I've never been asked this, but here's my answer. Consider all of the social things you can do without thinking. Now consider something you could do that would necessarily dominate your attention. What would it be like if you always had to think about doing easy, natural things as much as you had to think about doing new and difficult things? What if laughing at a joke took as much concentration as escaping a burning building? What if producing one word in response to a stranger's greeting required as much consideration as defusing a bomb? What if you had to think about how to move your face, how to modulate your voice, how to adjust your posture? If you can imagine all this, you're on your way to understanding what it's like to be autistic. There are some things others do automatically that I must do with great effort. Other things I'm incapable of doing at all. There is a social game in which strangers test each other by tryi...
My name is Ryan. I'm a published author, a musician, and a cartoonist, and I'm autistic. My therapist suggested that I write a book about living with an autism spectrum disorder. I decided to try a blog first. I try to be clear and succinct in describing my experiences. I don't feel like I have special insight, but maybe this will help some people.