Do you know if being autistic makes you more susceptible to long lasting effects of trauma?

parentless-suggestions:

Actually yes, I do!

There’s some research on this. Basically, the part of our brains that are responsible for reacting to trauma situations as well as the part that “stores” these negative experiences tend to be overactive in autistic people, which means we not only experience traumatic things as more traumatic but they can also have longer lasting effects on us.

the research “focuses on the role of the amygdala in stress and trauma imprinting. There are two main aspects of showing an autistic predisposition for trauma: showing the role of the amygdala in sustaining trauma, and showing the ways that the autistic amygdala is different in structure and/or function, thus exacerbating that brain structure’s role in trauma…..

The amygdala ….reacts in response to unpleasant sights, sensations, or smells. Anger, avoidance, and defensiveness are emotions activated largely by the amygdala….

Autistics, along with a few other categories of neurodivergents (Alzheimer’s, TBI, epilepsy) have hyperexcitability in our amygdala. That means the neurons in our amygdalas are firing much more often than neurons in the amygdalas of the general population and that this increased amygdala function leads to anxiety and “the development of neurological and/or neuropsychiatric diseases.””

Here’s the article I’m referring to
http://unstrangemind.com/autistics-are-at-greater-risk-of-trauma/

-kitten