Understanding phenomenological experiences of autistic inertia using online community discourse

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. three authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

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Ward, T., Popazov, S., Adams, J., Clapham, H., Lawson, W., Karaminis, T., & Pellicano, E. (2026). Understanding phenomenological experiences of autistic inertia using online community discourse. Communications Psychology, 4(1), 18-18. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00386-4

Publication date: 20 Jan 2026 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
3 / 7 (42.9%)
  1. Tara Ward
  2. Sonia Popazov
  3. Jonathan Adams *
  4. Hayley Clapham *
  1. Wenn Lawson *
  2. Themis Karaminis
  3. Elizabeth Pellicano

Abstract

The term 'inertia' refers to the seemingly common Autistic experience of remaining in a state of rest or a state of motion until there is some form of external intervention. While a heavily discussed phenomenon in the Autistic community, it has been scarcely acknowledged in the academic literature. The present study aimed to advance knowledge of Autistic inertia by analysing a large qualitative sample of naturalistic discourse on the topic from Autistic online communities on the social media platform, 'Reddit'. We identified 501 relevant posts shared between 2005 and 2023, including 9,955 comments. We analysed the posts using reflexive thematic analysis with an inductive approach. We identified four themes, centred on the "all or nothing" extremes of inertia (Theme 1), the range of factors that intersect with and exacerbate it (Theme 2), its joyful and often highly-disabling impacts (Theme 3), and the varied ways in which Reddit users manage it (Theme 4). Our findings corroborated those from existing interview-based studies and also uncovered additional insights, elaborating on 'the vicious cycle' of inertia, its fatiguing effects and its interaction with other commonly co-occurring conditions. We discuss these less-reported experiences and identify what we know - and are still yet to understand - about the key features of Autistic inertia.

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 13:59.

Cited references
50
With a DOI
40
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
10
19 / 50 (38.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
10 / 50 (20.0%)
References with detected author names
41 / 50 (82.0%)
Without detected author names
9
Without a structured title
10
Without a stable identifier
10
References with raw author names still to review
9
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
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
178
From DOI or external metadata
178
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
9
120 / 178 (67.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 58 / 178 (32.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
47 / 178 (26.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 47 / 120 (39.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 34 / 152 (22.4%).
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