Something you may notice in your autistic child is that the severity of their symptoms varies depending on their current situation.
But parents must realize that learning their child has autism can also give those on the spectrum (both children and adults) permission to truly be themselves.
When they take their mask off and stop camouflaging, it can initially feel like their autism has gotten worse. However, they’re simply experiencing a natural fluctuation in their symptoms.
How Does Stress Impact Autism?
Stress is the most easily recognizable factor in changing the severity of their symptoms. In fact, it has a significant impact on six primary categories.
Emotional Regulation
Being under a lot of stress makes it even more difficult for them to regulate their emotions. This often leads to withdrawal from all social interactions, increased meltdowns, or extreme irritability.
Sensory Overload
Stress makes sensory overload worse, which can lead to a meltdown. Certain textures, bright lights, or loud noises may seem harsher than usual.
Ability to Adapt
Stress often disrupts adaptive behaviors, including routines. In turn, autistic individuals may resist change and engage in more repetitive behaviors.
Executive Functioning
Stress often negatively impacts problem-solving, planning, and decision-making. It can also make them deal with decision paralysis.
Communication Skills
Being under stress often makes it much more challenging to deal with communication differences. This can also include understanding nonverbal and verbal cues, expressing themselves, and their ability to make and maintain eye contact.
Increased Anxiety
Most autistic people deal with anxiety on a daily basis. Once stress is added on top of this, their anxiety issues worsen. This often leads to restlessness, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.
On the other hand, once an autistic individual is removed from a stressful situation, they can flourish. Where they once felt irritable and had lots of meltdowns, they’ll begin to experience a feeling of stability and calmness. They’ll also have an easier time with their executive functioning skills and might exhibit a surprising amount of adaptability and flexibility.
How Can I Help My Child Find Peace?
Are you curious how you can help your neurodiverse child?
Focus on mitigating or eliminating the things that make it harder for your child to feel stable. Something as simple as allowing them extra time in the morning to get ready can go a long way toward making them feel more in control of their life.
Talking to them when they’ve done something wrong rather than yelling is also wise.
Remember: The more stressed out they feel, the more likely they are to showcase the harder aspects of being autistic.
Instead, why not embrace the assessment tools at WPS, such as (MIGDAS™-2) Monteiro Interview Guidelines for Diagnosing the Autism Spectrum, Second Edition or (CARS™2) Childhood Autism Rating Scale™, Second Edition. They’ve been helping clinicians and educators diagnose and help people with autism since 1948.