My autism and my anxiety are in a feedback loop with each other. Being on the spectrum makes it difficult for me to socialize; I generally fail to pick up on the "obvious" social cues. The result of this is an unshakeable anxiety that others are going to judge or misunderstand me, and has also led to some undesirable social experiences. Those experiences cause the thoughts to begin to snowball and soon I am overwhelmed by my own thoughts and feelings. The anxiety makes me display my autism traits even more. Masking becomes impossible and I rely on stimming and self-soothing techniques to center myself. By worrying so much about the social missteps I am taking because of my autism, I end up taking more as the anxiety comes out in full force. How do we break the cycle? For me, it was working with a professional and people close to me to help create a better set of social tools. With less tumultuous social experiences, I was able to get my anxiety under control enough to where it did not excessively trigger my autism. There are some days that are still hard, but any negative cycle can be broken over time.
~Anonymous Author
#brandonsvoice #autisticgold #autismacceptance #autism #autismfamily #autismlove #differentnotless #specialeducation #raffle #beavoiceforautism #autismblog #blogpost
