Did you know that you can timebox and even postpone your worry? I don’t need to tell you that anxiety has a way of hijacking the ADHD brain’s attention and focus. That it shows up unannounced, derailing our plans and schedules. But what if you could turn the tables and put anxiety itself on a […]
Measuring worry: Two new papers explore the relationship between autism and anxiety. The first study describes a network analysis of data from 623 autistic children, showing that specific autism traits give rise to anxiety, namely sensory hypersensitivity and a preference for sameness or predictability. The investigators suggest that these findings might inform therapeutic approaches. A […]
Does the back-to-school season fill you with anxiety and dread? Do other parents of teens with ADHD dread the Fall like I do? This late-summer stress is a somewhat new phenomenon for me. Elementary school was great — truly. Excellent teachers, good class sizes, even programs for gifted students. My daughter was about two grade […]
If your child dreads math, the problem may not be numbers—it may be a hidden gap in understanding. In this thought-provoking episode, Dr. Aditya Nagrath explains why math anxiety is more about language and belief than ability. Discover what happens when kids stop feeling “stupid” and start feeling seen, supported, and capable. What To Expect […]
How many articles, news stories, and videos have you absorbed about the “trying and uncertain times” in which we are living? About how we’ve been dropped into an ocean of fear, and the only way to survive is to start paddling through uncharted and choppy waters? The number is probably a lot higher than you […]
Fork in the road: The amygdalae of autistic children with an autism-specific form of anxiety and those with more traditional anxiety follow divergent developmental paths. Derek Andrews The amygdala — which is involved in fear and emotion processing and comprises a small region in each brain hemisphere — develops differently in autistic children with anxiety […]
Student learning has suffered in the United States in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rebecca Jablonksi, director of special education at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, said students with special needs, including those with autism, had an even more difficult experience, especially when it came to distance learning. “The amount of incomplete learning […]
Sarah Ahmed, co-founder of Wellnest, a Toronto psychotherapy clinic, agreed. “I know I sit out two events a week, a number that was much higher than prepandemic,” she said. Use your body, she suggested, as an indicator of whether you’ve reached your capacity. “Our bodies talk to us all the time,” said Ahmed. Common symptoms […]
Fear is one of humanity’s main struggles. We all need some level of fear to survive, a healthy awareness of our surroundings and our responsibilities, but it can often get out of hand. The Insight Treatment Center is an outpatient mental health care facility for adolescents and their families struggling with mental and behavioral diseases. […]
Can we pause for a moment and acknowledge something? Until a few weeks ago we were on the way to a seemingly “normal” school year, at least more normal than what we have experienced in the past 18 months. If you are like me and my wife, we would quietly say Hallelujah every day. Thanks […]
Guest contribution by Emily Ansell Elfer, BA Hons, Dip. Many people on the autism spectrum are known to have symptoms of anxiety, particularly those related to social situations and communication. In fact, previous research has shown a significant overlap between symptoms of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A large proportion of […]
Illustration by Laurène Boglio Hello and welcome to this week’s community newsletter! I am your host, Chelsey B. Coombs, the engagement editor of Spectrum. Parents’ perceptions of autism have changed as the prevalence of the condition has increased, according to a new paper that analyzed survey data over a 15-year period. Those with autistic children […]
