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Coda
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

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Joined: 3 Jul 2014
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Posts: 77
Location: London

28 Mar 2015, 9:25 pm

I'm currently in a mainstream college. The college is very good, they provide me with an LSA (learning support) who is with me all day from the moment I arrive in my taxi to the moment I go into a taxi to leave. The staff are very nice and understanding. My issue is change. I constantly deal with changes to my routine from new students to teachers not being present. Unfortunately, the college never warns me about any changes happening. So every time it happens, it's a very big (and very awful) surprise. It causes me to have a lot of emotional distress and prevents me from doing my work.

Four days ago a new student arrived in my classroom without any warnings. I instantly become anxious and stressed. I went out the classroom telling my LSA I was going to a different classroom only to runaway and be found about 4 hours later 5-6 miles away at a car dealership. I almost got ran over 5 times during the journey.

The next day I had to go to an office and talk about why I ran away. I told them that nobody had been giving me any warning about changes to which they replied 'you have to learn to cope'... All of my stress, anxiety and anger came at me and I had a very big meltdown causing property damage, a large lump on my head, split lip, bruised hands and bloodied knuckles.

All of this was because a new student came to the classroom...

I just want to know if there is any way I could try and lessen the stress and anxiety that change causes me. Is there ways that you deal with it? Or will this be something that will never get better?


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Diagnosed with Autism, ADHD and OCD in 2008, aged 11.

Your neurodiverse (Autistic) score: 193 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-Autistic) score: 23 of 200

"Different but not less."


ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

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Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,419
Location: Long Island, New York

28 Mar 2015, 10:47 pm

How do I deal with it badly. According to my BRIEF-A Executive Functioning test 97% of people deal with it better than me.

What has helped?
Experience. Knowing the worst has not happened all the time and some change has been good for me.

Finding out I have this issue so when a big sudden change occurs I realize I am going to have a bad reaction and try and shutdown as much and as fast as possible to deflect the negative thoughts.


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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

It is Autism Acceptance Month

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman