What is Autism

A neurobiological condition that affects social skills

Autism is often considered a pervasive (all-encompassing) neurodevelopmental (happening to the brain before birth) disability by medical professionals, but the Autistic community tends to call it a neurotype (a way the brain can be structured). Autistic people have a difference in how our brains are set up, so pretty much everything is affected. I, personally, consider it 'everything is important syndrome' because my brain is constantly observing things, sometimes to a fault. It means I can't just like something, I have to learn everything about it and will talk about only it for days (this is called a special interest). I can't just listen to someone talking to me and block out other noises because everything is so loud all the time (auditory processing issues). I can't guess what someone means by a certain idiom because the words each have their own meanings and (not to use an idiom but) I can't see the forest for the trees. This can cause problems because other people aren't used to communicating with Autistic people, and get frustrated or aggressive when things aren't done their way. We're basically how people stereotype cats.