Affective empathy—the ability to feel “with” someone—is strong in most of us. Henry and Kamila Markram have put forth a concept called the Intense World Theory.24 The idea is that the autistic brain is “supercharged” with many more neural connections than the non-autistic brain and, as a result, the world is too intense to bear. Sounds are too loud and painful, lights are too bright, smells are too strong, and feelings are too intense. The more intense the perception of the world, the more the Autistic person pulls away and builds a sort of “bubble” around themselves for protection. While
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