So when I first read Elantris, I thought it was kind of odd that Adien's autism was just healed when Raoden heals Elantris. Since autism is connected to increased memorization and perception, as displayed in Adien's knowledge of distances, I wasn't sure how that would transfer after the healing.
Now that I know more about the Cosmere and how healing works to form one's ideal self, I believe it's more likely that whatever made him unable to communicate was healed, rather than the entirety of his autism.
"I...I feel like my entire life has been a dream, Raoden. I remember everything that happened. But I couldn't interact - I couldn't say anything. That's changed now, but one thing remains the same. My mind ... I've always been able to figure numbers..."
Going off of this quote after he healed, it seems like his ideal self would be able to interact with others, but he would also retain his mind as it was. I thought it would be neat if in the next book, he's written as a high-functioning autistic rather than a regular Elantrian that is good with numbers. I'm curious as to what others think about this, let me know!
