02/04/2025
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World Autism Awareness Day: The Magic of My Autistic Brain
Hi, I’m Chris—and I’m part of the creative brain behind Spectra Events.
After 35 years of trying to “fit in,” I’ve come to realise that I began masking the moment I stopped feeling like myself. For years, I adapted, camouflaged, and reshaped how I presented to the world—without even knowing I was doing it. That survival instinct was my normal.
But beginning the process of being diagnosed as autistic has changed everything. It’s helped me see myself more clearly. Understand myself. Appreciate myself. And slowly but surely, I’m beginning to unmask. To feel more “me” than I have in years.
Today, on World Autism Awareness Day, I’m not just raising awareness—I’m celebrating the magic of my autistic brain.
My brain doesn’t just think—it builds. It’s a full production studio working 24/7. I don’t just imagine ideas, I experience them. I can picture entire projects, events, layouts, or campaigns before a single thing has been actioned. I walk into a space and see the potential instantly—not just what it is, but what it could be. From the tiny details to the whole atmosphere, I feel it like it’s already happened.
My memories aren’t snapshots—they’re immersive. I can remember the colour of the light in a room, the texture of the air, the wording someone used. I can relive them with cinematic clarity—sometimes painfully, sometimes beautifully. My mind holds onto emotion like it’s part of the architecture. And when it comes to planning, imagining, creating—I don’t think in outlines. I think in entire universes.
Where some people see a moment, I see threads. Layers. Possibilities. That makes me a deep thinker, a strong feeler, and often someone who sees connections others don’t. It also means I process the world in surround sound, high definition, full volume. Yes, that can be overwhelming—but it’s also what makes life so alive.
My brain doesn’t settle for surface-level—it goes deep. It unpacks, unpicks, reimagines, reinvents. I don’t approach tasks from a checklist—I approach them like a puzzle or a painting. I bring energy, vision, and intensity. That’s part of my magic.
Being autistic means I’ve had to work hard to exist in a world that often asks me to be less—to tone it down, to mask, to make myself easier. But the more I unmask, the more I realise: I’m not too much. The world has just been too narrow in its definition of what “enough” looks like.
My brain isn’t a limitation. It’s a gift. A creative, expansive, fiercely feeling, relentlessly curious gift.
So today, on World Autism Awareness Day, I want to celebrate all of that. Not just awareness—but appreciation. Not just acceptance—but acknowledgement of the incredible value that neurodivergent people bring to the world.
Because this brain of mine?
It’s not broken.
It’s brilliant.
