The 2 obstacles (part 2)

Hello readers and welcome again to another one of my blog posts. This is part 2 of my 2 part blog post discussing my 2 big obstacles that I as an adult on the spectrum face and must overcome to be successful. The first part I discussed social skills deficits and how that is an issue for me and others on the Spectrum. The second part, I will discuss anxiety and how that can affect me as a person on the spectrum.

While social skills deficits may not be relatable to all of us, certainly anxiety is. We all experience it, we all suffer through it. Anxiety can be a normal reaction to a perceived threat. However, for individuals like me on the Autism Spectrum, anxiety can be more than just a natural reaction to certain events, anxiety can occur at excessive rates and the perceived threat can appear trivial and unworthy of being anxious over. I certainly am one of those individuals as anxiety has always been a problematic issue for me. The issue for me with anxiety has always been a lack of certainty, the fear of the unknown. Not knowing the outcome has always made me anxious, though knowing it may not work out in my favor has always given me a sustained level of anxiety until I knew the outcome. This is what I call anticipatory anxiety, anticipating a threatening event or possible negative outcome, and it is driven by my need for certainty. Digging further my anticipatory anxiety and anxiety over lack of certainty stems first and foremost by the anxiety invoked by a lack of control. If I have no control over a situation, or if there is not a routine that I can depend on, then it can invoke a sense of worry which then feeds into the fear of the unknown.

The challenges dealing with my anxiety can bleed into work. I sometimes tend to worry about things while I am working as there may be another issue pending that I am stressed about. This can include having anticipatory anxiety of a future event/something that I am currently worried about and am eager to resolve to relieve stress. This can be an issue going back to lack of social skills in that my body language may convey that I am neither present in the moment nor warm and welcoming. The challenge becomes managing my anxiety in a more constructive way while dealing with the numerous stressors related to the adult world as so far as an adult, I have been bombarded with stressors and will continue to be bombarded with them