Ep. 120 Why Anxiety is So Common in Autism (And What Actually Helps)
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Why is anxiety so common in autistic people and what is its purpose?
Good evening, everyone. We are amped up and ready for a good time and living on a dream, baby. Cause that's what we're here for. Jesse is gonna kick off the show with some words of encouragement for us. Thanks
for that. Speaking of anxiety, thanks. Thanks for that.
Yeah, exactly. I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna shift this over to her so that way we can create a little bit of anxiety. Yeah. Um
But welcome everyone back. This is our first time back on the show together since we did our big internet breaking neurofirm accident. So we just want to thank you to all of those of you who came, who were live. And just as a reminder, if you did miss it or if you missed any of the talks, we have a 90-day replay. It was 90 days from when the event was, which was almost exactly a month ago. So we still have two more months where the replays are going to be active and tomorrow. Is if you're watching this live, if you're listening to the podcast, this deadline will pass. But if you're watching this live with us on video, Then tomorrow is when the deadline is for when the pricing for watching all the VIP replays goes up by double.
So many of you who were there live knew that the day of the event the replays were gonna be ninety-seven dollars, but we were like, you know what? Let's just YOLO, let's keep it 47 for the entire day. So we've been able to keep it at that. So if anyone wants to grab all of those replays to the entire event. It is $47, and you are getting 12 incredible talks. And everything that we're going to talk about today, you'll see how much that. how much that leads into how helpful those replays can be.
Do you know what that comes with a I want to say there's 48 pages. Uh it's a it's a guidebook. So for each of the presenters, it really captures everything that they say. It's fantastic to use if you're working with IEP teams or with families, or you just want the resource for yourself to reflect back on. Cause I when I attend. presentations or I'll go in person to conferences. I'll take my notes, but sometimes my notes are a little all over the place or sometimes it's hard for me to reflect back on them. This is fine-tuned to capture the best of the best of what was said. I'm telling you that handbook alone is is amazing. I know I forgot about it. Yeah I was like wait that's like the coolest thing ever.
Yeah. Right. Okay.
How does adaptive anxiety differ from pathological anxiety in autism?
So the we're going to talk about anxiety. We're going to talk about autism, how those things kind of sync up uh together from what Jesse and I have observed over the years from our from our what we currently our reference point. Uh it's funny because when we did the Neurofa Firm X uh you know conference The the one the summit for me and my experience that comes with anxiety because it's like I want everything to run smoothly. I want my the zoom call to make sure it's connected. And like, what if I sent the wrong link or Jesse sent the wrong link? What if at that moment we've got thousands of people watching and engaging? And then the Wi-Fi shuts down. Like these are all adaptive anxiety responses. So we're gonna start there.
That's normal, that's typical for our bodies and our system. That's what really anxiety is meant for. So anxiety is not a good or a bad thing. Or specifically, I wanna focus on that. It's not a bad thing when it's adaptive, right? So my brain, your brain, When you're gonna give a presentation in front of class and the teacher calls on you. It's normal for our adrenaline to go up, right? We start to get out of that window of regulation and we go into hyper arousal. We're like, oh my gosh, my heart's beating fast. Pupils are dilated and our hands get a little sweaty. We're like, oh gosh, I gotta use the restroom. Like our body's doing that naturally. And it's been this way for thousands and thousands of years to kind of prepare us.
Like, I got some anxiety because I don't know. if there's a bear on the other side of that tree. I don't want to get eaten. I don't know if that sound I'm hearing is a rattlesnake or if it's just someone with the shaker.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is anxiety so common in autistic people and what is its purpose?
0:08–2:37
2
How does adaptive anxiety differ from pathological anxiety in autism?
2:37–5:34
3
What are the three main types of anxiety that autistic individuals experience?
5:34–8:43
4
How does masking contribute to heightened anxiety for autistic people?
8:43–12:01
5
Why do uncertainty and unpredictability trigger anxiety in autistic learners?
12:01–15:50
6
What practical strategies (predictability, visual schedules, autonomy) actually reduce anxiety?
15:50–18:47
7
What do the latest statistics say about the prevalence of diagnosed anxiety disorders in autism?
18:47–20:58
8
How can educators and caregivers apply neuro‑affirming approaches to support anxious autistic individuals?
20:58–24:24
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The NeuroAffirm Podcast
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Ep. 123 Not Seeing Progress in Speech Therapy? Start Here.
Ep. 122 Screen Time Considerations for Autistic Kids
Ep. 121 The Biggest Sensory Mistakes SLPs Make
Ep. 119 From Behavior Therapist to NeuroAffirming SLP: Lessons that Shifted My Practice