Yes, it’s a trauma response.

Often we’re misunderstood or made to feel like we don’t make sense.

We’re also more likely to experience violence.

So it can be a learned strategy to make sure other people are appeased or understand us to minimise the chance of conflict.

If an autistic person is overwhelmed, please allow us to have space without judgement.

We may be trying incredibly hard to self-regulate and have no energy to engage with anyone.

If not, the situation could easily escalate into a meltdown, and take much longer to recover from.