Prosper Health's Autism Resource Center

Most autistic individuals have one or more special interests. A special interest is an intense fixation that far exceeds a typical hobby or passion. An autistic person will typically have the desire to devote large portions of their time, and sometimes large portions of their money, to their special interests. Neurotypical people can and do experience fixations or passions, but having a special interest is a trait strongly associated with autism.

Here’s what you need to know about special interests, how they manifest, the benefits of encouraging them, and more.

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Autism can shape how individuals experience relationships, bringing unique strengths like honesty, loyalty, and focus. However, autism also creates challenges related to interpreting social cues or expressing emotions. These differences can easily lead to misunderstandings.

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Autistic people thrive in relationships with clear communication and mutual understanding. For instance, they may prefer direct communication or need time to recharge after sensory overload. When these needs are respected, it fosters trust and support.

As an adult diagnosed first with autism as a child and again as an adult, I have witnessed firsthand the change in the way the DSM, or The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, has changed to affirm autistic people. In 2013, the DSM updated its resources with an eye to supportive care.

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Rather than labeling autistic people with misleading descriptors like high-functioning, low-functioning, or others, experts now categorize autistic individuals based on levels (one, two, or three). These levels indicate varying degrees of support needs, which are often fluid and can change over time.

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Mental health professionals and patients can now navigate autism support without labels, a notable step forward in recognizing the individuality of care. 

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This DSM change also did away with the term pervasive developmental disorder, which encompassed disorders such as Aspergers and child disintegrative disorder. Instead, they were replaced by autism spectrum levels.

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Kaila Hattis, MA, LMFT, founder and therapist of Pacific Coast Therapy, explains, “The change focuses less on what someone has to more on what someone needs, and changes the way families access services and disperse information on what their loved one needs."

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While these three levels of autism don’t capture the full picture of autism spectrum disorder, they’re a move in the right direction to fuller, more nuanced autism treatment.

When I was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, autism spectrum disorder was heavily stigmatized and misunderstood. Since I did exceptionally well in school, no one in my family even considered I might be autistic. Throughout my life, I struggled a lot with focus, sensory sensitivities and interacting with other people. When I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)  in 2019, I learned how common it is to have ASD or ADHD with EDS. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2021, but it still felt like I was missing a piece of the picture.

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Until recently, most adults were not diagnosed with autism in their youth. There are likely several reasons for this, including a variety of issues within the diagnostic process. People of color, nonbinary people, transgender individuals and women have been historically underdiagnosed. This is due to discrimination, stigma or misconceptions. The diagnostic process started to improve in the early 2000s, with new diagnostic criteria that more accurately represents how autism shows up in the world.

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For those of us who weren’t diagnosed earlier in life, though, getting an accurate diagnosis can be hard. Some of us have learned how to mask or camouflage so efficiently that we blend into a neurotypical world really well, making it difficult to find a provider who will take our request for an autism assessment seriously.

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This is one of the many reasons why working with a neurodivergent-affirming clinician is critical when seeking a formal diagnosis. Regardless of the outcome, the diagnostic assessment process can play a helpful role in better understanding yourself. 

According to Very Well Mind, burnout is “a type of exhaustion that can happen when you face prolonged stress that eventually results in severe physical, mental, and emotional fatigue.” For a neurotypical person, this might result in feeling exhausted, being more irritable, and struggling with work- or school-related tasks.

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However, autistic burnout feels much more intense. 

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Autistic people deal with a large amount of stress just by trying to navigate the neurotypical world. Conversations with other people, dealing with sensory overload or masking can all take a toll on us. That means we experience high levels of chronic stress every day. Research shows that these kinds of stress levels have negative effects on our physical and mental health, including a higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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In 2021, autistic researcher Dora Raymaker and their team worked to define autistic burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic life stress and a mismatch of expectations and abilities without adequate support. It is characterized by pervasive, long-term (typically 3+ months) exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus.”

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Let’s break down what autistic burnout can look like in daily life.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. This means it’s a developmental disability involving an individual's neurological system. It is not a mental disorder or mental illness. ASD affects how people communicate, behave and process sensory information.

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Some people believe that the term "spectrum" means everyone falls somewhere on the spectrum of autism. This is because autistic traits are human traits. Many people do have some features of autism, but this does not mean they have enough features of autism, at a high enough level, to be clinically diagnosed as autistic. In actuality, the term “spectrum” helps to highlight that there are many ways that autism can affect people differently. There’s a wide range of how autism presents in someone’s life. For example, there are some autistic people who need significant support, while others can live more independently.

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The diagnosis “autistic disorder” was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R)––a reference manual for mental health providers—in the late 1980s.

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However, the DSM-5, released in 2013, resulted in a major change in language surrounding autism. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is now an overarching diagnosis, encompassing the older diagnoses of Asperger’s syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and autistic disorder.

Increasing awareness and understanding autism

People used to think autism spectrum disorder was rare, but many people are realizing it’s more common than they thought.

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The Cleveland Clinic estimates that 1 in 36 children in the U.S. is autistic, and the CDC estimates that 2.21% of U.S. adults are autistic.

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However, these percentages may actually be higher due to factors like misdiagnosis, underdiagnosis or late diagnoses. These occurrences are particularly common among certain groups, such as girls and women, people of color and those from marginalized communities.

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This doesn’t mean autism is more common now than it used to be. Rather, autism awareness among healthcare providers is higher, especially now that there’s better access to tools and resources for continued learning. The general public knows more about autism, too. These advances help foster better understanding for autistic people as well as their families, friends and communities.