Prosper Health's Autism Resource Center

Has your brain ever felt fuzzy or exhausted––like it’s moving through molasses to complete basic tasks or remember something? If so, you’ve likely experienced brain fog. People use the term “brain fog” to describe mental fatigue, forgetfulness, impaired executive function and increased effort to do daily tasks.

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and brain fog tend to go hand in hand since there’s some overlap between symptoms of brain fog and autistic traits, which can trap autistic adults in an exhausting cycle. 

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Brain fog has several causes and manifests differently for different people. While some may experience executive dysfunction or memory difficulties, others may find themselves struggling more with fatigue or social anxiety. Just like other facets of autism, brain fog doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why it’s important for autistic adults to feel empowered to create individualized solutions for the challenges that brain fog presents.

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Read on to learn some potentially effective strategies for autistic adults to reduce brain fog. 

Boundaries are essential for maintaining emotional well-being and mental health. They protect personal space and help foster healthier relationships. Effective boundaries define what’s acceptable and what’s unacceptable in your relationships.

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For adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), setting and enforcing boundaries is an empowering form of self-advocacy that can reduce stress, prevent autistic burnout and create a sense of control over one’s life.

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Read on to learn about effective healthy boundaries and how to set boundaries as an autistic adult.

Parenting is both deeply rewarding and challenging, no matter who you are. For autistic adults, parenting offers meaningful experiences and unique challenges. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shapes parenting styles in profound ways, but it doesn’t make someone any less capable of raising happy and healthy children. 

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Many autistic parents bring valuable qualities to parenting, including deep empathy, a strong commitment to routines and an analytical approach to problem-solving. However, they may also face distinct challenges, such as navigating social expectations, managing sensory issues and balancing executive functioning demands.

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By embracing neurodiversity in parenting, autistic parents can create loving and stable environments that honor both their own needs and those of their children.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras”? This metaphor, dating back to Dr. Theodore Woodword in the 1940s, reminds doctors what to prioritize when evaluating a patient’s symptoms. It tells doctors to focus on the most likely diagnosis (the “horse”) for the presenting symptoms before considering what’s less likely (the “zebra”), even if the unlikely zebra seems to fit. 

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Being autistic can feel like being a zebra in a world of horses—which is no wonder since autistic people make up only about 2% of the U.S. population. Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social and communication differences and a preference for sameness and repetition. It’s a specific constellation of traits, the presentation of which varies greatly from person to person. 

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Misconceptions around the autism spectrum and common biases mean that many autistic individuals go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. By some estimates, approximately 1 in 4 autistic individuals (and 1 in 3 autistic women) have received a misdiagnosis of a psychiatric condition before being diagnosed with autism. Autism is not a mental health diagnosis, but it can have some things in common with mental health diagnoses, and some clinicians who don’t specialize in autism might not be able to tell the difference.

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The misdiagnosis of autism matters to healthcare providers, educators, and, most of all, autistic individuals and their families. Keep reading to learn about the consequences of misdiagnosis and why autism might be misdiagnosed.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the development of a person’s brain and nervous system. ASD is part of the natural diversity in human brains, traits and behaviors, also called neurodiversity. Autism occurs along a spectrum, and each autistic person may have a very different combination and intensity of autistic characteristics and support needs. In general, when compared to neurotypical peers, autistic individuals typically experience differences in sensory and cognitive processing, social approaches, communication and their relationship to routine and repetition.

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ASD has long been stigmatized and misunderstood, even within the medical community. Often, autism is associated with early childhood, but in reality, it’s a lifelong diagnosis. The CDC estimates that nearly five and a half million US adults are autistic, yet the scarcity of resources for autistic adults is staggering. A 2019 study found that 84% of US counties have no diagnostic resources for autistic individuals of any age, and accessing high-quality mental health services as an autistic adult is notoriously difficult.

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For many autistic adults, this gap in resources can make getting help daunting—but all the more important. Autistic adults are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness––between 40 and 50% of autistic individuals have or have had anxiety, and as many as 40% have or have had depression, compared to 18.2% and 21.4% of all US adults, respectively. Even more worrying, 66% of late-diagnosed autistic adults reported experiencing suicidal ideation at some point in their lives. Stigma and a broad social failure to accommodate autistic needs are likely drivers of poorer mental health outcomes among autistic adults.

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Autistic adults can thrive despite adversity, but many of us confront similar challenges and could benefit from support. These can include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Masking and unmasking
• Autistic burnout
• Sensory sensitivity and sensory overload
• Disclosure and accessing support
• For late-diagnosed autistic adults, processing a new diagnosis

Complex PTSD, or CPTSD, is a mental health condition people can develop after prolonged exposure to trauma. CPTSD is fairly common among autistic individuals, and shares a number of features with autism, like sensory sensitivity and emotional dysregulation. However, they are distinct diagnoses, differing in key areas like how and when they emerge during a person’s life and goals for treatment.

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