be felt but expressed differently
They may show love, for example, through a practical act, and tidy up for you, or iron your shirt, rather than through a more neurotypical way of looking at you and telling you or using physical affection.
Because individuals with autism have a literal perception of the world, they tend to take things at face value without judging or interpreting them. This has led some researchers to conclude that people with autism perceive the world as it actually is as they don't allow their brain to shape how they see things.
Facial expressions smooth social interactions: A smile may show interest, a frown empathy. People with autism have difficulty making appropriate facial expressions at the right times, according to an analysis of 39 studies1. Instead, they may remain expressionless or produce looks that are difficult to interpret.
While love is expressed and experienced differently from person to person, those with autism are fully capable of forming deep emotional connections. These can include love for their family, friends, romantic partners, or even interests and hobbies.
The purpose of executive function within our brains is to manage tasks such as planning, organization, reasoning, multitasking, problem solving and behavior inhibition. People with autism, (as well as those with ADHD and other disruptive impulse-control and conduct disorders) often struggle with executive dysfunction.
During a meltdown, we found that most autistics described feeling overwhelmed by information, senses, and social and emotional stress. They often felt extreme emotions, such as anger, sadness, and fear, and had trouble with thinking and memory during the meltdown.
Because of the nature of ASD, you may feel a lack of communication and emotional contact with your partner. As you try to work on your relationship, it is likely that contact with others will become more limited causing further loneliness. This can lead to depression, and maybe even, feelings of despair.
The high-functioning person with autism is not a manipulative, scheming person who is trying to make life difficult. They are seldom, if ever, capable of being manipulative. Usually misbehavior is the result of efforts to survive experiences which may be confusing, disorienting, or frightening.
Autism and Emotional Intelligence
Many autistics struggle with emotional intelligence.
Summary: Autistic Burnout Symptoms
Autistic burnout can look like many things, but most commonly, it shows itself as extreme exhaustion, increased sensory sensitives, loss of executive functioning skills, decreased ability to manage emotions, difficulty adapting to change, and depression.
Many autistic people experience hypersensitivity to bright lights or certain light wavelengths (e.g., LED or fluorescent lights). Certain sounds, smells, textures and tastes can also be overwhelming. This can result in sensory avoidance – trying to get away from stimuli that most people can easily tune out.
In addition to sensory triggers, certain chemicals found in everyday household products like cleaning supplies or air fresheners can also aggravate symptoms of autism. These chemicals include phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), which have been shown to disrupt hormones and affect behavior in animal studies.
Autistic individuals prefer predictability, routines, and patterns, making sudden changes difficult. It bothers them greatly when unexpected changes occur, and they become very upset about it. For instance, HFA individuals may stick with routines developed for them by other people or themselves.
A few different factors converge to explain why autistic people have an “overly full head” and disorganized thoughts, as well as why we may be scatterbrained, quick to lose oversight, and more prone to overstimulation and dysregulation. All these factors are likely caused by overconnectivity in the brain.
People with autism tend to have insomnia: It takes them an average of 11 minutes longer than typical people to fall asleep, and many wake up frequently during the night. Some people with the condition have sleep apnea, a condition that causes them to stop breathing several times during the night.
Some autistic people may experience problems seeing with “meaning” within their visual surroundings and environment. This means they may use other sensory inputs to gain meaning because they cannot internally mentalise the image, visuals or see the significance they hold.