Fear is the force behind autism

Temple Grandin, renowned author and representative of the autism world shares her views on the mystery of autism spectrum disorder. I first met Temple Grandin nearly 20 years ago, as she was invited to speak about the very disorder that controlled her own life. A few years later I met her mother, whose tenacity and devotion to Temple paved the way to living with autism.

Temple's clarifications remain to this day to be the most concrete and reliable source for me. Autism is a maze, and perhaps only someone who can articulate what it truly feels like can make some sense of it.

Reported by Argusleader.com, Ms. Grandin recently spoke at Augustana College.She reiterated her message at Augustana: "Fear is the main emotion in autism".

I have always believed that autism is about control. Being the master of their own world, including everything from eye contact to tactile defensiveness is motivated by governing the fears of individuals with autism. It's about self protection, in my opinion.

The report continued:" The autistic mind is into detail. Build an area of strength," she said. But mundane matters can be overwhelming. She told her listeners that if someone released several cobras inside the auditorium, they'd all be constantly looking around for snakes as she spoke. Running water, loud noises and scratchy clothing all can set off similar alarm bells for the autistic."

I wrote Can you teach fear to your child with autism in order to address the real dangers in not recognizing peril. However re-teaching fear is quite another story. How do you eradicate a mental image of fear? How do you you dilute the power of the intangible? The report specified that " Grandin thinks the autistic can compensate, in part. "Social skills can be taught, but social-emotion relatedness may remain absent or weak,".

Clearly, building trust for those on the spectrum is an imperative. It is the path to conquering fear.