We know that anxiety is more common in individuals with autism. If you’re struggling with anxiety and autism or want to know how the conditions are linked, you can learn all about their relationship, plus find helpful options for support in this simple guide.
Did you know? More than half of adults with autism receive an anxiety diagnosis at some stage in their lives. If you’re an autistic adult and find yourself struggling with anxiety symptoms, know that you’re not alone. Anxiety in autism is very common and isn’t something to feel embarrassed or ashamed of.
For individuals with autism, anxiety can show up as:
These physical symptoms of anxiety often occur alongside autistic behaviours like repetitive sounds or movement (also known as stimming), avoidance, catastrophic thinking, hyperfixation, reassurance seeking, or autistic meltdowns. If you’d like to learn more about these behaviours, feel free to check out our other neurodiversity blogs.
Ever wondered why it is that anxiety is more common for people with autism? It all comes down to how we experience the world around us. As you may already know, autistic brains are wired slightly differently from the brains of allistic (non-autistic) individuals, and this can increase the chances of a person becoming anxious. Many people with autism experience:
Sensory sensitivities: Do you struggle with loud offices or busy public spaces? Many people with autism find they are more affected by sensory stimuli than those with neurotypical brains. This is caused by heightened neural sensitivity and a reduced ability to get used to or tune out background noise/lights, which can lead to feelings of anxiety.
Detail-orientated thinking: If you’re autistic, you may find that you naturally zone in on details. This is because autistic brains often show increased local connectivity (focusing on parts) rather than global connectivity (seeing the “big picture”). For many individuals, this fixation on details creates anxious thoughts because it feels harder to ignore minor discrepancies.
Difficulty with lack of structure: Do you find comfort in routine? Lots of autistic people prefer routine over flexibility due to a need for predictability to manage a chaotic world. If routines are disrupted, a person with autism can become anxious or fearful because the amygdala (the brain’s early warning system) perceives the unexpected change as a direct threat to their safety.
Alexithymia: Some people with autism find it difficult to recognise emotions and put their feelings into words. This is known as alexithymia. Alexithymia can increase anxiety because anxious sensations in the body, such as a fast heartbeat and rapid breathing, may feel overwhelming and confusing.
Communication issues: If you’re autistic, you might also notice that conversation makes you anxious. People with autism sometimes struggle to notice social cues or take things literally, making communication a struggle. Researchers believe this happens because there is different connectivity in the areas of the brain responsible for social-emotional processing. This can lead to a fear of being misunderstood or behaving differently.
When we consider the autistic experience as a whole and recognise factors that cause difficulty, it makes it easier to understand where anxiety fits into autism.
While anxiety often co-occurs with autism, anxiety is a broad term. What one autistic person feels can be entirely different from what another feels. It all depends on the type of anxiety they’re experiencing. Some of the most common anxiety disorders include:
Almost 20% of autistic adults experience Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Known as GAD, this is where a person feels worried about a range of different things rather than something specific.
A phobia is an extreme fear of something in particular. This could be a certain environment, object, feeling, animal, or situation. Phobias normally appear in childhood but some types, like agoraphobia and social phobia, can appear later in life. The Autism Research Institute suggests phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder faced by people with autism.
Social anxiety involves an intense fear of being judged, watched, or misunderstood by others. For autistic adults, this often stems from past negative social experiences or the exhaustion of masking autistic traits to fit into neurotypical environments.
Some people with autism experience panic disorders. These tend to play out as sudden, intense surges of fear known as panic attacks. Attacks often come with physical symptoms like a racing heart, shortness of breath, or dizziness.
If you’re autistic and believe you might have an anxiety disorder, it’s important to get the right help. While it may feel like the anxiety is separate from your autism, the two can be connected, so you’ll want to seek support from someone with the right experience.
Here are some things to try:
Talking through your experiences with anxiety can help you to make sense of them and find strategies that help you feel better. While the idea of opening up to a stranger may feel daunting or uncomfortable at first, many neurodivergent individuals find relief in sharing their difficulties with someone who understands their experience. This might be a neurodivergent-aware counsellor or a GP who can put you in touch with appropriate counselling services.
Sometimes, anxiety can take over the body, showing up in ways that aren’t always easy to understand. Courses like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) can help by teaching the brain and body to respond to stress with awareness rather than instinct. These courses focus on mindfulness techniques like body scanning (understanding physical sensations to catch where you are holding stress) and labelling thoughts (stepping back and recognising thoughts as mental events). While more research is needed, studies show that these types of techniques appear to have a positive effect on people with autism.
Dealing with anxiety can feel lonely at times, but it shouldn’t have to. Online communities on Reddit, social media, and forums like Neurodiverse Self Advocacy or our LinkedIn group ‘These Great Minds‘ can help you connect with other autistic individuals who know how you feel. This gives you a safe space to share your experiences and find peer support. Sometimes, simply knowing that others are facing the same challenges can make your own journey feel more manageable.
Social anxiety is driven by a fear of being judged or rejected by others. While this can be experienced by someone with autism, social challenges in autism often stem from differences in processing social cues or the sensory exhaustion of “masking” to fit in. Lots of people experience both because the struggle to communicate leads to a secondary fear of social situations.
Absolutely. With the right support and strategies, autism and anxiety can become much more manageable. Working with experienced professionals, many people learn to identify their sensory triggers using mindfulness techniques or by building routines that offer predictability. This can help to reduce fear and overwhelm.
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