Autistic Vulnerability - Am I More Vulnerable Because of My Autism?

I fundamentally believe that as a result of being autistic, I am a lot more vulnerable than if I wasn’t autistic.

I have heard some autistic people voice that saying we are vulnerable is a bad thing. I understand why. I think that there is a valid danger of non-autistic people seeing ‘Autistic people are vulnerable’ and jumping into ‘Oh we need to protect them’ and trying to ‘help’ us in harmful ways, without acknowledging our autonomy and capabilities.

Autistic people, by nature, can be very trusting, and hence easily manipulated. Though some would disagree with this, there is evidence reflecting this. For instance, The National Autistic Society found that half of autistic adults had experienced abuse by someone they thought was their friend.

I can be easily manipulated because I tend to always see the best in people. Because I can’t see myself hurting others intentionally, I find it very difficult to understand how or why others would hurt me. I know that I am often naive. I shouldn’t feel like I can’t say this. My naivety got me only this week, when my Snapchat was hacked because I was too trusting of someone I know. It crossed my mind that it could be a hack. I know about the importance of being aware of hacking. But I didn’t think that person would do that, so I trusted them.

Now this is purely my own experience. Because of my desire to fit in as a teenager, I was more likely to follow the crowd and succumb to peer pressure. I knew people saw me as different. I didn’t want that. So I would do whatever I could to fit in, and to make people like me. However, there is research suggesting that autistic people are less likely to succumb to peer pressure, and I can understand this too.

This is linked with the fact that autistic people are more likely to be bullied. The evidence is clear on this. This makes us vulnerable to so many things, because experiencing bullying increases the risk of depression, anxiety and negative feelings like despair and isolation (stopbullying.gov).

Furthermore, autistic people are much more vulnerable to being sexually assaulted than non-autistic people. One study shows that autistic girls are three times more likely to have experienced sexual abuse than non-autistic girls.

One explanation put forth for a heightened risk of sexual assault by researchers is that autistic people may struggle with understanding social norms or recognising dangerous situations. I can certainly relate to this and know that this has put me at risk at times. This is hard to explain, but if that exact dangerous situation hasn’t been described to me before, then I struggle to recognise that it is a dangerous situation, because it is not registered in my mind as a dangerous situation. I often feel anxious, so I ignore it.

Because I struggle to read facial expressions and tone of voice, I am more likely to ‘trust’ people, because if something makes me feel uncomfortable, then I assume it’s sarcasm…because SO many times in the past I’ve been told it’s just sarcasm when I’ve felt uncomfortable as a result of not understanding the sarcasm. See how it’s all a big circle where I struggle to trust my instinct because I’ve been wrong SO many times in the past because I haven’t picked up on social cues? Can you see how this could be a problem? Alarm bells can’t ring constantly, so I become complacent.

This ‘not understanding social norms’ also makes me vulnerable in other ways. I may not recognise when I am being taken advantage of or exploited, especially if my idea of social hierarchies and what I understand by social norms aligns with what is happening. This is because my thinking is very black and white. I can struggle to see the grey areas. If I am expected to do something, I may not realise that there are exceptions to that. For example, I may not know there are exceptions to an instruction when I am feeling unwell.

Our vulnerability is apparent when we look at autistic people’s risk of mental health problems. We are vulnerable because we exist in a society which can traumatise us because we are autistic. Research shows we are more at risk of mental illness than non-autistic people - almost 80% of autistic adults experience mental health problems throughout their lives.

We have a higher risk of suicide. Autistic adults without a learning disability are 9 times more likely to die from suicide. Autistic children are 28 times more likely to think about or attempt suicide. Surely these statistics alone highlight our vulnerability?

I know autistic people have conflicting ideas about whether they are or aren’t more vulnerable than their non-autistic peers. I put out a poll on twitter, and its results showed that 80% autistic people do think they are more vulnerable because of their autism, 6% thought they weren’t, and 14% were unsure.

All in all, I believe autism makes me more vulnerable to many different things, and autistic people deserve the right support to navigate this.

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