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A new zine. As usual, it’s a parent’s eye view of autism. Specifically, on how anxiety is at the heart of the many and disparate rules that my autistic son imposes on himself (and us).
I used to think the rules (which are considerably greater in number than shown in the zine) came out of nowhere and were random, but we find the logic in them more easily, these days. The rules are the not-always-successful means by which my son tries to protect himself from anxiety and the uncomfortable and upsetting hyper-arousal that comes with it. Self-management of anxiety requires some quite high level emotional regulation skills. We are doing our best to teach my son these skills, but until he’s got a handle on it all, we muddle through - accepting many of these rules and arranging his day-to-day to life to minimise (but never completely eliminate) those anxiety-inducing moments.
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If you want to make this zine, click the button below and print it on A4 at 100%. Then navigate to these folding instructions.
