Autism and Anxiety

When Ethan was going through the diagnosis process I was often asked if Ethan suffered from anxiety. The answer to this was always no. In-fact it sometimes felt that Ethan took lots of things in his stride, something that shouldn’t supposedly happen with autism.

Since the soft play incident anxiety has reared it’s ugly head.

It started with Ethan avoiding Little E and distancing himself from us. Thankfully this was short lived. He now has anxiety issues when going into nursery, it is getting easier but some days you do feel like you are pushing him through the door.

Ethan’s main cause of anxiety is other children, brought on by his bad experience at soft play. I think it’s because he can’t predict what other children are going to do. Some children also make lots of noise at very unexpected times.

Ethan’s anxiety is now stopping him from doing things that he enjoys. I have witnessed this twice over the past week. The first when we walked into town and he wouldn’t go into the play area.

The second was during his swimming lesson. I was able to take Ethan to his swimming lesson this week. As soon as we entered the pool area and Ethan saw the children, he froze. There were only two other children there!

I had to push him towards to pool and tell him that on one was going to hurt him. I felt terrible, but if I let his anxiety’s take over we will never be able to do anything.

I really hope we can work through his anxiety’s, I know it could take some time but what’s the alternative. Never leaving the house!

6 thoughts on “Autism and Anxiety”

    1. Jane - Our Little Escapades

      So do I, I hate to see how it has shaken him. I hope it is just a bump in the road. I’m keeping everything crossed x

  1. I have been where you are at! Keep in mind the concept *edge plus one*. You may have to slow down and cut back time etc. Take Ethan to his *edge* and only one more tiny step forward (plus one). if you push too far and too fast the anxiety will continue to escalate. Please feel free to join our closed facebook group. Yes, it is RDI, however, it is a very non judgmental group… and no one gets slammed for doing other therapies! :). The beauty of it is that no question is too silly AND there are consultants who will happily give advice as well as other parents. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Autismguide/

    1. Jane - Our Little Escapades

      Thank you, I really want to look into RDI it sounds a very interesting concept. We will take things slowly with Ethan, I hate this anxiety x

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