A specialist occupational therapist has shared the three ways in which anxiety can present in people with autism. Conor McDonagh, owner and director of Caerus Therapies, frequently offers advice on his TikTok account, covering topics from sensory processing issues to supporting an autistic child.
In one video, he outlined the most common ways he has seen anxiety manifest in autistic people. In the clip, he said: “There are several different ways that anxiety can present or look like in an autistic child. My name is Conor McDonagh from Caerus Therapies. We've developed The Caerus Method; it’s a course that teaches you how to support an autistic child.".
According to Conor, there are three ways anxiety presents in autistic children - fight, flight, or freeze. He said: “So when an autistic child experiences anxiety, it's ultimately the result of difficulties with processing information in the reticular formation, which is otherwise known as the fight-flight response.
“We know that typically there are a number of different types of reactions. It can typically be fight, flight, or freeze.". Conor added: “So therefore, if a child is experiencing the fight reaction, they can be very emotional outwardly. They can be aggressive and throw a lot of tantrums.
“Flight looks like a person that gets away from the situation, so they run or flee from it. So they may go to a different room or just simply avoid the things that are bothering them. “And the freeze response looks like a person who ultimately kind of shuts down. So, they have difficulties with communicating their thoughts so they can internalise these issues. They go quiet and they find it very difficult to function in these circumstances.”.
