Another part of the problem in doing for self is of commitment. If you have fluctuating sensory–perceptual or information-processing problems it grips your gut to have the environment see what you can do because you may be completely unable to make the connections to do it again tomorrow, but it will still be assumed and expected that you can. Furthermore, if in the doing you had to cut off from awareness to let the action out, you can’t take pride in your actions, for to do so triggers self-consciousness and that means it becomes twice as hard to do these same things next time. Removing the directly-confrontational praise can be a big help here. Conventional Behaviour Modification approach does a disservice to people with Exposure Anxiety in convincing the environment we all need love or thrive on the directly-confrontational expression of praise. Ask yourself how you feel about having attention drawn to you, your slightest compliance or achievement applauded gaudily in your own face. Having asked audiences about this in workshops, many non-autistic adults have reported that they did not thrive on attention but quite the opposite. Quite a number reported embarrassment and discomfort, some to the point they played down their ability or sought to undo the sell out with heightening unwanted or ‘rebellious’ behaviour to compensate and re-establish a sense of self-ownership.
The purpose of this post is to provide alt text for those who cannot read the document that I’ve attatched to the tweet bellow
Exposure Anxiety – The Invisible Cage: An Exploration of Self-Protection Responses in the Autism Spectrumand Beyond – Donna Williams
Ch 2: Relationship to Self; pg 131
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