Discover Top Posts Tagged with #liminal autism

I recently read a study on how autistic people may experience C-PTSD or PTSD from situations which may not traditionally be considered traumatic. I strongly suspect that I am somewhere on the spectrum of ASD but getting a diagnosis in Canada as an adult usually-female-presenting person (as, I'm sure, with most places in the world) is confusing, difficult, and long. I am currently on a waitlist to speak to a specialist, but that waiting time is still undisclosed.

This is probably because of my insistence that I speak to a female-identifying specialist (I was assaulted by a male doctor earlier this year), my situation might be different than yours (if you have any tips for diagnosis in Ontario, please let me know!) I experience C-PTSD as a result of decades-long emotional abuse, but I also have extreme sound sensitivity, so, I personally experienced "not-traditionally-traumatizing" trauma when the building I lived in in Nova Scotia did work on the underground garage for several months. This meant that I could hear the drills in my 6th floor apartment from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Five days a week. They were so loud, that you had to significantly raise your voice to speak to someone next to you, and the building literally vibrated. If I wasn’t at home, I was at my job (one of the most toxic environments I’ve ever worked in). Combined, this resulted in a rapid deterioration of my physical health until I had to wear a heart monitor at home to make sure I wasn't uh, gonna die.

My trauma from that experience was severe enough that, when we discovered they would be doing the same kind of work in our apartment in Ontario, we just found somewhere else to live, because even the thought going through that kind of noise again made me literally break down. Maybe anyone would experience trauma from a situation like that. I don't know. All I know is that I did, and we have chosen apartments without underground parking since then, for that reason. My husband didn't experience the same distress. I guess I just wanted to reach out to the void and say that this information — that autistic people may experience trauma from "not traditionally traumatic" situations has certainly been my experience, and it might help you figure out some stuff, too.

Because you’re probably not “overreacting.”