If you are anywhere at all on the autism spectrum, you have anxiety. It seems to come with the territory. It's easy to find things about which to be anxious, but in truth the feeling seems to just be there, as background noise, never ceasing.
At the same time, there are plenty of things that give us anxiety. Facing new social situations is an obvious one. While we may be standing off to the side, sitting there quietly, seeming to only be listening, perhaps appearing aloof or even arrogant, the fact of the matter is that the situation makes us anxious, and it may take us a while to get used enough to the situation to come out of our shells. That probably won't happen at the end of a party, but it might happen at the end of a week-long academic conference.
One thing that causes us anxiety is not working on our project, whatever that project may be. Most of the time, we are our work, and that means when we are working on a project, we almost don't know what to do with ourselves when we are not working on it. When I am working on a project--whether it's a novel, a poem, a play, a paper, a nonfiction book, or some other project--I am always thinking about that project. I am anxious when I am not working on my project. When I am working on it, I am anxious to finish it. It drives me, but it also drives me a little crazy. I seem to be absent-minded, but I'm always thinking about my project. It never ends, until the project is over.
And then I start on the next project, and the cycle of anxiety starts all over again.
Even now, as I am writing this, Daniel is full of anxiety because he has a project he wants to do, but he can't get his younger brother to cooperate with him (or, more honestly, obey him and do everything he says--something that makes Dylan's supreme independence a perfect foil for Daniel). Because he is anxious and frustrated, he yelled at his mom, which caused me to have to stop and make him apologize to her.
These frustrations/anxieties are part of our daily experience in dealing with other people and the the world in general that constantly imposes on us and prevents us from working on our projects, which is really all we want to do. Daniel is going to have to learn that you can do more with honey than vinegar, or he's going to just stop trying to involve anyone and do work that doesn't involve anyone else to get it one.
You know, like writing.
So there are certainly many things that make us feel anxious. The fact that we identify with our work, and not working on our work makes us feel anxious to work is part of it, but it's hardly all. Sometimes, you just feel anxious. And it may not be caused by anything in particular. The fact is that most of the time, we simply feel anxious because we feel anxious. We can look for causes, but how often will that be simple justification of the feelings? The fact of the matter is, anxiety is co-morbid with autism. Sometimes it just is. It is the background noise of the world when you are autistic.
