In recent years, there has been a growing movement within the autistic community to retire the puzzle piece as a symbol for autism advocacy. Instead, advocates have proposed alternative symbols like the infinity symbol, which represents the infinite diversity and complexity of the autistic community.

As many people in the autistic community know, sensory overload is a common experience for those on the spectrum. Sensory overload can be described as an overwhelming experience where sensory information is processed by the brain in a way that is difficult to handle. This can be caused by a variety of different sensory stimuli, such as sounds, lights, smells, textures, and more.

A while ago on TikTok a joke popped up in the autism community. The joke was we all started referring to ourselves as “Neurospicy” or as having “spicy autism” I didn’t get it at first, until I realized it was in response to how some people refer to autistics with lower support needs as having “mild autism” and so the neuro spice meter was invented. Because, at the end of the day, saying mild or severe autism is the same as applying functional labels.

As someone who is part of the autistic community, I have noticed that there is still some confusion around the term "Asperger's syndrome." I will periodically run into someone who insists “I don’t have autism, I have asperger’s.” While it used to be a commonly used term, it has been phased out in recent years, with the DSM-5 (the diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals) no longer including it as a separate diagnosis. So why is this the case? While not the only factor, a big reason is we don’t like to name things after Nazis.