Binary Finary

I have come across a lot of thinking and views that all autistic people have binary, black-and-white or rigid thinking. I know a lot of autistic people who would put themselves into that category as well. This binary way of looking at things, making decisions, or acting is often viewed by outsiders as an unhelpful way of thinking. It’s also an unhelpful stereotype that ALL autistic people have this way of processing. I even read on the Autistica website that this type of thinking is ‘wrong’, and somehow harmful!? It is used by some as a derogatory remark against the autistic community. An ableist ignorant viewpoint that autistic people with binary processing or decision-making are somehow ‘less than’ or ‘stupid’.

It’s got me thinking about the reason for this way of processing for some autistic people. Is a binary way of processing really just that, or is it so much more complex underneath? How about the idea that black-and-white thinking is actually a necessity, a brilliant adaption, when we live in such a complex, demanding, and hectic world?

My mind, I know very well, does not work in a binary format. I sometimes really want and need it to. In fact, I feel quite envious of those who have consciously or unconsciously tamed the myriad of explosive wayward detailed thoughts. My mind immediately scatters especially with decision-making. I think it is partly to do with anxiety, partly synaesthesia, and my mixed sensory overload. This scattering, almost panicking, thinking of every single option no matter how ridiculous or unreasonable is related to my threat response. My overriding response to threat or trauma is to flea, to scatter.

Decisions are hard for me, there is always so much information missing that I need to know and so much information to consider, process and work through. I have in the past often acted very impulsively because I just couldn’t bear to sit with the scattering of thoughts and whirlwinds of considerations, as it would feel never-ending. So I would just act as quickly as possible, so that my mind didn’t even have a chance to scatter and dream up a million pathways to consider. However, this approach would often lead to more anxiety, shame, guilt, and in some cases just utter hurt in the catastrophes that would ensue! For a time, without the awareness I have now, my brain did sort of work in binary way - to consider absolutely everything, or consider absolutely nothing.

With neurodivergent (or neurovariable is my new favourite term!) binary thinkers, I wonder whether that too is also a threat response. Autistic people are detailed, we have many more synapses and connections all kicking off our senses and affecting our processing. We like detail, we need detail. Is this binary decision-making a way of cleverly condensing all those scattering thoughts? An ability to group together thoughts, to unconsciously quickly take the top 2 considerations and hold onto them. A threat response to data overload?

A bit about processing…

The belief is that the brain works predominantly from your senses, then your brain can process, and then fall into the appropriate action required. Actually, before any of that, your brain is making predictions from previous data/information/experiences. Our perceptions of what an environment will be like all begin with our brain’s predictions of what our senses will experience. So when I walk into a pub for example, part of my brain would have already started the process, by making a prediction of what that pub environment will be like. This prediction is based on all of my other experiences stored away from walking into a pub.

So let’s consider the autistic brain. The highly detailed autistic brain. Sadly, our sensory predictions prove more often than not to be inaccurate.

Autistic brains pick up the detail of our environment initially, not the broad picture. For us to make a sensory prediction, we are still drawing from previous experience about an environment, but we have a lot of intricate detail to process, not an overview of that environment. We want our prediction to be exact, yet with so much data to process, how can our sensory prediction ever be exact?

We are prone (and I mean that in a good way) to focusing and tunnelling in with our monotropic minds into the tiny bits of data, rather than just taking in a sweeping top-level picture of our environment or situation. We are bottom-up thinkers, taking in all the details first before we get to the context of the environment or social interaction. Everyone needs context to complete the big sensory prediction picture. Without context of an environment, how can I decide whether all the little bits of data I have collected actually make sense to that environment or situation I am in? Not only does it take us a little longer to get to the context, because of the mass of data, so the context in our predictions is often incomplete if there at all, especially when we are in social situations.

Autistic brains encounter many more errors in our sensory predictions with much less context.

So everyone, autistic or not autistic, use predictions (unconsciously) to process any new bit of information. Whether that be a new place, conversation, task etc. Non-autistic brains can cope fairly well with this, as they are not taking in all the detail, or effected so intensely by sensory stimuli.. They can usually easily and fairly quickly access context, so their sensory predictions can be fairly correct. The autistic brain, not only takes a little longer to process all that intricate information, but it also means that we feel we can’t rely on our predictions because they are usually wrong.

So we start to go into everything sensory first. Experiencing everything with fresh eyes, taking in everything like we have never seen or heard it before. You can see how overwhelming that might get? Pretty exhausting to process new information all the time. But at least it is accurate in our brains!

You can understand why predictability, routine, lower sensory input are all fairly vital to autistic survival. And we need time! Time to process, time to work it all out, time to feel safe, time to figure out our response or action.

So is this binary way of thinking a natural response? Or underneath that is there a finer detailed world? The reason I am writing this, is because whether it is an authentic way of processing or not, I don’t believe it is a lesser way of processing. I don’t believe it is a harmful way of processing at all. When we realise the effort that goes into processing a new environment, navigating a conversation, making a decision. You can start to appreciate the necessity of binary thinking.

References that might be interesting:

https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/theory-predictive-brain-important-evolution-prof-lars-muckli

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/241164838/wcs.1542.pdf

Don’t forget to reminisce (if you are the age I am!) to that binary finary classic “1998”