“No Way Out Except From External Intervention”: First-Hand Accounts of Autistic Inertia

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Buckle, K. L., Leadbitter, K., Poliakoff, E., & Gowen, E. (2021). “No Way Out Except From External Intervention”: First-Hand Accounts of Autistic Inertia. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 631596-631596. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631596

Publication date: 13 Jul 2021 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)

Abstract

This study, called for by autistic people and led by an autistic researcher, is the first to explore 'autistic inertia,' a widespread and often debilitating difficulty acting on their intentions. Previous research has considered initiation only in the context of social interaction or experimental conditions. This study is unique in considering difficulty initiating tasks of any type in real life settings, and by gathering qualitative data directly from autistic people. Four face-to-face and 2 online (text) focus groups were conducted with 32 autistic adults (19 female, 8 male, and 5 other), aged 23-64 who were able to express their internal experiences in words. They articulate in detail the actions they have difficulty with, what makes it easier or harder to act, and the impact on their lives. Thematic analysis of the transcripts found four overarching themes: descriptions of inertia, scaffolding to support action, the influence of wellbeing, and the impact on day-to-day activities. Participants described difficulty starting, stopping and changing activities that was not within their conscious control. While difficulty with planning was common, a subset of participants described a profound impairment in initiating even simple actions more suggestive of a movement disorder. Prompting and compatible activity in the environment promoted action, while mental health difficulties and stress exacerbated difficulties. Inertia had pervasive effects on participants' day-to-day activities and wellbeing. This overdue research opens the door to many areas of further investigation to better understand autistic inertia and effective support strategies.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:35.

Cited references
66
With a DOI
51
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
14
4 / 66 (6.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
11 / 66 (16.7%)
References with detected author names
65 / 66 (98.5%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
11
Without a stable identifier
12
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
190
From DOI or external metadata
190
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
47 / 190 (24.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 143 / 190 (75.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
6 / 190 (3.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 6 / 47 (12.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 6 / 167 (3.6%).
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