Autism isn’t a simple scale of “mild” to “severe”**

I’ve never found labels like “mild” or “severe” very helpful when it comes to autism. Real life doesn’t work in neat categories like that. A person can be highly capable in some areas and deeply challenged in others at the same time. For me, academics and technical work came relatively naturally. I was able to build a career in research and contribute to published work, which people often used as evidence that everything else in my life should also be easy. But socially, it was a very different experience. Understanding body language, reading tone, knowing when I was being included or excluded, or even just navigating timing in conversations all felt like something I had to consciously decode rather than naturally absorb. As a teenager and young adult, that gap made relationships really difficult. I often didn’t realize what I was missing until after the moment had passed, and I didn’t feel confident asking for help with something I couldn’t even clearly describe. What made it harder was that people often assumed I was choosing to be distant or that I simply wasn’t trying hard enough. From the inside, it never felt like a choice. Over time, I had to unlearn a lot of negative assumptions I had about myself and start seeing these differences as part of how my brain processes social information, not a personal flaw. That shift didn’t fix everything, but it made things more understandable and less isolating. Eventually I was able to build relationships and experience connection in ways I didn’t think would be possible earlier in life. At the same time, I also recognize that autism is a very broad spectrum. Some autistic people live independently, others need lifelong support with communication, daily living, and safety. Both experiences are real, and neither cancels out the other. That’s why oversimplified labels like “mild” can miss so much of what actually matters: how someone experiences the world and what support they need to live well in it. Autism isn’t one straight line. It’s a wide range of human experience.