What Is “Distinct Anxiety” in Autism?
How one study linked amygdala size to a newly-recognized form of autism-specific anxiety
Those of us in the actually autistic community know all too well that very often anxiety goes hand in hand with autism. When I was fairly young, I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, but I always felt that diagnosis didn’t quite fit or make sense to me.
My anxieties, even before I was diagnosed autistic, felt very specific and like they made perfect sense. That’s because I was experiencing another form of anxiety.
It’s a type of anxiety that most autistic people have probably never heard of and which didn’t have a name until recently.
It’s been dubbed Distinct Anxiety and is an autism-distinct form of anxiety, meaning only autistic people experience it.
Social anxiety involves a fear of rejection or evaluation; however, autistic people are also often anxious in allistic social situations because we do not always know what is going on. This is an example of distinct anxiety.
Autistic people may also be anxious over losing access to a special interest or experiencing changes in routine or plans.
