by Sammy Stein

Created on: September 17, 2008   Last Updated: November 25, 2008

We all have autistic traits in us. Most of us can recall, at some time or other, resorting to routines which offer comfort, checking the plugs are off or we have our keys numerous times, needing to perform a task a set number of times so our day goes well, having temporary fixations with numbers and so on. These are normal human behaviour. However, when these traits overwhelm a person, then autism is suspected.

Many adults have lived with autism all their lives and are only now recognising their symptoms. With more recognition, it is more common for adult diagnosis, which, though not seeking to cure the condition, helps the person with it understand themselves better and not feel so alone.

Autism crosses a vast range of symptoms from severe communication problems to high functioning types like Aspergers. Physical symptoms such as awkwardness or clumsiness are more likely to be a result of conditions like ADHD, Dyspraxia and ADD which sometimes accompany autism.

The autistic person may be one who communicates rarely or one who is very good at communicating and shows litle outward signs of their condition until stress at having to constantly cope with our world brings about behaviour which is regarded as odd, like the routines. People with autism find routines and habits comforting. They allow them some control in a world which, to them, is literally, bonkers.

Some may run away or lash out when coping becomes too much and we must not forget that this is what a person with autism is doing most of the time - coping! One man described his life with autism as living in a bubble where you want to scream yet know somehow this is wrong but it builds up inside until you have to go away from people.

If you have a literal and rigid way of thinking, you see the world clearly but only from one aspect. How then, do you read other peoples' facial expressions? - how do you pick up on the social nuances that the rest of us learn so young? How do you know how to react to a joke and how, for goodness' sake do you learn that when someone says 'pull up your socks' it does not mean you have to stop and do that or if another says a man 'has a chip on his shoulder' it does not mean it literally?

Many autistic people are very clever and their understanding of certain concepts is good but when it comes to conceptual thinking, they lack the skills to be able to conceptualise. For example 2 plus they know is 4. Now ask them to imagine two men each with two loaves of bread and they may find it

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