Anxiety is more common in autistic individuals than it is in neurotypicals. The consensus is that around 50% or more of autistic people will experience anxiety that has a significant impact on their everyday lives.

The key areas that may especially relate to anxiety and stress for autistic people are:

1. Camouflaging
2. Double Empathy problem
3. Sensory Sensitivities and unmet sensory needs
4. Difficulty with uncertainty and coping with change
5. Life events
6. Expectations (work, family, society)
7. Executive functioning difficulties

Assessments of anxiety are rarely tailored for autistic people. Alongside typical signs of anxiety, people we have assessed describe becoming more repetitive in their actions, retreating to the safety of their interests (avoiding the outside world) and relying on their routines and repetition as a way of managing uncertainty, fear of failure and sensory overload.

Autistic Overwhelm