Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, my son now 11 with little speech but high logic has an increasing list of phobias that prevent him from taking part in school activities so I am trying to understand them in order to find ways and help him cope. Therapists strategy do not work so far..
The biggest problem in a video/photo/cameras world is Scopophobia, he cannot stand seeing himself on a photo (even his passport cannot be opened when around but has no problem with mirrors). He has huge meltdowns when someone wants to take a picture and he is around, screaming: "No photo, No video, No Future!". It expanded to watching videos at school on which he has no control whereas at home he knows he can switch off TV when it distrubs him and watch videos he choses on his tablet.
Would anyone understand this link to the future? Thank you advance, I am a bit lost with this one.
I think it's possibly the 'capturing part of your soul' thing.
If you believe that every time you are photographed a little bit of your soul is imprisoned in that image it affects your future.
This is a superstition but could also be related to autism.
I have always hated having my photo taken and still put my hand over my face.
There is an old photo of me when I was a little child with my mum and sister and I am hiding behind my mum's dress.
Thank you! Hiding from others eyes I think I get it. I thought photos was an independant phobia but you remind me that his came along with what I thought was "shame" at around 5 years old. Indeed a photo will allow people in the future to watch you. The soul concept is too complex for him I think.
Annie said:The soul concept is too complex for him I think.
Actually I felt that as a child, before, as an adult, I read it was a 'superstition'.
I felt that they were stealing something from me and I didn't like to see myself in the photo afterwards.
Photographs encapsulate the past, as a moment in time, and if you think towards the future, you might not like that.
It's as though they take something from you.
I am, by-the-way, a photographer.
I do see photography as quite a deep and complex thing, especially of people.
As someone who has dealt with this issue for over 50 years, let me tell you this: stop taking pictures of your child. Stop asking him to be on camera. Find another school. Find another way. Take him at his word. He will never change. It will never feel different for him. All you will do is get some compliance from him, harm him, and destroy his relationship to you and to the world. Stop now.
Indeed! It is just the closest typical emotion I could think off, a major problem when trying to define emotions in autistic people I understand. I need a new emotional dictionnary!
No. It's not the same.
I hate being looked at but part of that is because I am so self-conscious.
I always did, and still do at 60, blush easily.
There is no 'shame' in not wanting to be looked at and photographed, by-the-way.
Very interesting this "it takes something from you". Is it the same people feel when being watched by others in real life? I see his sense of what I call shame is very different from typical shame.