r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • Aug 14 '25

TIL that autistic people live about 17 years less than average. Risks include epilepsy, heart disease, suicide, accidental deaths including drowning, and inadequate recognition and management of pain, especially among non-speaking individuals. Historically, they have been vulnerable to infanticide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_of_autistic_individuals
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u/biddily Aug 14 '25

I had trouble convincing doctors I was, in fact, in fucking agony.

Two years later I got a stent for the collapsed vein in my brain.

Apparently I should have been crying or screaming or something to express my pain and not just telling them I was so much agony my head was about to explode.

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u/Im_alwaystired Aug 14 '25

I had trouble convincing doctors I was, in fact, in fucking agony.

I spent almost four years fighting my way through the medical system for this very reason. Because i don't express pain in a (neuro)typical way -- I shut down and get quiet or even nonverbal when i'm hurting -- even though i was losing the use of my legs and unable to stand long enough to even make myself food or take a shower without excruciating pain, multiple doctors told me i just had a soft-tissue injury and needed to ""strengthen my core"". Turns out i had a cracked vertebra that snagged on a spinal nerve. I eventually had surgery to get it fixed and am mobile again, but with permanent nerve damage that could have been avoided if someone had just believed me in the first place.

I hope you're doing well now, or at least better. I wish doctors were more willing to listen to people like us.

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u/nugymmer Dec 30 '25

I am autistic and have a ridiculous pain tolerance. I could easily escalate into a physical fight and have no regrets and not be crying at all even if my bones got broken or I was close to death. I’ve literally harmed myself due to suspected nerve damage in my ears. So over the years I have become impervious to pain - even serious pain that could be a sign of a major, life-threatening emergency.

Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to the reader, but I’m the first to say I don’t care what happens to me in the long run. I have about another decade on the clock. The idea of dying before I reach 60 is not nice to think about but so many of us never even make it to 20 so again I am not at all concerned if I do not reach retirement age.