Autism And Anxiety…. Finding the Root Cause For Symptoms
I saw this graphic shared by a friend earlier today, and found it super interesting. In many ways in our house, it seems like anxiety is an even bigger issue to deal with than autism. It affects our son in so many ways that we know of – and probably many areas that we don’t even realize.
To highlight just a few from this graphic…
Insomnia:
For years we struggled to have Eric sleep through the night…. who knows how anxiety contributed to this problem?
Stomach issues:
Can I get an Amen? After enduring a second colonoscopy and endoscopy procedure recently for Eric- and still having stomach problems — I am beginning to think that the high level of anxiety (and behavioral or sensory) issues he faces heavily factor into how many stomach issues he experiences.
Needing Reassurance:
Our son will ask a question 10 times in a row, and then 4 minutes later grill us again. This behavior can be ‘off the charts’ (and drive us batty) depending upon the topic and timing of whatever he is obsessing over. We had always attributed this to “autism” and the need for routine. But it is becoming extremely obvious that it is much more related to anxiety.
With his limited communication ability, I don’t know the extent to which other areas may be affected, but I don’t doubt that they ALL ARE in some way.
I hope and pray that as his language continues to develop we will be able to better help manage anxiety and various symptoms that arise. It’s hard to know if one type of treatment, supplement, dietary intervention, etc. is helping or hurting. I always worry about trying new things, because I am never sure that he will be able to verbalize whether something hurts (like a headache or stomach ache) – and while on the surface it may appear to help reduce some symptoms – it may actually create other problems in the meantime.
The struggle is real…..
—Mrs. B
#autism
#anxiety
#DoubleTrouble
(Note: I obtained this graphic from “Anxiety & I” facebook page post from April 27, 2018)