Am I Autistic or a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
Frogs are very sensitive to their environment. Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
One of the first explanations I stumbled upon for my weirdness was to consider myself a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). I wondered if I was Autistic, but the idea was always dismissed because “your social skills are too good.” I got pretty good at masking and appearing to manage my life, but I was still having a lot of challenges that other people rarely saw. Twenty years of struggle later, I was diagnosed with Autism.
I was inspired to write this blog by an episode of Tony Overbay, MFT’s Waking up to Narcissism podcast: The Evolutionary Superpower of Highly Sensitive People: How HSP Differs from Autism (and Does it Matter?)
What is a Highly Sensitive Person?
Highly Sensitive is a trait first named by Elaine Aron to describe a person with Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS). “According to Dr. Aron’s definition, the highly sensitive person (HSP) has a sensitive nervous system, is aware of subtleties in his/her surroundings, and is more easily overwhelmed when in a highly stimulating environment.”
What do HSPs have to do with Autism?
Autism is a neurotype that includes having sensory processing differences that include sensitivities. The overlap of sensory sensitivity is one reason that some people, including me, believe that calling someone an HSP is a way to identify Autistic traits in high masking Autistics without the stigma of an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.
Though I still identify as an HSP, Autism explains my experience more completely. Identifying as an HSP was useful because I learned to manage my stimulation level which in turn helped to regulate my nervous system. However, it did not explain my periods of disregulation and executive disfunction as well as Autistic Burnout. Seeing my experience only through the lens of Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SSP) left out important parts of the picture and made me feel like there was something wrong with me for not being able to manage it.
A Strength-Based Perspective
The strengths Tony ascribed to HSPs to differentiate them from Autistic people, also apply to some Autistics, including me. I am high masking (aka have skills to mimic and translate allistic communication), very experienced with managing my sensory load, and skilled at getting back to my window of tolerance. When my nervous system is regulated and I am not in burnout, I have the skills you ascribe to HSPs to differentiate HSPs from Autistics.
Trauma and The Autonomic Nervous System
I’m also a trauma therapist who works with many people with Autism and ADHD. It seems to me that Tony is unaware that the DSM-V definition of Autism Spectrum Disorder is focused on behaviors traumatized Autistic people tend to exhibit. Humans who are under threat are in a hyperaroused or hypoaroused state and tend to act using autonomic defenses: fight, flight, freeze, attach, submit. Both HSPs and autistics are receiving more information than most humans. Filtering that information takes extra energy for both HSPs and Autistics, which can lead to overstimulation. Overstimulation and other sensory triggers can cause these nervous system reactions. When a human is in hyper- or hypo-arousal, they lack social skills because the pre-frontal cortex is not online. They may lash out, run away, or freeze. They are focused on survival instead of connection.
The Myth That Autistics Lack Empathy
This may be one reason for the myths that autistic people do not process emotional cues and that we lack empathy. This is incorrect. What tends to be true is autistic people have more emotional empathy while we have to learn cognitive empathy. (Eva Silvertant, Embrace-Autism.com) Cognitive empathy requires the frontal lobe which is not online when people are disregulated or triggered by overstimulation.
Repetitive Behaviors
Another distinction Tony makes is that HSPs do not demonstrate repetitive behaviors. This is unlikely. Any human whose nervous system is in one of these crisis states may use repetitive, self-soothing, movements to calm their nervous system. When Autistic people use these types of movements, it is often called stimming. A lifetime of experiencing these traumas over and over again is leads to being in hyper- and hypo-arousal more often than a regulated state. When people are Autistic we call these states meltdowns and shutdowns. When this persists for a long period of time, it results in Autistic (or neurodivergent) Burnout.
HSPs are High-Masking Autistics
Maybe the real difference between HSPs and Autistics is the level of burnout and/or trauma history. One difference between me and many Autistics is that I experienced very little interpersonal trauma in childhood and grew up in a sensory friendly environment with the freedom to opt out when I needed to. That gave me the capacity to learn things that I would not have been able to learn if I spent most of my childhood disregulated. I was able to learn how to “act normal”, how to hide my disregulation when it happened, and how to sooth myself in ways that were more socially acceptable. I am able to mask my Autism as a result. HSPs sound like high masking Autistics to me.
A Sampling of Resources About Autism Created By Autistics
The distinctions made by Tony, suggest to me that he is unaware of the current understandings of Autistic experience, especially the experiences of high masking autistics. For greater understanding of what Autism feels like to an Autistic person, I recommend learning from Autistic people rather than the DSM and other pathologizing perspectives.
What I Mean When I Say I’m Autistic - Annie Kotowicz - “Welcome inside the mind of an autistic woman! In this mix of memoir and manifesto, I share the trials and triumphs of a life before and after diagnosis.”
Unmasking Autism - Devon Price - “A deep dive into the spectrum of Autistic experience and the phenomenon of masked Autism, giving individuals the tools to safely uncover their true selves while broadening society’s narrow understanding of neurodiversity.”
An interview: The Beauty and Burden of Autism with Dr. Sandra Paulsen - “Dr. Paulsen discusses her own journey with autism, her therapeutic approach for treating trauma in autistic patients, and the benefits and challenges of autism. She emphasizes the importance of gentle and tailored interventions due to the sensitivity of autistic nervous systems. Dr. Paulsen also highlights her newest book, 'The Beauty and Burden of Autism,' which employs her original cartoons to illustrate various psychological constructs.”
Monotropism.org - Fergus Murray defines monotropism: “I believe that the best way to understand autistic minds is in terms of a thinking style which tends to concentrate resources in a few interests and concerns at any time, rather than distributing them widely. This style of processing, monotropism, explains many features of autistic experience that may initially seem puzzling, and shows how they are connected.” And explains how monotropism impacts cognitive functioning: In the 2018 article, Theories and Practice in Autism, Fergus Murray introduces six starting points for understanding autism (español) in terms of monotropism:
Coping with multiple channels is hard
This can be sensory channels or other information streams.Filtering is tricky and error-prone
Sometimes I can’t tune things out, other times I filter them out completely.Changing tracks is destabilising
Task-switching is hard, and new plans take work.I often experience things intensely
Usually things that relate to my concerns and interests.I keep looping back to my interests and concerns
It’s hard to let things drop.Other things that drop out of my awareness tend to stay dropped
I may need reminders.
