But You Don’t Look Autistic at All (Bianca Toeps’ Books)

by Bianca Toeps

Some people see stimming as a way to cope with understimulation, think of twirling or hand flapping. Pressure vests and weighted blankets, or seeking out busy places like a carnival, are also often mentioned as methods to battle understimulation. I personally see it differently: I think they are ways to deal with overstimulation. That may not seem logical, but if you think back to the Tetris analogy from before: the stimuli caused by stims, physical sensations or crowded places seem to activate a clean-up system that, while processing these self-chosen stimuli, also clears away the unpleasant stimuli.

Are women better at camouflaging, or do they face more severe consequences if they don’t?

I was Schrödinger’s autistic: both too autistic to understand, and not autistic enough to understand.