Trauma does definitely have more impact on autistic people; they are more prone to PTSD than the general population, especially complex PTSD where the impact is from a range of traumas over time rather than a single cause.

The understanding that autistic minds process differently and that they often lack the filtering systems NT minds use to manage incoming data so they end up processing too much at once - we're talking all sensory data as well as other information here - has been growing over the last 10 years or so.
This idea seems to fit with how many autistic people respond to their world - there is simply too much to cope with all at once - and is backed up by the writings of autistic people such as Grandin and Williams.

Recently there has been much discussion of a new(ish) theory in academic literature - The Intense World Hypothesis, (Markram and Markram).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3010743/

This is an attempt to explain why many autistic people process as they do and how it impacts on them in their lives.
I don't think it's all of the story but I do think it makes some sense of the things you are asking about.
Well worth a read.

I'd prefer to see proper research done before anyone makes sweeping statements.

I don't think the fact that people with autism have problems processing sensory information has much relevance. Trauma is not the same kind of thing is it?

And more importantly we need to consider how that trauma is then processed. It could be that for example, that people with autism process trauma in such a way that lessens the impact on them.

Then there is the question as to whether people on the spectrum classify the same things as trauma as NTs.

And of course finally, if you follow the idea that autism is a spectrum of disorders, rather than a single spectrum, then there may be differences between the indvidual spectrums.

Zemanski

I'm familiar with intense world theory, though I don't quite subscribe to it, at least not in the sweeping sense. I'm sure there are people who could be described as autistic who are like that, maybe even me.

I do know if too many thoughts surround an issue or situation (particular if they are of an opposing nature) I do get overwhelmed, and maybe that's why what happened to me happened, so much to the point I was traumatized by it.

This is exactly true of me. Bad things that were done to me became trauma, and now I live with them everyday, as they cycle in a loop through my mind.

Have you found ways to lessen the impact or recurrence of these memories?

Thanks for posting this. Let's all keep the discussion going.

In different situations...definitely.

When my son finally started talking, I was amazed at what was actually bothering him.

So many of the things that he thought that he wouldn't be allowed to have, I'd have just given him if I'd have known that he wanted them (graham crackers). He just didn't know how to ask, or that he could ask (he was a super skinny kid....I'd have been happy to give him anything that he wanted to eat!).

Time was a big issue. He learned how to tell time on a clock, in order to watch shows that he liked (Brum). Turn on the TV earlier or later...Brum wouldn't be on. So in school, lining up 3 minutes early or late for gym class....drove him crazy.

He could read the colors on the crayons...Red is Red. "Scarlet" was NOT red. He was trying to follow the rules... He just didn't understand when it was okay to use scarlet and not red.

He could multiply in his head. So following the teachers instructions to add 1 plus 1, then 1 plus 2, then 1 plus 3 on the calculator was boring.... So he stood on the chair and looked out the window... And this was with me IN the classroom and trying to help him. But he was ready to have a meltdown in the classroom when I tried to explain that he could do something different with the calculator. (Teacher didn't specifically tell him that he could. He had trouble understanding verbal instructions. And his frustrations looked like intentional disobedience. The other kids learned how to set him off.)

All of that looked trivial to his teacher. And was NOT trivial to my son.

It may not be clinically termed "trauma" the way rape or an assault is termed "trauma' but I think for the person on the spectrum it feels every bit as tramatic when something happens that is unexpected or troubling. I would say to trust how you feel and work from there. If you are upset by something someone says to you, then you need comfort and support from others at these times. What you feel is every bit as valid as how someone else feels about an issue regardless of the label you put on it.

Thank you so much for sharing this topic. I have had situations where something was traumatic to me, yet the "neurotypical" people disagreed that it should be traumatic and my concerns were set aside as being whiny. It's hard to separate the trauma from life, I completely agree.

Things like an unexpected schedule change for the day, a delay in something, or an unexpected reaction from someone are things that I do agree they're truamatizing, but breathing and moving on is part of living in a neurotypical world. How to let people know that we have to draw the line on some things, that's a different story.

I have felt this and often guilty about it. Then something majorly traumatic happened and I didn't even have all my family on my side I was blamed for not "behaving" the way I was supposed to and brought it on myself. I think its especially hard to be misunderstood