I am always supportive of articles that discuss mental illness openly and accurately without judgement. The only way to destigmatize and remove shame around it, is to talk about it.

PTSD and CPTSD are both under reported and under treated among the Autistic population. It can hard, even for the person suffering symptoms, to recognize PTSD as something separate from their autism.

Almost every autistic person I have ever known probably suffered from PTSD or CPTSD. Autistic childhoods tend to be trauma filled. Some more than others, none easy.

Ideally, every autistic person would be screened for PTSD regularly as part of comprehensive health care. They are an extremely 'at risk' population.

Obviously, that's not likely to happen.

Speaking only for myself, I found your comments about disassociation to ring true. I once had someone get shot in the head right next to me and got spattered with blood and brains across the face. I didn't stop what I was working on for a second.

I can "hyper-focus" on details to the point of complete unawareness to my environment. As you point out, this is not a 'talent' it's actually a form of disassociation. Learned as a way of surviving "unbearable" situations.

I look forward to future discussion.