This video was made to try and raise understanding of what anxiety can feel like for an autistic child. It is based on the beginning of my post about anxiety in autistic children.
The words from the video are:
Imagine popping out to the shops for ten minutes and then coming home.
When you walk in the door everything is different, the sofa has moved, the TV is gone. The carpet has changed colour and it doesn’t look like your house. You turn around and you are somewhere you don’t recognise.
How does this make you feel? Confused? It doesn’t make sense? Worried? Maybe you feel anxious that everything has changed?
An autistic child’s world just doesn’t make sense unless everything is in the right place. This is how even small changes can feel to autistic children.
Imagine you have a presentation to do at work and you’re nervous about it.
On the way you get stuck in a traffic jam and you might be late. You’ve needed to use the toilet all morning and you wanted to read through your notes before the interview but now you aren’t going to have time. You’ll just have to wait to use the toilet and try to remember the notes you were relying on knowing.
You walk into the room and your boss’ boss is there to watch. You realise you forgot your laptop.
Your anxiety has been building all morning but this is the point where you really start to panic. Your heart is racing, your muscles tense, you start to sweat and your stomach starts to hurt!
A lot of autistic children suffer with anxiety. These are the sorts of feelings they can get on a daily basis.
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I feel guilty when I lose patience with our boy when he won’t cooperate, because I know it just adds to his anxiety and solves nothing.
I get exactly where you are coming from!