🗂️ Glossary
In order to put various experiences into words, advocate for greater acceptance of autism, and distinguish its differences, the autistic community has adopted a variety of creative terms. I use many of them on this blog, so it makes sense to compile a short list (accompanied by a few testimonials).
👉 This page is updated regularly and can be used as a reference for my other articles.
Community terms and policies
Terms have been coined out of a desire to demedicalize (yes, I’m making up words) autism and sometimes out of a militant desire to make autism a condition that is accepted by society.
🤯 Neurodivergent / neuroatypical
This term is commonly used to refer to people with autism (in recent years, its use has expanded to include all neurodevelopmental disorders). They also sometimes simply say they are “on the spectrum.”
Neuroatypical is a more medical term, and neurodivergent is a more activist term. Their two uses are divisive. Being ambivalent on certain political issues, I use neither. I prefer “autistic,” “on the spectrum,” or in some cases…
🧩 Asperger / aspie
This is the most controversial term. My diagnosis mentions this profile, which has not been included in the official DSM-5 classification since 2013. There are several reasons for this: Hans Asperger’s involvement in Nazism, and the desire to stop referring to people with Asperger’s as “good autistic people” as opposed to “bad autistic people” (those with intellectual disabilities). Bringing all autistic people together under a single diagnosis allows us to recognize that they share common disabilities with traits that vary in intensity from one autistic person to another.
I won’t use this term in the blog, but to explain it: before 2013, it was a diagnosis in its own right for autism without intellectual disability or language delay. I still use this term (outside of this blog) occasionally when I feel that it will result in fewer stereotypes before gradually leading my interlocutor to the idea that I am indeed autistic.
The autistic community also sometimes uses the term “Aspie” (which I find cute) to refer to their Asperger’s autism. Many websites even feature this term in their domain name.
🙂 Neurotypical
The term neurotypical was originally conceived as an ironic term to describe non-autistic people. It was initially used in English-speaking autistic discussion groups before spreading to the rest of the world. The rest of the neurodevelopmental disorder community then adopted it over the last decade to refer to anyone without a neurodevelopmental disorder.
The term is sometimes taken badly by neurotypical people who feel labeled. More recently, its use has expanded to include many other mental disorders (including bipolar disorder, which also uses it occasionally), leading the English-speaking community to create the term “allist.”
🚶 Allist
This much more recent and less widely used term (except in the English-speaking community) refers specifically to anyone who is not autistic. It serves to highlight the limitations of the term “neurotypical.” The aim is to make a clear distinction between autistic brains and all others, as the former are often very prone to feeling isolated from the rest of the world (some even using terms such as “alien”).
The term is new to the French-speaking community, and I often have to explain to others what it means before using it (when I remember to do so) and why I prefer it to “neurotypical.”
You will see it regularly in my blog, as I believe that “neurotypical” has lost its meaning over time. I will use the term “allist“ specifically to refer to non-autistic people, thereby avoiding the confusion caused by “neurotypical.”
🌈 Neurodiversity
It is a term introduced by an autistic sociologist, Judy Singer, in the 1990s. Neurodiversity means recognizing that differences in neurological functioning are part of human diversity. It usually includes autism, ADHD (attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity), learning disabilities/dys (dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, etc.) and, more broadly, other disorders such as bipolar disorder, which affects me personally. She perceives neurological diversity not as an abnormality to be corrected, but as a difference in thinking and perceiving the world.
It therefore emphasizes acceptance and appreciation of cognitive differences. The concept remains controversial because, if misused, it can obscure the true nature of the daily challenges faced by those who experience it. It has brought a much-needed breath of fresh air to the traditional psychiatric view of many disorders, which are often stigmatized.
Communication styles
These are words that describe traits shared by the community regarding their ways of communicating and interacting.
📚 Infodumping
Infodumping someone means dumping a large amount of information on them all at once. The term comes from the autistic community. It is often used to explain how autistic people can overwhelm their conversation partners with information about their favorite subject, often monopolizing the conversation and cutting off others. It often involves sharing all the information the autistic person has in their head, in a detailed and passionate manner. It’s not that they aren’t interested in the other person, but it’s often a mode of communication in its own right.
The desire to share everything, precisely and completely, can in fact simply take precedence over the usual codes of two-way conversation. For many, it is even a way of expressing their enthusiasm and, paradoxically, opening up the exchange.
When I infodump someone, I actually hope that they will enter my world and that we will interact. I am simply playful and hope to create a connection by dumping everything I know about a specific subject on the other person. Since I have trouble starting a conversation about a topic that interests the other person, I use infodumping to bring them into my world and eventually allow me to take an interest in them later. However, this is rarely perceived as a separate mode of discussion and often ends the conversation.
When I sense a gap in the conversation that the other person doesn’t fill, I may also infodump in an attempt to reopen the discussion. I also have a very debilitating need for completion, which drives me to go through with a cascade of information sharing, even if it means monopolizing the conversation and only realizing it after the fact.
Today, the term is widely used throughout the community, on discussion boards, blogs, articles, and even in training courses. It is no longer specific to autism, and many people with ADHD also use it.
🔄 Double empathy
Rather than considering deficits in autistic communication, the theory of double empathy suggests that communication difficulties arise as much from autistic people as from non-autistic people. A study on the subject was conducted based on the “Chinese whispers” game. The idea was to see whether autistic people functioned as well among themselves as allistic people did among themselves, and what happened when they were put together. Unsurprisingly, the study tended to confirm this theory. Significant difficulties only arose when autistic and allistic people were brought together.
❓ Alexithymia
This refers to difficulty identifying and understanding one’s emotions. It is estimated that 40 to 50% of people with autism are affected (2019 study, PMC). For example, those around me often notice more quickly when I am getting upset, and I often don’t know how to respond to a simple “Are you okay?” unless I know that I am either feeling very good or very bad (euphoric or very sad). The rest of the time, I simply answer yes (because that is what social convention dictates anyway).
In a short paragraph, having these words allows us to put into words a reality that is invisible to the world. They allow us to add reference points to our everyday language.
Regulation and adaptation
A few terms coined by the community in an effort to describe their atypical and adaptive behaviors.
👋 Stimming
Stimming is the act of self-regulating through repetitive, regular, and rhythmic gestures, sounds, and words, known as stims (autistic term) or stereotypies (medical term). The term was born out of a desire to make this part of the identity of autistic people accepted rather than tolerated or rejected, rather than seen as annoying or abnormal. Stereotypy can be harmful in some cases, whereas stimming is perceived as positive in the life of an autistic person. Like neurodiversity, there is a political dimension to this term. I discuss stimming in more depth in this article.
🎭 Masking/camouflaging
Masking, or camouflaging, in somewhat simplistic psychiatric terms, is the act of compensating for difficulties related to autism. Masking involves not only compensating, but also making efforts, often very intensive and exhausting, to construct a social mask that hides one’s autism.
Many people with autism are diagnosed very late because they have learned to hide their condition, sometimes very early on in life. This is particularly noticeable in women and people with high IQs, although it is not specific to them.
I myself masked for 20 years before being diagnosed. My earliest memories of realizing that something was “off” date back to when I was 4 years old. My first memory of actually masking was when I was 6. I then gradually developed a mask, notably by:
- Watching lots of movies and mentally rehearsing set phrases
- Replicating the facial expressions I saw
- Stumbling, making mistakes, and correcting them
- Imitating those around me
- Learning and applying social conventions even when they seemed meaningless or illogical
Masking can lead to autistic crises when it is too intense, or even to autistic burnout.
🌪️ Autistic crises
Many autistic people experience various types of crises that can destroy their ability to function in society.
💥 Shutdowns/meltdowns
Shutdowns and meltdowns are typical autistic crises that result from sensory, emotional, or cognitive overload. When the brain becomes saturated with stimuli to process and exceeds its tolerance threshold, it crashes.
Sometimes it implodes, resulting in shutdown. This manifests itself in social withdrawal, partial or total silence, reduced perception of stimuli, and immobility.
The other crisis is the meltdown. This is an often very violent emotional breakdown experienced by the autistic person, who then feels a flood of uncontrollable emotions, motor agitation, and crying spells, which they may experience as internal chaos.
In both cases, they often leave the autistic person feeling very exhausted and reduce their ability to function for hours—or even days—afterwards. It is therefore important to provide them with an environment that is free from distracting stimuli and allows them to take the time to recharge their batteries.
In the midst of a shutdown, my internal processor stops working: I sometimes become unable to respond, my sensory perceptions are altered, and I lose the ability to move. I refer to this as the blue screen of death (the Windows BSOD).
🔥 Autistic burnout
Autistic burnout is a kind of massive shutdown that lasts an average of four months, according to one of the few studies on the subject. It results from excessive overload and/or prolonged and intensive masking (Mantzalas et al., 2022). This leads to a drastic reduction in tolerance to sensory stimuli, a loss of certain previously acquired abilities, and social withdrawal.
It should be distinguished from depression in that it does not normally involve a loss of pleasure, but rather a loss of ability to engage in activities. The two are not mutually exclusive. Burnout can lead to depression (especially if it lasts too long) and vice versa. I will also discuss this in a future article.
Interests
People with autism can become so deeply immersed in their interests or projects that certain terms have been coined to describe this characteristic.
🔍 Hyperfocus
Hyperfocus is the ability to concentrate intensely and for long periods of time on a single activity. In autism, it is often observed in relation to special interests, but it is not unique to them. Hyperfocus is often seen in autistic people who embark on a project they enjoy or any activity that stimulates them, or even in their work, in which they can become very deeply involved.
Some interests do not reach the status of special interests because they are not as intense or are more fleeting, but they can become a temporary hyperfocus for the autistic person. It should be noted that hyperfocus is widely used by the ADHD community, whose interests (less invasive and long-lasting than special interests) can capture their full attention and cause them to infodump those around them in the same way as a person with autism. This is a misleading characteristic that can lead to misdiagnosis.
In my case, my hyperfocus mainly relates to my specific interests. However, it also kicks in when I write—and I love writing—such as when preparing articles for this blog, which I can write one after the other (even though they require a lot of proofreading).
🤖 Special interests
In short, these are interests that are sometimes atypical—but not necessarily—and very intense, in which the autistic person invests a great deal of their time. They are often very intrusive, in the sense that they can affect all areas of the autistic person’s life: emotional, social, and professional.
Special interests play a sensory and emotional regulatory role and bring predictability to the daily lives of autistic people in a world they perceive as unpredictable.
Glossary of Autism Jargon
🌈 Community Terms
- Neurodivergent / Neuroatypical : someone whose neurological functioning differs from the norm (e.g., autism, ADHD, dyslexia, bipolar disorder).
- Autist / On the Spectrum : someone who is autistic, with varying degrees of severity and profiles.
- Asperger / Aspie : former diagnosis of autism without intellectual disability or language delay, a term still used by some but controversial.
- Neurotypical (NT) : someone without a neurodevelopmental disorder (a term sometimes perceived as labeling).
- Allist : a newer and more accurate term for a non-autistic person.
- Neurodiversity : idea that neurological differences are part of human diversity and should be recognized/accepted.
🔄 Regulation and adaptation
- Stimming / Stims : repetitive movements or sounds used for self-regulation (rocking, tapping, humming, etc.).
- Masking / Camouflaging : hiding one’s autistic traits in order to fit in socially, often at the cost of great fatigue.
- Shutdown : internal crisis of withdrawal, silence, or immobility after overload.
- Meltdown : external crisis of violent emotional outburst after overload.
- Autistic burnout : prolonged collapse of capabilities due to overload or intensive masking.
💬 Communication styles
- Infodumping : convey a large amount of passionate information about a topic of interest all at once.
- Double empathy : theory that communication difficulties arise equally from autistic and non-autistic individuals.
- Alexithymia : difficulty identifying and expressing emotions.
🔍 Interests
- Hyperfocus : intense and sustained focus on an activity or project.
- Special interests : very intense and pervasive interests, playing a major role in the life of the autistic person.