Commentary on Autism and the double‐empathy problem: Implications for development and mental health

Abstract

Mitchell et al.’s proposal that poor mental health in autism may stem from recurrent poor social interactions with non- autistic people across the lifespan, due to what Milton (2012) has termed as the double- empathy problem, is both timely and welcomed. It adds to the increasing voices advocating for a reconceptualization of autism as a condition that ‘ is both biologically and socially derived ’ (Milton, 2012, p. 866). Specifically, the authors question the validity of focusing the level of study of autism exclusively on the autistic person. In this respect, the authors stress the need to investigate, first, social interactions between autistic and non- autistic populations and, second, their impact over time on the mental health of autistic people. The calls for exploring the nature social interactions between autistic and non- autistic people are and the authors make a powerful argument for the need to do so. Specifically, they delineate a well- reasoned timeline understood by non- autistic people to feelings of loneliness the lack of a sense of belonging, which in turn, result in poor mental