Cole Sonday

29 October 2021

Chapter 10 Extra Credit

Being an individual with low-spectrum autism, my childhood was filled with a lot of

emotional responses and outbursts. My parents were very supportive of my excitement and

anxiousness as a child, but they also explained that I had to control it during certain situations

so that I wouldn’t overwhelm myself or others. My emotions were often up-and-down, and it

was hard to predict how I would react in some situations. My parents had to display a lot of

patience and skill when handling me, which they did. I would often get upset over not getting

enough attention or feeling like I was singled out, whether it was at home or school. They often

were good at helping me respond to those emotions, whether consoling me or explaining on

how to recover from those thoughts. When I got angry, it was of course, very outwardly and

expressive. It wasn’t ever physical towards others, but my tantrums and anger were sometimes

a bit out of control. They would properly punish me and tell me what I did was wrong and why,

and they always gave punishments that may have seemed unfair at the time but were

reasonable.

My fear and anxiety were another common problem I had to deal with as a child. In

school, I had an IEP that would help me deal with those emotions, but at home it wasn’t as

simple. Sometimes I would get overwhelmed with thinking and worrying about things and

would have panic attacks, but my parents would make sure to help me calm down. They were

always reassuring and comforted me while I was having these fearful and anxiety episodes.

When I had nightmares or panic attacks in the night, when I was younger, they would let me
sleep in their bed or near it to help me feel better. As I got older, they would instead just

console me and pray with me, which would help me to relax and go back to sleep. I feel like my

parents were sometimes inhibiting towards my emotions, but it was understanding because it

can be hard to deal with an autistic kid. They were not rude or abusive towards my emotions in

any way, but sometimes they got overwhelmed with dealing with me. I was taught to

sometimes repress my emotions or to hold back in certain situations, like when I would try to

be friendly with others. Sometimes I can be cling or smothering with my female friends, so my

parents have often told me to relax and hold back, only because they don’t want to see me get

hurt or scare others. They did, however, give me space to explore and express my emotions as a

child but they still had boundaries on how they were expressed. Expressing emotions was

something my parents encouraged but made sure no physical expression was made that would

be negative in the future. If I cried, got upset, was scared, or got angry, they would let me do so

unless it went outside of their rules. I know my parents did a good job with what they did for

me in my childhood and overall it still helped me grow and become better with my emotions

today.