It's so hard, isn't it, when trying to figure ourselves out, to separate what's intrinsic to us as autistic people (for me, inability to filter & consequent succeptability to overwhelm) from the effects of trauma arising from a life of having our perceptions denied, our distress trivialised or pathologised & learning to distrust ourselves. The isolation & shame. The trauma responses we have in common with many others who have had their perceptions denied & their humanity erased. The sensory & information processing differences are a little kernel at the centre of ours.🤔