| Overview | 1. Introduction | 2. Diagnostic fog | 3. Sensory processing | 4. Emergent patterns | 5. Research & therapy | 6. New model | 7. Conclusion |
What if many of the behaviors we label as “autistic” are not disorders in themselves, but rather logical adaptive responses to a divergent sensory inner world?
The central thesis of this paper is:
Sensory sensitivity – its expression, type, and processing dynamics – is not a peripheral phenomenon of autism, but its primary driving force.
People with autism diagnoses often report experiencing a world that is too loud, too bright, too complex, or simply too intense. These are not “quirks,” but existentially tangible realities: fluorescent lights that burn like a welding torch, fabrics that feel like sandpaper, sounds barely perceptible to others that put the nervous system on high alert.
This sensory world is not just different – it is formative. From it emerge many of the observable characteristics:
Additionally, the type of sensory sensitivity varies greatly – in several respects:
These differences are not coincidental, but reflect different neural sensitivities – possibly mediated genetically or hormonally. What’s striking is that despite highly individual sensory profiles, similar behavioral patterns repeatedly emerge, as if there were certain “standard responses” to sensory overload.
This suggests the idea: Sensory sensitivity systematically generates similar reaction patterns – not because people are the same, but because the body-mind-world system responds similarly to overload. And these reaction patterns are what we currently label as “autism.”
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