My Autism Journey
Is It Autism, Trauma, or Both?
Trauma co-occurs with autism in surprisingly high numbers
Am I autistic?
I began to wonder last year. The question arose after learning that highly sensitive people may be level-one autistics—a view commonly held in the autism community.
Psychologist Elaine Aron, PhD, began researching high sensitivity in 1991 and coined the term “highly sensitive person (HSP).”
I scored high on Aron’s high-sensitivity self-test decades ago and have identified as a highly sensitive person since then.
To understand high sensitivity in a nutshell, consider the four main aspects established by Aron as her “DOES” model based on the first letter of each trait.
A highly sensitive person:
- Processes information deeply—depth of processing
- Becomes easily overstimulated—overstimulation
- Feels more emotionally and reacts more—emotional reactivity
- Perceives more of the subtleties around her—sensing the subtle
Only recently has it been discovered that Aron’s initial research on high sensitivity was based on family members who were later diagnosed as autistic.
