You got so many comments I'll be brief. As an autistic man who was sexually abused in my childhood, I find your article highly accurate.

"Cann't break what's already broken" was something my parents would say about me as a child. Because they didn't understand my autistic response to stress.

Most autistics are brittle and unable to handle stressful environments. Some, like myself, respond by hyper fixating and reducing our focus into a single point.

It's a form of disassociation. Of shutting out the world and what's happening around you and to you.

I have been spattered across the face with the brains of the guy next to me. As his head got shot and disintegrated. I didn't even notice. I was in a state of flow and finished my task.

It's a survival skill.