When the clouds clear

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I have a family member who was only diagnosed with autism as an adult, and I have known this person since they were very young.

I can remember just a few brief times in this person's childhood when the clouds seemed to clear and everything seemed suddenly easy for them. Maybe an hour or two at most.

Has anyone experienced this or seen it in another autistic person?

If autism is hard-wired, I think it shouldn't be able to just "clear" temporarily. I also don't think of autism as "cloudy", isn't it more about intense focus and desire for routine?









PS I seem to be on the spectrum myself but lately online tests come back as minimal which is another story.

It might have been a particular situation that is imperceptible to you.

this happens for me when my processing is actually able to keep up with whatever is going on, or if I have got enough correct and clear explanation to allow me to proceed. Real time talk with anybody is very difficult, but my daughter builds me a bridge verbally, connecting one thing to another related thing and explaining as she goes. She does this automatically and it helps so much (has known me all her life of course, and we have always spent a lot of time talking.

so the other day I had to ask for an explanation and she said "oh, I forgot to build you a bridge" so endearing, and so amazing to me that this is just something she does for better communication with me. Neither of us knew about my autism til I was 65 and she was already grown up and living on her own. Clouds can lift for me in situations where my processing can keep up or if I have been instructed and prepared ahead of time. Not all the time though!! !!

autisticelders this is very interesting. Could you make up a little dialogue showing what you mean about the building of a bridge?

So maybe my person seemed "clear" because a penny had recently dropped for them about some routine thing that was going on in their life, such as "when we have breakfast, that is what they mean by the word morning and the light is different then" - something I can remember from my own childhood.

It has to do with stress levels. If you are not feeling stressed and you are fully rested and nothing is overwhelming you, your Autism will appear to have cleared.

I always say, I'd be autistic even if I lived alone on the moon.
It's not just about social impairments. ^
I have extreme sensory issues and it affects the way I think in micro-details.
I'd be on the moon freaking out about texture, or calculating how many millimetres to Earth.

This has been really interesting. So if the person (who could be me) is not stessed, others will see them in a totally different light. If you want to see someone in a new way, approach them in a non-stressful manner at a time when they are not stressed. It's starting to sound like our old friend Love.

I'm currently seeing autism as a supermarket trolley with a sticky wheel - the harder you push, the slower you go. The harder others push me, the slower I can go.

Does anyone agree that the stressor could be something unexpected, such as an undetected food allergy, a chemical change in the brain as a by-product of adrenalin, or a person close by who is toxic but no-one has realised this yet?

Interesting. I meant something even the person themselves does not think of. For myself, I noticed my thinking became noticeably clearer once I stopped consuming wheat a few years ago. I feel sad when I think how I had to go through my most powerful developmental stages, plus a few more decades, under the influence of wheat
I mean, you wouldn't give a baby lots of alcohol daily and expect it to develop socially in a normal way, and the cumulative effects would just increase each year as the child falls further and further behind their peers. It's too tragic to really think about

Oh I see. Yes, it could be something like that too.
I found out that I don't metabolise B-Vitamins, and folic acid hurts me.

Even if/when the person realises something is bad for them - a substance, a person - their development has happened and its going to be very hard to change from there. It could even happen before birth, lots of stuff happens then.

Thank you for that Isabella

I had exposure to heavy metal toxins in utero too.
I didn't know much about the effects until recently.

I really like this thread, thank you everyone. Lots of food for thought.