Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, one of our 11yo Son’s Autism traits is severe anxiety about meeting people he knows out of their usual context, for example, school friends out of school. It has got to the point that we struggle to get him to leave the house and he’d rather stay in his bedroom all day. If anyone has experience of something similar, what strategies have you used to help as we’re struggling to know how to help him? Thanks!
I'll be honest with you - by the time I was at your son's age, I was pretty much the same. I found other kids indifferent to me at best, hostile to me at worst. I used to spend hours alone in my room reading, writing stories, playing games. My parents tried to get me to go to a youth club when I was older, and I went a couple of times. But I didn't like it. Too many other kids all getting along with one another and ignoring me - playing games that I didn't want to play.
I'm sorry... but all the help I needed was to be left alone.
I should probably elaborate, our Son has no problems with the people at school; he gets on well with most people there. It’s the seeing people out of their usual context that he cannot deal with. Another example would be if we are at the shops and we bump into a family friend, he’s fine if he sees them out our house, or theirs, but the shop isn’t the place he expects to see them.