Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, I'm new to this! I was wondering if anyone might have any advice please? My son is autistic. He's 11 years old and very intelligent. He's a very anxious boy, he will literally cower behind me at times. He's very literal. He's seen the tv news and is terrified of the situation in Syria. On the night of the commons vote I couldn't him to bed, he was still up at 1130pm, convinced we were all about to die. Obviously I've tried to reassure him but I'm not sure what to say.
Hi Pipkin
I have a 7 year old DS who is not yet DX but sufferes greatly with anxiety to the point of throwing up. We do not have the topical programmes on in our house.... yet!
How ever i find that distraction helps especially at night. This seems to be the time his anxiety is hightened we use his fans, his TV with use of a timer (traffic light to monitor the time on his Tv at night) his music system and when things like bad weather are causing the concern, headphones. i'm not saying that it completely takes the anxiety away but it helps. He also has his comforters, he likes textured things but maybe your boy would like fiddly objects ie yellow stretchy man reminds me of a smiley emoticon.
i know your boy is older but it might work.
I have also a few books one of them maybe suitable to explain anxiety for his age, if he understand it maybe he can control it a little better,
The Panicosaurus by K.I. Al-Ghani
There are also great ones on Amazon that might be more particular for your DS that give great reviews which help.
We also have the feelings board that goes from 1-5 explaining how he feels at each step, were still new to it but i have heard good things in using it for all ages. It gives them a simple way of telling us how they feel so we can manage the surroundings for them and they dont have to increase their anxiety.
Also got this on Amazon.
Hope this helps and if not atleast you know you are not alone :)
Hi Pipkin,
To add to this, would watching a topical comedy programme like 'Have I got News for You' help?
He then may be able to see items which he considers important satirised by adults in the same way they may be sensationalised in regular news broadcast (over time he may then be able to see that politics, especially global politics, is 90% bluster and posturing, and that sometimes what is reported isn't necissarily the whole story or without bias).
I dont have a TV for the very reason it makes me anxious and paranoid and i'm an adult. If i need to know what happening in the world (and most the time i dont need to know) then BBC newsround gives a fair story without being alarmist about things.
There are a lot of people i have met at the MH support group that are triggered by the news so we just dont watch it and it works