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Reaction to violence in book

NAS89668

Hi there. Wonder if anyone has any advice. My son has recently had his diagnosis. He is 11. He doesn’t open up to me a lot about anything, knows he was being assessed for autism but doesn’t want to know what was said.

he recently came to me upset saying he was worried about school because they were going to be starting a new book about the war and he was worried it was going to be violent. He then revealed that the reason he had been sent home from school after being sick on himself a month or so ago was because there was a scene in the book where someone was stabbed and it talked about the blood. He didn’t mention this at the time. He said when they were reading it be started to sweat and feel sick and didn’t make it to the toilet on time. He told us none of this at the time which is concerning, but we are working on building trust and communication around this kind of thing.

i am wondering if anyone had any insight into what’s happened, what this reaction was, and any suggestions on how I can support him. He doesn’t want to be embarrassed by any special treatment at school, but it’s clearly a big worry for him. I am new to all this.

susie 

Parents

  • One thing about being autistic which is unique is our intensity of impact from sense-perception (physical, psychological and emotional), which is far greater degree than our peers. We don't desensitise. We need to actively seek to protect and shield ourselves from sensory assault and often from toxic others or we suffer far severe consequence.  We have trouble predicting social elements including how cruel humans are and there for the shock might not leave our system. In other words, a thing encountered by the imagination can cause PTSD. Because, essentially, that's where our memories are stored. I've read a few acts of horrendous violence which didn't give a content warning and will never get them out of my head. I wish I'd never read them, because I can't un-ring that bell or un-see that thing. It's caused personal trauma that has interfered in relationships or moments with others. Even intimacy. 

    CONTENT WARNING

    The degree of desensitisation which the non-autistic population can just use to repress or forget and move on is mind numbing. Often, the cruelties in stories might become more intense, with more shock value due to the ability to desensitise. For instance, when The Dark Knight came out, Heath Ledger's joker was a type of real sadism I'd never seen as "entertainment". It made me physically sick, I left the theatre within 15 minutes. And it's not just a deep sense of justice or sensing injustice so deeply, it's that passive internalising of that kind of sickness is a kind of social virus. And I couldn't believe millions were just watching this when he was portraying the kind of evil that actually exists in the world forcing children into slavery, girls in to being raped daily, and so much human cruelty.

    There's no reason to force a child to be exposed to something they're not ready for. We're not savage. 

  • in reply to JuniperFromGallifrey

    Yh some things I just cannot understand why anyone thinks is suitable as entertainment, we know villainy exists and helps move a story forwards but the especially vile stuff we don't need to see it explicitly to know it goes on, it makes me wonder what kind of sick or apathetic person would actively want to watch that stuff play out in full detail for fun. It's no crime to be sensitive.

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