Emotional Management

The role of emotions is very important in the daily life of those with a disability as well as those functioning normally. Emotions are a key factor in defining the nature of our sentiments and the ways we control or manage a situation. Emotions are of two types:

• Positive emotions
• Negative emotions

Positive emotions create enjoyment and can boost our overall mental health. Negative emotions can negatively affect our mood and lead to mood disorders, such as depression or anxiety. Many autistic children and adults find it harder to recognize and manage strong emotions, and anxiety is common. Support from parents, teachers and therapists can help.

First of all, we should identify the types of emotions that need management. Here are a few that require management therapy:

• Fear
• Anxiety
• Anger
• Grief
• Sense of Loss

The ability to manage these emotions helps placate bad situations rather than escalate the problem. Fear and anxiety are often the place to start, because anxiety is common in autistic children and can show up as anger or meltdowns.

Three approaches can help.

Calming the moment

First, help the person calm down when the emotion happens. The following steps should be taken to calm down the emotional situation:

• Assess the emotional state by gathering information on the cause of the emotion.
• Identify the stressor in the environment.
• Decrease the impact of the stressor.
• Make the environment more predictable and home-like.
• Balance the stressors with your new learning and resources.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

After completing the above steps, consider CBT. Adapted for autistic children, CBT has reduced anxiety in studies of children who can talk about their thoughts and feelings (Sukhodolsky et al., 2013). CBT is a therapy that is used to manage and control emotions in a way that suits the child or person with autism to follow. This is a very adaptive therapy that identifies the causes of the emotion, the best solution and ways to implement the procedure in order to support cognitive learning.

An emotional toolkit

Another effective method is the use of different toolkits to deescalate the emotions by diverting the negative energy in certain activities. These tools include the following categories:

• Physical activity
• Relaxation
• Social
• Special interest
• Sensory
• Medication, only when prescribed and monitored by a doctor

All of the above tools involve certain activities and actions that decrease the negative energy and put the person with autism or ASD in a calm and relaxing mindset.

References:

Sukhodolsky, D. G., Bloch, M. H., Panza, K. E., & Reichow, B. (2013). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety in children with high-functioning autism: A meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 132(5), e1341–e1350.

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