I haven’t had this myself, but It shocks me when I hear of people who have placed disbelief in somebody’s Autism diagnosis, based on the impression that they don’t look as if they have a disability. Autism is a hidden disability which means that the things in which people who have it struggle with, aren’t apparent straight away. It’s much like a visually impaired person who wears contact lenses, or a deaf person who doesn’t wear a hearing aid. You don’t look as if you have a disability, because it isn’t one that is glaringly obvious to the eye, nor does it alter physical appearance People may not notice that somebody else is Autistic, because a lot of people on the spectrum feel as if they have to conform with society. Even if they’re struggling with sensory overload, or need to stim (self stimulate), they won’t necessarily manage it until they are back in a comfortable and familiar setting. This becomes extremely overwhelming and can, but won’t always, lead to a meltdown Stimming consists of repetition of sounds and movements, and repetitive moving of objects. Common stims include hand flapping, rocking, blinking, pacing, repeating noises and words and spinning things. People may do this as a response to over-stimulation but I must emphasise that not everybody with Autism does stim - if they don’t, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t Autistic or aren’t struggling with too much stimulation. Everybody on the spectrum copes with things differently. Some may go into meltdown, and not know when or how to self regulate. Where others will know to take a break and do something that will calm them down Some of the many sensory challenges people with Autism night face include the feeling of clothes on skin, textures and over or under exaggerated taste of food, light sensitivity being too high or too low, hearing higher pitches or lower pitches, feeling either at ease or overly anxious is crowded places, needing more or less pressure, having little or too much spacial awareness, having a higher or lower pain threshold and so many other things surrounding the senses