Difficulty with Transitions: Supporting Flexibility in Autistic Adults
- Kaitlyn Boudreault
- Oct 9
- 8 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
Transitioning from one task, activity, or environment to another can be challenging for any one of us.
But for many autistic adults, a core trait of this neurotype is a strong need for routine. Any changes can feel particularly overwhelming and cause anxiety, sensory overload, or an autistic shutdown.
This anxiety around transitions is often misunderstood as control issues or rudeness, and autistic adults are often told to just suck it up and manage it.
But it is important to understand that autistic adults navigate the world differently. This need for routine is a way for autistic adults to cope and often thrive on structure, predictability, and routine in a world that is often unpredictable and overwhelming.
If you are an autistic person navigating a world that is currently working against your brain, neurodiversity-affirming therapy or autism coaching can help you understand why transitions are difficult for you and implement supportive strategies that work for your brain, not against it.
In this blog, we will delve into why transitions are challenging, the causes behind this need for routine, and some neurodiversity-affirming strategies to make them less overwhelming.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference and a form of neurodivergence that leads to differences in the way that individuals interact with the world.
These brain differences tend to occur in the areas of social communication, sensory processing, and executive function. Autistic individuals also experience repetitive behaviours known as stims and restricted special interests.
The challenges that autistic individuals experience can impact various facets of an individual's life, including school, work, and relationships.
As a way to try to accommodate these challenges and find ways to navigate a world that doesn’t have autistic brains in mind, autistic individuals may need predictability and routine.
Autism and the Need for Routine
No two autistic individuals are the same because autism exists on a spectrum. Each individual experiences the world differently. But one common experience among autistic individuals is a strong need for routine.
There are some core traits related to the need for routine that occur, including:
Difficulty with transitioning from one task, activity, or environment to another
Repetitive behaviours, which can include stimming or daily routines
Planning and scripting before any conversations or interactions
Ordering items in a specific order
In addition, any unexpected changes can cause a range of distressing experiences, including:
Heightened anxiety
Difficulty communicating
Shutdowns or meltdowns
Among autistic individuals, this routine is not about being stubborn. It’s about finding coping mechanisms that help navigate a world where social cues, sensory input, and expectations can feel unpredictable and overwhelming.
Why Routine Matters to Autistic Individuals
The reasons for needing routine may differ from one autistic person to the next. But for many autistic adults, they may often develop routines to support:
Predictability: Routine can reduce the unknowns in daily life, which helps to lower stress.
Control: A sense of predictability can provide a sense of agency and control over your decision when sensory or social input feels overwhelming.
Cognitive load: Knowing what comes next can help to free up the mental energy needed to engage in other tasks.
Nervous system regulation: Consistent routines create safety and calm, and can help to reduce anxiety levels.
If other people don’t understand why autistic people need routine, they may label autistic adults as inflexible and controlling. But these behaviours are usually there for self-regulation. They are not personality flaws.
Why Transitions Are Challenging
Transitions can feel difficult for autistic adults. Researchers are still trying to figure out why this may be the case, and there isn’t one clear-cut reason as of now. Instead, the need for routine among autistic adults may be the result of a mix of biological, psychological, and social reasons.
1. Sensory Processing Differences
One core experience among many autistic adults is sensory sensitivities. This sensitivity usually comes in the form of hyposensitivity to sensory input. As a result, sounds, textures, or changes in temperature can feel overwhelming.
When moving from one environment or task to the next, the changes in sensory input can feel overwhelming and trigger sensory overload, which can make it that much harder for an autistic individual to focus and shift attention between environments or tasks.
For example, if an autistic individual is leaving a quiet home office and is then expected to enter a busy, brightly lit in-person office, it may feel physically or emotionally taxing and result in stress, irritability, or shutdowns.
Executive functioning involves the skills needed to make goal-directed behaviours, including the ability to plan, organize, and make decisions.
Autistic adults may struggle with executive functioning and have a difficult time with:
Switching mental focus from one task to another
Prioritizing which tasks are more urgent or important than the others.
Organizing the steps needed to follow a new routine
Even small transitions, like moving from one meeting to another, can feel overwhelming without support.
3. Communication Difficulties
Communication difficulties are common among autistic individuals. The need for routine may be one way to support themselves through these challenges and help themselves navigate the world.
But despite their best efforts, change is still common, and any instructions or cues for transitions may be difficult for an autistic individual to process. This can be especially true if the instructions are delivered verbally or without any clear visual support.
The lack of supportive communication methods for communicating a transition can lead to confusion, frustration, or heightened anxiety among autistic adults.
4. Monotropic Thinking and Hyperfocus
Autistic adults often engage in what is known as monotropic thinking, which involves focusing on one activity at a time. This focus is usually very deep and intense, and these items often become known as special interests.
Being asked to move from one task to another before the current task is even complete can feel very destabilizing and disorienting for an autistic person. It is similar to being woken up abruptly when you are in a deep sleep.
The brain of an autistic individual may still be focused on the original task and needs time to adjust before a transition is made.
5. Need for Predictability
Routine provides a sense of structure, predictability, and safety in a world that has a lot of changes. Any sudden changes disrupt this predictability and lead to meltdowns, emotional dysregulation, and heightened anxiety.
This need for predictability acts as a coping mechanism and helps to create a sense of safety and control in a world that feels overwhelming.
Neurobiological and Cognitive Factors
The causes for this difficulty with transitions among autistic individuals aren’t just behavioural or psychological. There are also neurobiological and cognitive roots. Some contributing factors to this need for routine among autistic adults include:
Amygdala hyperactivity: The amygdala is the emotional processing center of the brain. An autistic individual may be hyperactive and overreact to perceived threats or sudden changes, which can often lead to stress responses.
Prefrontal cortex differences: This prefrontal cortex region is responsible for executive functioning, or planning, decision-making, and impulse control. Reduced activity in autistic individuals can make switching tasks or routines more challenging.
Sensory integration differences: Autistic individuals may have a difficult time with integrating and processing sensory information, which can make new environments feel overstimulating. It takes longer for them to process the new environment and adjust accordingly.
Neurotransmitter regulation: Dopamine and serotonin are two neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of emotions and mood. Imbalances in the dopamine or serotonin neurotransmitters in autistic individuals can amplify emotional reactions during transitions.
These neurobiological and cognitive differences within the autistic brain explain why transitions aren’t just a mere preference. They are tied to how autistic brains process information and respond to change.
Transition Strategies for Autistic Adults
Not all strategies will work for every autistic adult, and that is okay. Here are some neurodiversity-affirming strategies that have helped other autistic people and may work for you. The goal here with these strategies isn’t to “fix” difficulties with transitions but to create supportive structures that honour your needs, preferences, and sensory profile.
1. Give Advance Warnings
Transitions can be difficult if you are suddenly caught off guard by them. To make transitions easier, you can prepare yourself for the change by giving yourself an advance notice or warning. For example, give yourself a time cue, such as “In five minutes, I’ll be finishing up.”
2. Use Visual Schedules and Timers
Visual supports are a way to reduce the amount of information stored within your memory (cognitive load) and can help act as a reminder for something that is coming up. If you are about to engage in a change or transition, consider using written checklists, digital planners, visual timers, whiteboards, or sticky notes.
3. Incorporate Transition Cues
An autistic individual may struggle to move from one task to another as a result of autistic inertia. If you use photos, objects, or words, it can help to indicate upcoming changes within your daily routine. For example, a picture of shoes by the door helps to signal it’s time to leave.
4. Celebrate Successes
Considering the fact that it can be quite difficult for you to transition from one task to another, doing so should be considered a huge win. If you are having a difficult time with a transition, recognize the effort it takes to move from one task to another. Celebrate success by giving yourself a short break, a kind word, or a small treat.
5. Provide a “Completion” Box
Knowing that you have completed one task and can move to another can be one way to help you prepare for a transition. A visual cue for the end of a task, like a box for finished items, helps signal it’s time to move on.
6. Alternate Easy and Challenging Tasks
Completing too many difficult tasks in a row can make it difficult to transition from one task to another. You may feel defeated before you even start a task with this setup. Instead, alternate tasks between easy and more demanding ones to gradually build comfort with transitions.
7. Rehearse Changes (Without Forcing Flexibility)
Imagining transitions and building in flexibility into your day can be of support for helping you get used to transitions. Having flexibility in your day-to-day life doesn’t mean you don’t have any routine. You are just working on building autonomy and choice and preparing for changes with safety. Add flexibility by gradually introducing small changes or making backup plans with options.
8. Plan for Meltdowns
If you know that transitions result in meltdowns for you, try to include some intentional sensory breaks into your day. Whenever you go through a transition, these breaks can help prevent sensory overload. Also, consider the use of sensory items like a weighted blanket, noise-cancelling headphones, or a fidget tool.
9. Ask for Accommodations
Autism can be considered a disability if it interferes with your day-to-day functioning. If you are struggling with transitions, consider asking for accommodations at school or work to support yourself.
Creating a Supportive Environment
Autistic adults thrive in environments that are predictable, accommodating, and supportive. Given that the current world is structured to work against the autistic mind because it has a lot of noise, unpredictability, and changes, it is important for society to work to build more neurodiversity-affirming spaces. A neurodiversity-affirming space consists of:
Minimizing sensory overwhelming by having reduced lighting, quiet areas, and fidget tools.
Keeping frequently used items in the same place.
Providing visual aids and schedules
Providing downtime and decompression opportunities
Collaborating with the individual in planning routines and transitions
Offering clear communication and advance notice for changes
Community Support and Resources
Local autism organizations, support groups, and therapy services can provide practical guidance and emotional support.
Workplace Transitions: Switching from deep-focus project work to a team meeting can be overwhelming. Using a timer and visual schedule helps signal the shift while giving the adult time to finish the current task or mentally prepare.
Daily Life Transitions: Leaving the house for errands can trigger stress. Providing a checklist, a countdown, and a familiar object (like a stress ball) supports smoother transitions.
Social Transitions: Moving from a quiet evening at home to a noisy social event may cause overstimulation. Scheduling sensory breaks and advance warnings can reduce anxiety and prevent shutdowns.
Book a Free Consultation
If you or someone you care about is finding transitions difficult to manage, you don’t have to navigate it alone.
At Blue Sky Learning, our autism coaches and therapists specialize in helping autistic adults build strategies that honour their unique brains.
We take a neurodiversity-affirming approach, meaning we work with your brain, not against it. Together, we’ll help you develop tools to manage transitions, reduce overwhelm, and create a sense of safety and predictability in your daily life.
Book your free consultation with a Blue Sky Learning coach or therapist by emailing hello@blueskylearning.ca or visiting our website below.
Comments