Nicole Filippone, Autistic Advocate & Author

If you're autistic, I'd love to know if this resonates... ❤️

Because in an EXTREMELY unpredictable and unreliable world where most things are not within a person's control, THIS is one of the FEW WAYS we can reliably ensure our needs are getting met.

And autism awareness would be much farther along if more people understood this.

And if more people understood this, more people would understand autism.

Because this is not just another thing worth knowing about autism.

It's a CORE FEATURE of how autistic brains function...

Think of a routine changing like a person with heart medication no longer having access to that medication.

No one would question their anxiety in that situation. It would be completely understandable.

Well, that anxiety is similar to the way autistic people feel when routines change.

So when a (highly calibrated, carefully constructed) routine changes, we're not anxious "just because" something changed.

We're anxious because it means our NEEDS are no longer BEING MET.

And when an autistic person forms a routine, especially when they can control most, if not all of the variables, each element is there intentionally.

Not accidenally. Not randomly. Intentionally.

And each one is there to get a specific need met.

Not want. Not preference. NEED.

We're not anxious about the change. We're anxious about what the change MEANS for our autistic brains.

Our routines are made up of thousands of micro-elements that all serve *extremely* important purposes.

I don't think most people understand what "routine" actually means when it comes to autism.

They think routines are just things we've gotten used to repeating over time... and that when autistic people have meltdowns over routines changing, it's just because we're anxious about the change.

Nope.

We’re not just being annoying. We have brain wiring differences that cause internal NEEDS that we can’t magically make disappear.

And more people need to understand this.

But I think it's important that people understand what's actually happening inside our brains and bodies when we correct others.

Because it's part of what makes our autism a social disability.

I'm not suggesting that autistic people can't or shouldn't work on this. I think there is a fair and healthy balance that can be achieved for both people in a conversation where this shows up.

Which is why we rely on our internal coherence for survival.

And why what others see as excessive and nitpicky, our nervous systems see as absolutely necessary.

I understand how annoying this can feel to others (even other neurodivergent people).

So, as we learn the hard way what those “rules” are, each hard-earned lesson becomes etched into our mental model of the world, which then becomes a CRUCIAL part of our internal coherence.

No matter how small it may seem to others.

As autistic people, most of us have experienced mistreatment for not understanding the world around us.

For responding or behaving “incorrectly” or “inappropriately” before we were ever explicitly taught the “rules” that define what “correct” and “appropriate” even are.

We don't correct because we want to annoy people. We correct things that our nervous systems interpret as a threat. Because we rely on our internal coherence for survival.

When things are imprecise, it shakes our internal coherence. It gives us anxiety. Overwhelming anxiety a lot of the time. And it paralyzes us mentally.

Autistic precision. People keep asking for examples of autistic needs. Here you go. Here's a really good example of an autistic need that most people don't understand.

Our brains don't just WANT precision. We NEED it.

Also, just because an opinion seems black and white doesn't mean it is.

Ask me why I feel the way I do about any moral view I hold and watch me write an entire dissertation explaining why I hold that view.

Too many people are equating strong opinions with lacking nuance. You can develop strong opinions after considering and weighing millions of factors. The two are not mutually exclusive.

This is not cognitive rigidity. It's a MANIFESTATION OF MY SENSORY NEEDS. 🙂

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. 🙏🏻

I'm autistic. (Level 1)

Most of my rigidity is rooted in my sensory needs.

I'm "rigid" about what I eat.
I'm "rigid" about what I wear.
I'm "rigid" about how I sleep.
I'm "rigid" about where I work.

We just look that way because people (including the psychologists who wrote the diagnostic criteria) mistake things like justice sensitivity for cognitive rigidity.

When they aren't.

I know this to be true because my brain actively lives in both spaces.

Justice sensitivity and cognitive flexibility.

Oh, and by the way, autistic people are not inherently cognitively inflexible. Even though the diagnostic criteria make it seem that way.

A person can have an EXTREME mental capacity to be flexible and ALSO have justice sensitivity.

If justice sensitivity were a manifestation of cognitive rigidity, justice sensitivity and cognitive flexibility would be mutually exclusive.

And they aren't.

It's rigidity rooted in a person's internal moral structures and beliefs.

It's rigidity for a very specific purpose.

Not rigidity because a person lacks the capacity to be mentally flexible.

Is this a form of rigidity? Yes.

But it's not COGNITIVE rigidity.

(Which is defined as a mental inflexibility characterized by difficulty adapting thoughts, behaviors, or routines to new information, challenges, or perspectives.)

This is an internal need for the "right" things to happen and for the "wrong" things to stop happening.

("Right" and "wrong" in quotes because what that means is extremely subjective.)

A person with justice sensitivity will feel the need to correct... reframe... or stand up to something that feels wrong based on their worldview.

This is not cognitive rigidity.

Autism, cognitive rigidity, and justice sensitivity...

Justice sensitivity is not cognitive rigidity... even though it looks like it.

Justice sensitivity is rooted in a person's worldview.

Alt text: Iceberg graphic. Above water: Tip of iceburg, Observable behaviors, Signs, Manifestations, DSM diagnostic criteria, NOT THE CONDITION ITSELF. Below water: THE ACTUAL CONDITION, Neurological brain wiring, The specific brain wiring that comprises the internal experience of the condition.