Uncertainty Avoidance in ASD

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I was doing a post today on Autism and the Uncertainty Avoidance Index and felt that it might be of interest to some of you here: http://asdjobsink.blogspot.com/2011/07/autism-culture-uncertainty-hofstede.html

That is interesting. I'm book marking it for later perusal. Anxiety about uncertainty is a major hindrance in my life.

That was my thought as I was looking into the subject... that many of us experience the same thing. The Kwintessential links in there were very fascinating.

I found this very interesting. I should just say I am not diagnosed with AS (I haven't been assessed) but I have quite a few traits which greatly impeed my life.
I have been having CBT and my therapist thinks among other things I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) the main symptom of GAD being an intolerance of uncertainty, although as I understand it this is also one symptom of AS. I greatly feel the need for sameness and routine. Unfortunately my therapist has said she doesn't know anything about the Autistic spectrum which is rather frustrating because I think it is very difficult to pull apart some of the symptoms of GAD from AS and obviously I am wanting to find out which it is because I don't believe I can fully understand myself until I know.

Anyway the other day we were talking about this uncertainty issue and she said the options are to either try and make everything certain in life or to try and learn to deal with the fact that nothing in life is certain. So, obviously the former option is not possible which leaves me wondering how on earth I learn to accept uncertainty? Just someone emphasising the fact that nothing is certain made me feel rather anxious.

It made me wonder what the underlying reasons are for this difficulty in accepting change? Are they the same for people with GAD and AS?
So with all of this in mind I found reading this intriguing. It does seem that society seems to encourage people to "go with the flow" so to speak and if you can't you are sometimes seen as being difficult or not "cool". It is interesting to think how cultural differences affect people on the spectrum in different countries.

Anyway apologies for waffling on! I hope I haven't gone off the point too much? I guess these things sometimes bring up more questions than answers.

Great blog by the way.

I found this interesting too.

I find uncertainty extremely difficult to deal with. I find change difficult to deal with. I'm not one who has rituals, or even routines as such, but I do need to plan ... to know what is happening next and to have an idea in my head of how that will turn out. If that thing doesn't happen next, or doesn't turn out as I expect it to, my level of stress & frustration can skyrocket. Even when it's something very mundane.

Yet, in some circumstances, I can accept uncertainty/change - if I plan to accept it. Like when travelling for example, I know that things don't always happen on time, that buses, trains and flights get cancelled and rearranged and all that kind of stuff. So if I'm travelling somewhere, I can accept that there may be a change, and the time of my arrival is uncertain even though I have it planned. So I relax when changes are made to the schedule and can enjoy the travel without getting stressed but once I've arrived where I'm going, I ready to get going with the next thing (which I have already decided is the next thing after I get to wherever whenever that may be).

But it's obviously impossible for me to accept the bigger picture that "life is uncertain" because if I accept that is the case then I would become totally paralysed as I would just get stuck waiting for whatever was going to happen next to happen ...

Yes, I probably make no sense.

^^I often feel as thought I don't make any sense!

Although in many ways I am quite different to you, I can understand what you say.

Thanks for the link.
Makes sense to me, I have always been and still am horrible with handling uncertainty. I spend lots of time trying to avoid it (while knowing that this is impossible) and most of my conflicts with people are over uncertainty issues.