Abstract
This study, called for by autistic people and led by an autistic researcher, is the first to explore ‘autistic inertia,’ a widespread and often debilitating difficulty acting on their intentions. Previous research has considered initiation only in the context of social interaction or experimental conditions. This study is unique in considering difficulty initiating tasks of any type in real life settings, and by gathering qualitative data directly from autistic people. Four face-to-face and 2 online (text) focus groups were conducted with 32 autistic adults (19 female, 8 male, and 5 other), aged 23–64 who were able to express their internal experiences in words. They articulate in detail the actions they have difficulty with, what makes it easier or harder to act, and the impact on their lives. Thematic analysis of the transcripts found four overarching themes: descriptions of inertia, scaffolding to support action, the influence of wellbeing, and the impact on day-to-day activities. Participants described difficulty starting, stopping and changing activities that was not within their conscious control. While difficulty with planning was common, a subset of participants described a profound impairment in initiating even simple actions more suggestive of a movement disorder. Prompting and compatible activity in the environment promoted action, while mental health difficulties and stress exacerbated difficulties. Inertia had pervasive effects on participants’ day-to-day activities and wellbeing. This overdue research opens the door to many areas of further investigation to better understand autistic inertia and effective support strategies.
Highlights
Autism is a heterogeneous condition viewed as primarily a disorder of social interaction accompanied by rigid and repetitive thinking and behavior
In response to an article on monotropism, an autistic author writes: To me it seems odd that inertia is often so far down the list of things that people associate with autism? [. . .] I find [inertia] probably the single biggest problem I have that stems directly from it. (Murray, 2017)
The present study further explores these issues, focussing on the ability to act on intentions, by talking to autistic people who share some of these difficulties
Summary
Autism is a heterogeneous condition viewed as primarily a disorder of social interaction accompanied by rigid and repetitive thinking and behavior. Sensory and motor differences are mentioned only peripherally in the diagnostic criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; World Health Organisation, 2020); sporadic but increasing research over the last 25 years has proposed that these differences may be more important in the etiology than commonly thought (Leary and Hill, 1996; Robledo et al, 2012; Donnellan et al, 2013; Torres and Donnellan, 2015; Breen and Hare, 2017; Welch et al, 2020) ‘Inertia’ is the term for Newton’s first law of motion, which is the tendency of a body to stay in the same state of motion unless acted on by an external force This is used metaphorically to describe difficulties both starting and stopping activities, which are commonly experienced by autistic people. In response to an article on monotropism, an autistic author writes: To me it seems odd that inertia is often so far down the list of things that people associate with autism? [. . .] I find [inertia] probably the single biggest problem I have that stems directly from it. (Murray, 2017)
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