“The diagnostic literature on autism describes autistic people who are frequently devastated by accidentally breaking social rules they were trying hard to follow.”
The evidence does not show that autism’s diagnostic literature commonly describes this specific pattern. Core DSM-5 and ICD-11 materials focus on social-communication differences, restricted or repetitive behaviors, and distress from change or overload, not frequent devastation after accidentally breaking social rules. Some broader clinical writing discusses moral distress or rule-violation anguish in autistic people, but that is not the same as a diagnostic description and does not establish that this reaction is frequent.