Social Anxiety & Autism

I want to talk about validating autistic processing and autistic lived experience in mental health support.

This quote by an autistic person encompasses the invalidation autistic individuals can feel when we are told that our rational fear of being treated the way we frequently have been is 'social anxiety', as it can feel like our real life experiences of rejection, mistreatment and unmet needs are not being considered.

What we need is support to process the trauma of our lived experiences and support to build up our self esteem and our internal narratives about ourselves, so that when we have these experiences again, which we undoubtedly will, we can remember that we are:

- Important

- Valued

- Worthy

- Deserving of respect and acceptance

even when the world makes us feel that we're not