In addition to difficulties with understanding emotions, individuals with ASDs may become angry quickly and may have difficulty calming themselves effectively. They often need to be taught skills to cope with an increase in irritability once they have been able to identify these emotions.
Some autistic people can experience difficulties making themselves understood, understanding what's being said to them, and understanding facial expressions and body language. This can cause considerable frustration and anxiety which may result in anger or distressed behaviour.
High-functioning autism and anger may look like the following: Having a meltdown with crying and shouting. Trying to escape the situation, which may potentially put the child in danger. Exhibit aggressive behaviors towards others such as biting, smashing, hitting, kicking, or scratching.
People with high functioning autism often are aware of their challenges and social deficiencies, sometimes causing repetitive thoughts about this, leading to anger and possible aggression.
Many autistic children love to argue and need to have the last word. Autistic children often find it distressing to not be 'right'; this is due in part to the need to look 'perfect' to protect their self-esteem. It's not important to get the final word as the adult; don't get into a downward cycle of arguing.
Many autistic people have meltdowns. The public often finds it hard to tell autism meltdowns and temper tantrums apart, but they are very different things. If your family member or the person you support has meltdowns, find out how to anticipate them, identify their causes and minimise their frequency.
While children with autism may experience sensory overload in relation to the five core senses (taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell), they may also overreact or underreact to two additional senses: the proprioceptive and vestibular senses.
Feeling Overwhelmed in a New Environment
It's a change in routine, may be full of new people, can cause overwhelming anxiety and might require communication with new people who may not understand neurodiversity. It's therefore no surprise many autistic people say a new environment can lead to a meltdown.
difficulties with high-level language skills such as verbal reasoning, problem solving, making inferences and predictions. problems with understanding another person's point of view. difficulties initiating social interactions and maintaining an interaction.
During a meltdown: what to do
Give your child space, don't touch them, and keep other people away. Turn down lights and keep things quiet, or give your child noise-cancelling headphones. Let one person speak to your child, but don't say too much. Stay calm and wait.
In previous studies of children with ASD, the term 'irritability' was often used to describe severe behavioral difficulties, e.g., verbal and physical aggression, self‐injury or property destruction.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have co-morbid anxiety and depression. Alexithymia and emotion regulation difficulties are commonly seen in individuals with ASD and in mood disorders.
Social interactions can be baffling for people that are autistic. They may become easily overwhelmed or frustrated when they try to develop and sustain friendships. Making friends can be frightening, confusing and anxiety-provoking for autistic young people.
Non-autistic people tend to assess concepts before details, also known as top-down thinking. Autistic people take the opposite approach with bottom-up thinking and use details to build concepts. It may take longer to filter out sensory details with this approach, but you're less likely to miss important information.
In addition, underlying problems can trigger aggression. Among those with autism, common triggers include disturbing breaks in routine, lack of sleep, jarring “sensory stimuli” (noises, lights, or smells) or even undiagnosed mental health problems.
High-functioning autism means that a person is able to read, write, speak, and handle daily tasks, such as eating and getting dressed independently. Despite having symptoms of autism, their behavior doesn't interfere too much with their work, school, or, relationships.
Autism doesn't get worse with age, but certain symptoms can become more pronounced and problematic as the child grows older and is more challenged.
People with autism spectrum disorder are sometimes said to lack empathy (the ability to feel along with others) and/or sympathy (the ability to feel for others). While this stereotype is often used to describe all people with autism, these challenges are not experienced by everyone on the spectrum.
While some people with autism merely yell or stamp, many really do become overwhelmed by their own emotions. 3 Bolting, hitting, self-abuse, crying, and screaming are all possibilities. These can be particularly frightening—and even dangerous—when the autistic individual is physically large.
During a meltdown, we found that most autistics described feeling overwhelmed by information, senses, and social and emotional stress. They often felt extreme emotions, such as anger, sadness, and fear, and had trouble with thinking and memory during the meltdown.
Autistic people can experience both hypersensitivity (over-responsiveness) and hyposensitivity (under-responsiveness) to a wide range of stimuli. Most people have a combination of both. Many autistic people experience hypersensitivity to bright lights or certain light wavelengths (e.g., LED or fluorescent lights).
An autistic person also has difficulty expressing feelings in the same way we do and sharing them. Whether a person is autistic or not, they will have to go through specific steps to express emotions. You can convey emotions from facial expressions, body movements and positions, or even the sound of your voice.
''Autistic burnout is a state of physical and mental fatigue, heightened stress, and diminished capacity to manage life skills, sensory input, and/or social interactions, which comes from years of being severely overtaxed by the strain of trying to live up to demands that are out of sync with our needs.