What is Autism Anxiety?
September 30, 2008
I think it is important to understand autism anxiety because I think these two things actually work hand-in-hand. Typically, if you look at all the negative behaviors of autism, such as aggression and panicked fear, than you’ll notice that these are more of a symptom of the anxiety presented to an autistic person. When the anxiety is removed, than these negative behaviors disappear. Autism is a spectrum disorder that leaves a child without the certain areas of the brain that helps them communicate as well as related to other people. These are the most important characteristics a person must posses to grow up and be a regular person in society. I’m going to discuss with you the important of understanding autism anxiety, so you can better deal with such a person.
Basically anxiety comes on in a few ways, but the biggest is change. If you look at the average person, change brings on anxiety. Moving to another city or school can cause that problem. When it comes to a person with autistic behavior, you’re looking at change as a much more anxiety driven problem. It’s much more scary because you’re not relating with the people around you, so it really starts to scare you. This is why it is so important for autistic children and adults to have a very structured routine. Routine keeps things consistent, familiar and that destroys any sort of anxiety.
When it comes to breaking the cycle of autism anxiety, it is good to have a small, but consistent attempt at breaking out of the comfort zone. You can’t just put them in a bubble and expect them to remarkably gain the skills that help them function in society. It is important to keep them in a routine, but routinely push them out of their comfort zone. You don’t want to go from 0 to 10 instantly. Let’s say you want to take them to the zoo. It would be smart to start showing them pictures of what they’ll see at the zoo. This way you sort of build a familiarity that takes away a lot of the anxiety with the situation.
There is also another way that anxiety is brought on with autistic people. Autism leaves a person with a very hard time interpreting their senses. Often they’ll over or under react to a stimulus. Petting the cat might feel weird to them and they may interpret it the wrong way. They may fear it and have an anxiety attack. That is why it is important not to put an autistic person (especially children) into these unknown scenarios that they’ve never interpreted before. Loud crowded places may not even be noticed by them or it could be the most horrible place they’ve ever experienced.
When it comes to autism anxiety, it is important to keep things consistent. The only real way of doing this is through routine. But it is also important to gradually and slowly push them out of their comfort zone, so that they do experience more things.
Confused Over The Conflicting Information About Autism? Discover what medical treatments are considered forerunners and what natural treatments and alternative therapies are currently being tested at Autism Symptoms.
Comments
Got something to say?