High / Low Anxiety?

It used to be worse when I was younger. People just thought I was shy. 35-40 years ago you just had to get on with things. It was hard.

I think it is mostly a threat response to new and unpredictable environments.

You can't think your way out of it as it is not a thinking problem. Your nervous system is triggered first. This feeds into your thinking, changing the mode and how you behave.

You just have to do things and gradually train your body that things are safe and nothing bad happens. You may need to build up to it it just white knuckle it the first couple of times.

Depending on how calm I am, I can still find it hard to go into some places the first time. It is not consistent though.

I can walk into hotels easily, but not coffee shops. Social settings are hard, business settings, apart from some shops, are easy. E.g. having to walk past a shop 3 or 4 times, or go home and come back, before going in. In COVID for 2-3 years I could not enter anywhere new at all. It was a threat response even though cognitively I knew it was ok, I could not override it. So I was restricted to 4 buildings. I am over that now thank goodness.

I mentioned it in my diagnosis. But I think it is more a consequence of autism for some people, rather than a diagnostic criteria. That's why there are separate anxiety disorders.

Autism in general can make you more susceptible to other things.

It used to be worse when I was younger. People just thought I was shy. 35-40 years ago you just had to get on with things. It was hard.

I think it is mostly a threat response to new and unpredictable environments.

You can't think your way out of it as it is not a thinking problem. Your nervous system is triggered first. This feeds into your thinking, changing the mode and how you behave.

You just have to do things and gradually train your body that things are safe and nothing bad happens. You may need to build up to it it just white knuckle it the first couple of times.

Depending on how calm I am, I can still find it hard to go into some places the first time. It is not consistent though.

I can walk into hotels easily, but not coffee shops. Social settings are hard, business settings, apart from some shops, are easy. E.g. having to walk past a shop 3 or 4 times, or go home and come back, before going in. In COVID for 2-3 years I could not enter anywhere new at all. It was a threat response even though cognitively I knew it was ok, I could not override it. So I was restricted to 4 buildings. I am over that now thank goodness.

I mentioned it in my diagnosis. But I think it is more a consequence of autism for some people, rather than a diagnostic criteria. That's why there are separate anxiety disorders.

Autism in general can make you more susceptible to other things.