Asperger's and anxiety

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My oldest daughter has been diagnosed with Asperger's and my youngest daughter went into be evaluated. I was sure that she had it and ever worse than her sister .

But her evaluation came back today and while they are not ruling out asperger's ... They said that she has an anxiety disorder and that the asperger's may be in there too but they will kmow more after she gets into counciling .

Does anyone here have a child that has both ?

Traci

I was such a child, what do you need to know? I've been through it. The main thing you need to let her know is that she can't trust her feelings of anxiousness, and that she can lose it with practice by facing her fears. What causes her to be anxious?

I don't have a child, and probably never will, but I have AS and I think anxiety disorder. I think you know enough about AS; there are a lot of internet sites on it.

My theory that I have anxiety disorder is based on facts from my early childhood and present issues. As a toddler, I would have a panic attack if I couldn't see my mother for a few minutes or even seconds. She went with me to day nursery, because I completely freaked without her. I was two, I remember one panic attack, crying and screaming. Later on it went better and I was able to go to infant's claas without my mom, but sometimes I got scared again and started to cry. When I went to primary school, I didn't dare to talk to the teacher, so I used a cuddly animal to ''talk for me''. I had severe social anxiety. After a few years I was able to deal with it, I learned and forced myself to. Though I always had social anxiety in the background, I can't always surpress it. Just as I sometimes suffer from social anxiety I get really nervous when I have to go to something I have never seen before, like a theatre or something else. I don't know what is going to happen, and only that fact is scaring me. I push it away and ignore it, but sometimes it still is hard, like when I have to visit a play for school in the evening, I'm anxious all day. I have all sorts of anxieties, some are very slight, some are issues.

Social anxiety is my biggest issue, when I'm not able to push it away and surpress it. I hope your daughter will learn how to deal with it, I don't know if I have anxiety disorder, but I do know I have some real anxieties, so I hope your daughter will be able to deal with it, just as I do more and more. She shall need a lot of support.

There has been research done that suggests people with Asperger's Syndrome or in general people on the Autism Spectrum have overactive Amygaldas. The Amygalda is the part of the brain which is responsible for fight or flight action. So for people on the Autism spectrum, it can be like their brain is in emergency mode all the time due to a Amygalda that reacts to almost everything that could be considered a threat, like loud sounds for example. So this is why a person with Asperger's Syndrome would have a higher degree of anxiety.

hubby & son have anxiety and AS...daughter is currently being treated for anxiety & is going for an eval for AS

My son was also dx with an Anxiety disorder along with being on the spectrum.
Poor guy. We have to be really careful to not act like we are in too much of a hurry or his anxiety gets worse. He tends to stutter more when he is anxious.

IMHO all aspies have anxiety. Anxiety is an integral part of Asperger's and is the primary reason we stim.

chamoisee- i agree. now if we could just get "the pros" to agree with us.....

Most pros don't agree with you? If they don't agree, they are pretty crappy pros in my opinion. It seems to go hand in hand.

I have both anxiety and Asperger's. I was diagnosed with the anxiety stuff way before Aspie. All my medication is to treat anxiety symptoms as well. In therapy, we're working on my social issues to help reduce my anxiety.

What seems to be her triggers? I have a lot when I'm not on medication. Even on medication, I can't watch even the lamest of scary films as it will set my body off. Heck, even after a few minutes of watching my husband play Mario Bros, I have to excuse myself from the room so as to not get extremely anxious and jumpy.

Many of my sensory issues increase anxiety. Thomas motor cars are the worst. The boys are playing with them in the background, and while their yelling, screaming, and horsing around. The boys noise doesn't get to me, but the wheels of the trains going round and round, my body is already clenched up really tight listening to it.

My daughter becomes anxious when telling a story, talking in front of people, Some school work ( Math and Writing Papers ), If she is interupted, or if someone does not understand what she is trying to say. And at night she has to be with me ( Mommy ) They said this could be separation anxiety or She could be Aspie and focusing on me.

Do any of your kids tend to be extremely needy of your time ?


Also when we meet with the Eval person he said that the forms my husband and I filled out separately were very consistant ... That she was scored as very high for Aspie on our tests ( 120 & 124 ) but in his eval ... She Scored an 8 which would be Aspie but then she became more relaxed as she played in the room and he said that is not consistant with Asperger's ... That he noticed alot of anxiety ... He Talked about maybe performance anxiety but if he knew her ... He'd know that she wants constant addition and has know problem with others watching her show off. He said that if it was not for the anxiety her score of 8 would have been a 2 ( non aspie ) .... Does this make any sence ? I know in my heart that she has it and this is so frustrating !




Traci

P.s. Thank you for all the great replies so far....

My therapist has explained it this way to me. It's concrete so I understand what she's saying. I have a lot of anxiety issues because of the social part of being an Aspie. While when I'm comfortable I would not seem like an Aspie, it's when the unknown social parts arise that cause my anxiety. Also, I have a lot of anxiety problems when people I speak to are not logical with their words or actions.

Like going in for my first evaluation, I was very composed because I knew what was happening. There was nothing to guess. Even then, my anxiety increased when the guy told me I didn't have Asperger's that it was all anxiety. Then I got even more anxious when he said that I couldn't be because I'm a woman, am married and have kids. This was not logical to me. There are plenty of people that have gotten married despite having some form of Autism. As shown by this board, there are plent of people who have had children despite having some form of Autism.

When I went into the second evaluation which was a completely different setting, was not arranged by me, and no part of me knew what would be happening, my Aspie traits came about. I didn't even tell the woman that I suspected I had Asperger's and she still came to the conclusion.

So like performance anxiety, if she's doing fine when she's performing, to me that sounds like she's having fear from the unknowns. Once she's on stage and singing/dancing/performing, she knows what she has to do and does it. I still get a great sense of pride when I come off from being in front of people. I like when people enjoyed/listened/cheered. Asperger's in females come off very differently. The anxiety seems to mask all the issues. When you get to the root of the problem you discover whether or not it's anxiety or Asperger's.