Beginning to feel terrified

I dont get anxiety at all, 

but I thought I would say something just for a different point of view.

Fear of the dark is generated by a primitive part of the brain to stop children running away on their own at night.

Its irrational and instinctive and almost always reduces with age.

Part of growing up is learning to face and overcome your fears, as you face them you discover there is nothing to fear and the fears should reduce.

As far as I can see anxiety happens when you believe your fears, 

you get into a I have real fears so there must be somthing real so I should be scared so there must be something to worry about so I should worry more loop.

Dont believe your fears, they are illusions generated to stop our ancestors children getting eaten by wolves or lost in a snowstorm, they served their purpose then but now they are irrelevant and harmful.

I know this is easier said than done but every time you indulge your fears or anxieties you reinforce them, then they become more real and you fear your fears.

Break the cycle, it will be easier as you grow up and any progress you make will have long term benefits for the rest of your life.

Hello Liv, Hope and Amy,

I am sorry to hear about the anxiety you have all been dealing with and how hard you are finding this.

Our Autism Helpline may be able to help. Advisers can talk through the different types of support and search for services in your area, if you would like to call.

Hello Liv and hope

You are both Deffinatly not alone. I am 17, female diagnosed Autim Spectrum Disorder. When I was diagnosed I was 15 years 11 months old. Then, next thing I know I am 16 and no-one cares. With diagnosis came a list of things I need (like therapys, and teaching life skills). But their are silly rules that means that I can now suddenly do all these things because I am 16 and I will never get these things that I need. 

I have problems with anxiety too. Not with my health like you but I get scared going places-even places that I know well. The only place I feel okay is my bedroom because It it is very tidy and everything can be in exactly the right place. If I am out and a table has been moved or I have a different chair that is enough to make me very upset. 

But my main problem is offline communication. My reading and typing are good (unless people use text speak, or bad fonts, or similies/metaphores etc) so online I am okay. But offline I have problems. I get very scared very easily and then I simply can not speak. I have no other way to communicate so I am often stuck unable to say what I think or how I feel. If I go and visit somewhere new even being asked my name, I can not answer. People just ignore me becaue I am so stupid I can not say my own name, or that is what they assume. 

Like both of you a 'late' diagnosis means I will never get all the support I should have got as a child, like speach and language therapy, life skills, independant living skills and whatever else their was. 

But, just to tell you that you are deffinatly not alone. If you want something bad enough then fight for it. Fight and fight and even when you can no longer fight keep fighting. Think of all the reasons why you ever started to fight for it. Like me. I am fighting for respite care. It is not what I wanted but I have now been assessed by a service to give me a weekend away once a month. I am hoping to start it soon though. As with everything they are limited by age. When I am 18 in January the funding will stop because it will be funded by childrens social work service even though the service it is with goes to adult. So I will have to fight adult social services to fund it. 

I think life with autism is all about fighting. It is about standing up for the things you need. All people with autism have to do it, or have parents to do it for their child. If you stop fighting things then you lose everything. So please, if you take anything from this then let it be that you will never give up.
Amy 

Welcome Liv,

If you got diagnosed in November, you will hopefully get some good professional assistance or support in time.

Having Aspergers,, the things you talk about in your post, we all experience them too, so you have found good company on the forum so to say.

I don't have any real answers for you, part from create a familar daily routine which you like, which suits you, not anyone else. This will allow you to venture more into the unknown and uncertainty if you have a 80% grounding in your own life.

I could suggest in times of anxiety think about the time ""just before you had the anxiety panic attack, this is a way of Unknowledging the anxiety and lessening or forgetting it and brings you back to you. Also relax your shoulders down and breathe out to relax a tense body.

Hi - to Liv + Hope + theaword - anxiety can be absolutely crippling for the person concerned.  It's very difficult to deal with.  As intelligent people your logical brain knows this.  Unfortunately the emotional part of your brain has it's own ideas (if you know what I mean).  I think some people can become over-sensitive, recognising how little they actually totally control in their daily lives. So many outside influences.    The more anxiety-producing experiences people have, the more sensitive they get - vicious circle.  This is why people can't get a good night's sleep.  This makes things worse - vicious circle again.   Gaining a bit more control over one's life may help reduce anxiety.  Also, Live, your GCSE's may be worrying you more than you think??  There's something called Global Anxiety which anxious posters may be experiencing.  You may already know + understand this, but if not then google it.   Also make sure you've thoroughly checked out all treatments which may help those with autism, just in case you've missed anything which might be worthwhile pursuing.

Liv

I just saw your post and felt I needed to reply to let you know that you are not alone. I don't have aspergers (I'm a mum to a little one with high functioning autism) so I really hope someone (more able than me) who can offer you some practical advice, will post here very soon. In the meantime, I just wanted to say that there is always help and friendship out there somewhere and you've done exactly the right thing by coming to a forum like this where you'll find people who've been through the same thing and come out the other side. I'll be thinking of you babe. xx

Hello Liv. You are certainly not alone. I am a 25 year old female, diagnosed with Aspergers 4 years ago. I have had chronic anxiety since my teens, mainly about getting a serious disease, and it got worse after I left school. Any illness you can think of, I have worried about getting or having. I often break out into a sweat, convinced I am dying. I am on edge all the time. I am scared both of getting non-contageous diseases and contageous ones. When younger, I would hold my breath until I felt faint when I was around people with illness, to prevent breathing in germs. I don't do this anymore, but I now worry that the stress is killing me, and obsessively take my pulse, and am on the look-out all the time for any pain.

I am scared of: dying of a heart-attack or stroke. Getting *** cancer or a tumour. Getting diabetes. Scared of not being able to breath (I have no breathing problems, but am obsessed with my breathing).

I am a healthy young adult, but all I can think about is death and disease, 24/7, and yes, it gets worse when I go to bed at night because I have no distractions.

The medical term for it is hypochondria or health anxiety. On top of this I have OCD and countless phobias. I am scared of life, a constant nervous wreck. If only there was a therapy that could help us.

I also worry about my parents. They are going to Normandy in August with my Uncle, travelling in his car, and I don't want them to go. I worry they will die, I worry about how I would cope, and it makes me feel sad. I wish I was a child again, relatively free from worry.