Autistic Joy

• Monday 28th March 2022

Autistic people face discrimination and stigma through individual encounters and harmful stereotypes. One such narrative paints autistic people’s lives as being only challenge and distress. Of course, many autistic people face multiple difficulties, but as with everyone there is joy, success, excitement and everything in between. Autistic writers and activists trying to puncture this myth has started to talk about “autistic joy”. This refers to the intense happiness and excitement that can come from their particular interests or sensory experience. Julia Bascom, author of The Obsessive Joy of Autism describes:

“sometimes being autistic in this world means walking through a crowd of silently miserable people and holding your happiness like a secret or a baby, letting it warm you as your mind runs on the familiar tracks of an obsession and lights your way through the day.”

We asked autistic people on twitter what gave them autistic joy and here are some of the answers - thanks so much to our Twitter army for the contributions!