fear and autism/as - studies?

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does anyone know of any formal or informal studies focusing on the relation between people exhibiting as/autistic tendencies and fear?

id prefer not to get into a debate or discussion about the nature or definition of fear, how it works, etc etc, just if anyone would be willing to point me in a direction i need to go to learn more about the relationship between the two.

i would also apreciate any personal thoughts on the matter if nothing else, or what the consensus is if there is one at all......

thanks

I've learned, over the past 365 days, that I fear and loath change, after me Buses were retired off the 159, in London. The only change that I've actually enjoyed, was moving into my own flat. I didn't realise that the demise of the Routemasters would have such an adverse effect on me. I've thought that I was well on my way to being a Hippie in the very early days of Last December, until that happened.

That was than, this is now.

I can't recall if she cites studies specifically about Autism and fear but Temple Grandin talks a lot about Fear and prey animals and fear/anxiety and autism. She is autistic and an animal expert, specializing in livestock. Animals in Translation is her most recent book and talks a lot about this subject. (she talks about other animals and stuff too)

My theory is that the sympathetic nervous system - ie, the bit that controls fight / flight - has a tendency to over-react perhaps. I sometimes find myself being afraid with no definable source for fear.

I don't have anything to back that up. It's just a theory.

Sometimes I get afraid if people move things without me knowing -- like if I come home and my flatmates have shifted something while I was gone.

Haven't much material on autism + fear, but plenty on each topic separately. "The Emotional Brain" by Joseph LeDoux investigates basis for fear. Subject of fear tends to be discussed in books about PTSD, which mention studies showing shrinkage of hippocampus in response to unremitting stress. Studies of AS I've read about mention shrinkage of the amygdala (and other differences in brain architecture), so I'm unclear on how it all fits together.
My totally imperfect (botched attempt to get the science right) basic summary:
Amygdala (which perceives things vaguely) notices something in environment (or internal sensation) & labels it as threat or harmless. Cortex ("higher" thinking brain) is supposed to refine that assessment. Amygdala is first line of defense that makes broad generalizations, cortex is a more choosy filter that applies "reasoning" to counter "instinct". I'm not clear on how hippocampus operates, but it mediates between amygdala & cortex.
For example "Yikes, a snake !" says one's amygdala to a coiled shape in the dark. If you stand there for awhile & reason it out & decide "That's just a garden hose", that's the cortex using it's judgement to trump one's emotional impressions.
Unsure how this relates to NT or AS modes of functioning. Things that scare me, I'm unable to work through the fear, I just run away or avoid. My cortex isn't in control enough to boss my amygdala around, can't intellectualize myself out of my feelings.
For instance, I'm terrified of medical procedures & I avoid them, even though it's unhealthier to put off doing so. In theory, if my cortex had more influence over my fear (presumably generated by my amygdala) I'd be able to do the sensible thing & regularly see the doctor, instead of waiting until I have an emergency.

Last edited by Belfast on 12 Dec 2006, 6:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't know anything about amygdalas, but I've always believed in a much more rational and basic reason for my fears; with all the rest being mere outgrowths of it:

I've lived in perpetual fear of 'normal people' since I was little; they just didn't seem that safe to be around. (A boy who happened to be a diagnosed autistic was the only kid I really felt fully relaxed and comfortable around; someone with whom I could just be myself.)

They seemed on the menacing side (it could just be my imagination: but they actually seem to snarl at you on some occasions.), as though they could attack at any instant; could go from friendly to threatening in a heartbeat (which they did on countless occasions), so I could never really trust them.

They were animalistic (with all due respect to the animals) in that regard; less humanlike than me in a lot of ways; beings that would've more rightfully been caged up instead of being allowed to run around loose.

They were/are wild, with no fear of me whatsoever; perfectly at ease with one another, but then: is a wolf not comfortable amongst its own kind?

That's been a huge source of fear and anxiety for me all my life, and it feels like the best I've ever really been able to do is keep myself isolated from them, because they've demonstrated time and again just how dangerous they can really be; the most fearsome thing of all about them is their seeming lack of awareness or concern about just how much risk they place themselves in when they do certain things (so help me, I've seen them spring through the air like cougars at each other).

To be human is to be vulnerable; the 'normals' always seemed much less so, while I've always felt much more so.

That's what's really been at the root of my AS/HFA (still not sure which it could be) fear and anxiety all these decades, I believe.

If they weren't there, I believe that I would feel a perfect sense of peace all of the time (I often do, and when I don't: it's always NT-related).

More anxiety than fear... actually sometimes I show far too little fear than I should in certain situations.

Yes. me too. I was always afraid of other children in general. When I look back, I can see that some of the kids I felt OK with were probably spectrum too. I think there were more of those sort of people at the church I more or less grew up in (interesting) and church was a place I felt comfortable. I remember seeing adults on television who were clearly very different from my own family and most of the people we knew. It's funny, it's like we were a different species. yes I feared the 'normals' and still do to a degree.

Growing up i was never scared of snakes or physical danger but some things paralyzed me.

eg. I got put in hospital when i was 10 yrs old because of a spider. It was a huntsman, i'd never seen a huntsman before then and it was seriously the size of my head (i was 10 after all). It was in the corner of my room, so instead of going to sleep i stayed up all night and stared at it and got progessively more frightened. My mom eventually noticed strange noises coming from my room. She checked in and i was shaking and having trouble breathing. I had to go to hospital because i'd hyperventilated myself due to fear. Yes you may laugh at me.

Yours is a theory which makes a lot of sense. I get wound up very easily, at a subconscious level, for reasons I don't really understand. And then I launch into fight-or-flight behaviour at inappropriate moments.

This can cause very contradictory behaviour. For example if I have some background fears about a relationship which isn't going well, I will run away from / verbally attack the person that I love. It's very confusing for everyone involved.

Well, the autistic amygdalae are apparantly different! As far as they can tell, there are fewer nuerons in it. That MIGHT be one reason why autistic people show less empathy, etc...

Still, I really don't have anything I would call an unreasonable fear. I have been outside, around snakes, spiders, etc...

As for change, etc... I strongly dilike it, and I take measues to limit its effect on me, but I don't actually fear it.

Steve

If you are looking for scientific research about this...Google "ScienceDaily" and then do a search on there..."autism and fear".

There is some interesting research.

My own fears....driving a new place,getting lost in general,killing someone with my car,becoming paralyzed or losing my sight,living with endless physical pain,going insane,being homeless again,my cats or boyfriend dying or being in pain and not being able to help them,losing bowel function(no,never have,but just the embarrassment and smell scares me),having to stay at the same or worse job for many years,being "really" poor again,having my boyfriend cheating on me and staying with me but secretly hating me,being physically disfigured and stared at,being trapped in a fire,tornado,flood,being tortured by a psychopath,getting brain disease(alzheimer's).

Hmm.. my fears.. lets see.. a phobia about deep water is about it.

Otherwise I dont even really fear death.

krex,

YIKES! If you are going to go THAT far, then EVERYONE has fears! And who wouldn't really fear some kind of brain disability? Frankly, I have tried to cut out a lot of aluminum from my diet solely because of the alzheimers connection. They KNOW aluminum plays a role in alzheimers and apparantly has NO connection to any reaction in the body, but it is in almost everything from pans and deodorant to bakery products.

Steve

As others have mentioned,I think the 'fear' factor in AS/Autism is more to do in general with 'Anxiety',as in definition I've just looked up-
Anxiety (Psychiatry) ' Intense fear or dread lacking specific cause or threat'
I can relate in particular to sociable_hermit's problem with the 'fight or flight' response
over reacting especially when it comes to relationships. At some point I've also thought
about most of krex's fears but you quickly have to blank those out of your mind or you'd
be a nervous wreck !

I often find people at least slightly unnerving to be around. When they get noisy (groups of girls, usually) or overcrowd me then I tend to feel anxious, although not directly afraid. You could say I have a mild phobia of men, though not enough of one to count as entirely relevant.

I saw a blog comment by someone called Bill Nason once, which I thought made an intelligent point regarding autism and anxiety:

Also, does anyone else find that the more anxious they are, the lower functioning they tend to feel?