Fears, anxieties and sensory disorders are common with autism. They vary with the severity of the autism and across people’s lives. People with autism may exhibit sensory hypersensitivity, being extremely sensitive to one or all stimuli, e.g. sight, sound, smell, touch or taste. Some parents told us that their children experienced fears, anxieties or sensory sensitivities; here we see that they were also significant in the lives of the adults we talked with.
Some people had learnt to manage some of their fears and anxieties by forcing themselves to confront particular situations, like crowded gigs, even though they knew they would hate it. Some people had experienced a paralysing fear of putting their hand up to answer questions in class. For example;
It was sort of, I don’t want to call it paranoia, but I guess it was something like that stopped me. It was sort of the fear, feeling that someone was going to say something about the question being silly or the question wasting time or it being stupid or whatever.
One woman said she spent her life frightened of having her children taken away from her because “I was a bad mother because I was relying on them so much”.
Routines
Many people said they needed routine and order in their daily lives. They disliked change, particularly sudden change. One person said he tried not to have routines because he had read about people on the spectrum relying on routines, but he had not succeeded. One woman said her husband was very, very precise about the way he ate his food and would always go round his plate in the same order. Another woman had made a daily routine for herself, looking after the house, which she could cope with.
Obsessions
Some of the people we talked to were diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. They felt obsessive about things and these were sometimes linked to their special interests. One man, for example, was obsessed with clean books; he feels that “it’s almost rape” if someone writes on a book. He also described how he can concentrate only on what really interests him and is obsessed with time. He is compulsively punctual and becomes hysterical if he is ever late for anything. Another man said that his wife called his special interest, autism, an ‘obsession’ but he thought that people on the spectrum go into great detail which can be interpreted as an obsession.
Cluttering was another type of obsession discussed; one man, for example, said that his house was full of newspapers because he collected obituaries.
Sensory hypersensitivity
Some of the people said they experienced strong sensory aversions, such as a dislike of being touched or of being kissed. Some people were hypersensitive to sounds or lights. One man, for example, could tell with his fingers if a television had power on or could hear very high frequency noises that other people could not hear; a woman said that her children were amazed that she knew what they were doing because she was so sensitive to sounds.
Advanced skills
In contrast to sensory disorders, fears and anxieties, some of the people described having an advanced ability in particular areas. One man was a world famous artist who could draw cityscapes from memory. Several people were very good at languages. As one man said “I came to England, I didn’t speak a word of English and within one term I was top of English in my class”. Another man said “Once I know a word I know it and once I know what a word means, I know, I don’t forget words. I don’t see how you can forget words.”
Anger and Frustration
One man experienced anger and frustration and was having counselling to manage his temper. His wife described him as "a frightening person, partly because he is enormously well informed… He uses one-upmanship and I think he has, he despises those who have not had his very great advantages.” She described him having terrible tantrums like “a five year old”; he had recently had his driving licence taken away after losing his temper in a “mild road rage” incident.
