Okay, so let’s talk about the type of anxiety that’s specific to autism that isn’t explained by any of the other existing anxiety disorders outlined in the DSM.

This is what the researchers are referring to as “autism-distinct anxiety,” or just “distinct anxiety” for short.

I’m going to read you the actual definition from the research study.

Okay, so it starts by explaining what distinct anxiety isn’t, and it kind of gets to what distinct anxiety is from there.

So…

Clinical anxiety can manifest in several forms, including generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, specific phobia, and social phobia, henceforth referred to as DSM anxiety.

Now what this is saying is that anything that is outlined in the DSM currently, this study is referring to as DSM anxiety.

Okay, moving on.

However, distinguishing anxiety from ASD symptoms is challenging.

Recently developed tools recognize classically defined symptoms of anxiety, for example anticipatory anxiety and fearful avoidance, that manifest within contexts that are somewhat unique to autism.

These symptoms would not be captured by traditional assessments.

Now this is where distinct anxiety comes up.

Such autism-distinct anxieties, henceforth referred to as distinct anxiety, include fears related to social confusion, I’m going to skip the parentheses for a second, uncommon phobias (for example specific sounds and facial features), excessive worry related to losing access to materials related to circumscribed interests, and fear of change.

Now back to the parentheses… 

So it talks about fears related to social confusion.

What it’s trying to distinguish between is the fear that someone might have of being negatively perceived in a social setting.

So if someone has a fear of being negatively perceived in a social setting, what the researchers are saying is that that would be tied to the existing anxiety disorder of a social phobia.

But…

If someone has a fear of social confusion, that could be an example of distinct anxiety.

And a lot of autistic people do have this fear, or anxiety.

They have an anxiety of attending social events and not knowing what to expect. Not knowing who’s going to be there. Not knowing how to act around them. Not knowing what is expected of them.

So many aspects of a social situation can cause someone who’s autistic to have this anxiety.

So that would be an example of distinct anxiety.

Now I have a slew of examples from my own life that I’m going to go into in another video, just because this video is already so long.

But I hope that this provides some context for those interested with regard to what distinct anxiety actually is.

Okay, so summing all of this up…

Distinct anxiety is essentially anxiety that is only tied to autistic brain wiring, and nothing else.

So if a person has anxiety that could be explained by some other type of condition, it’s not distinct anxiety.

Distinct anxiety is anxiety experienced due to autistic brain wiring.

Now in another video I’m going to go into what the study actually found in terms of the differences between people who have distinct anxiety and people who don’t.

And then in another video I’ll share several examples of how distinct anxiety shows up for me specifically.

So if you’re interested in those videos, you should definitely stick around for that.

Okay, I hope you guys found this helpful. And I will be back as soon as I can with a follow-up video on this.

Bye everyone.