Anxiety

I understand Zoe's argument because confidence is crucial to reducing anxiety and having reliable reference points is common to both confidence and anxiety.

I'm not so sure that explains anxiety amongst people on the spectrum, and Hope has just introduced some more imponderables that are not just answered by confidence.

I have a theory of my own, but it is only a theory and untested as yet, bar my own limited efforts to observe.

The need to analyse situations, such as a social situation or a conversation makes people on the spectrum much more inclined to persevere with speculations and working out possible outcomes to compensate for not having the instincts or acquired processes manifested by neurotypicals. That need to analyse all possible outcomes of a situation may be crucial to special interests. It also may explain the need  for constancy or routine to provide a reference point in a sea of possible outcomes. Hence I think autistic spectrum anxiety is driven by more than just lack of reference points but by a need to cover all outcomes. Hence spiralling anxiety and negative reinforcement may be observed, which is more than just reference points.

I cannot comment on Zoe's research into a method of counselling as she has done the work and generated evidence; I've no points of reference from which to comment. However Autistic behaviours seem to me complex in origin and not simply attributable to one cause. I hope Zoe's idea is productive but I'd also like to hear other people's reactions to whether our anxiety behaviour is just down to not having enough episodic memories of competence situations as reliable reference points, or being able to substitute these artificially.

This is an important topic and needs more debate I think.

I understand Zoe's argument because confidence is crucial to reducing anxiety and having reliable reference points is common to both confidence and anxiety.

I'm not so sure that explains anxiety amongst people on the spectrum, and Hope has just introduced some more imponderables that are not just answered by confidence.

I have a theory of my own, but it is only a theory and untested as yet, bar my own limited efforts to observe.

The need to analyse situations, such as a social situation or a conversation makes people on the spectrum much more inclined to persevere with speculations and working out possible outcomes to compensate for not having the instincts or acquired processes manifested by neurotypicals. That need to analyse all possible outcomes of a situation may be crucial to special interests. It also may explain the need  for constancy or routine to provide a reference point in a sea of possible outcomes. Hence I think autistic spectrum anxiety is driven by more than just lack of reference points but by a need to cover all outcomes. Hence spiralling anxiety and negative reinforcement may be observed, which is more than just reference points.

I cannot comment on Zoe's research into a method of counselling as she has done the work and generated evidence; I've no points of reference from which to comment. However Autistic behaviours seem to me complex in origin and not simply attributable to one cause. I hope Zoe's idea is productive but I'd also like to hear other people's reactions to whether our anxiety behaviour is just down to not having enough episodic memories of competence situations as reliable reference points, or being able to substitute these artificially.

This is an important topic and needs more debate I think.