Payton

“We tend to be both easily disturbed by sound in our environment, and unable to tell when a noise actually merits our attention, at the same time.[44] I often brute-force my way into paying attention to something by shutting the rest of the world out. I think it’s also likely that lifelong masking has rendered me hypervigilant, almost as a trauma response. My sensory system is used to scanning the environment, to determine whether I’m alone and thus “safe” enough to be myself. Trauma survivors often become hypervigilant, which tends to come with intense sensory issues.[45] Some researchers have also theorized that sensory issues in Autistics are, at least in part, caused by the anxiety and hypervigilance we experience from living in a world that doesn’t accommodate us, and often treats us with hostility.[46]”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Refusing to perform neurotypicality is a revolutionary act of disability justice. It's also a radical act of self-love.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Research shows that most Autistic people have a reduced sense of the body’s warning signals, or interoception.[31] Most of us tend to feel like our bodies are not really our own, and struggle to draw connections between the external world and how we feel inside.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

“Many masked Autistics are sent to gifted education as children, instead of being referred to disability services.[18] Our apparent high intelligence puts us in a double bind: we are expected to accomplish great things to justify our oddness, and because we possess an enviable, socially prized quality, it’s assumed we need less help than other people, not more.”
― Devon Price, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity