'Autistic Flow' Could Be Key To Autistic People's Wellbeing, Paper Suggests |
'Autistic Flow' Could Be Key To Autistic People's Wellbeing, Paper Suggests
Here’s what happened when researchers asked autistic people about their experiences.
Autism can look very different from person to person, but it’s often associated with “intense” interests. And autistic people seem to be more likely to become very immersed in an activity, thought, or action, too – sometimes described as “monotropism”.
This has been linked to “hyperfocus”, or a deep and undivided level of attention and devotion to a task. The theory of monotropism was invented by Dr Dinah Murray, Dr Wenn Lawson, and Mike Lesser in the ’90s, though it’s one Dr Murray’s son, science teacher and writer Fergus Murray, says is “largely overlooked by psychologists”.
If you ask some researchers, like the ones behind a 2026 Counselling and Therapy Research paper, meanwhile, there’s another way to describe this phenomenon: “autistic flow state”.
What’s the difference between a........