Being an autistic person concerned about the planet means I struggle to protect my mental wellbeing at times. One in 6 of us is neurodivergent, so either you are yourself or you likely know someone who is.
Neurotypical people struggle too, of course. For many neurodivergent people, the impact can be magnified.
The good news is that caring deeply about the natural world and climate change doesn’t have to come at the expense of your health. By understanding what influences emotional regulation and learning how to support the nervous system, it’s possible to stay engaged with environmental issues without burning out.
People with autism process information differently. There isn’t “one spectrum” that fits all, going from “mild” to “severe.”
Autism often comes with co-morbidities like ADHD, a learning difficulty, dyspraxia, and gastrointestinal issues, making life even more challenging.
A big difference between how a neurotypical brain and how an autistic brain work is that the neurotypical brain will automatically filter information it receives, managing, organising, ignoring, and responding largely without much conscious effort.
An autistic brain may or may not be able to filter information it receives before processing it. A lack of filter can bombard the senses, leading to overwhelm very quickly, which can have a huge negative impact on an autistic person’s sense of safety and wellbeing.
The brain processes information from many areas, including the senses, such as sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, but also relating to balance (proprioception), body awareness, internal sensations (interoception) such as hunger, thirst, temperature, or pain, and emotion regulation, executive functioning, and communication.
Some autistic people can be hypersensitive or hyposensitive to some or all of these areas. Imagine a pie chart with each segment representing a different area of information. Every autistic person will process information from each segment differently. Each piece of the pie has a filter that may work effectively or not, with a separate spectrum.
For me, bright lights feel painful, deliberate, and personal (hypersensitive). As I write this, we’re experiencing a heatwave, and I HATE it and want to rip open my skin to let the heat out. It feels like an oppressive, unbearable, too-hot, heavy weight. Managing the intensity of how I feel (as I can’t act on it in these circumstances) takes an emotional toll and depletes my energy, on top of whatever else I might be dealing with in daily life.
Autistic people struggling with interoception may not recognise internal signals (hyposensitivity), which may make it harder to know when they are thirsty or overheated until it is already a big problem.
The increasingly unpredictable weather that many are living in or will be in the future, such as storms (with loud noises), droughts, and rising temperatures, means many autistic people are, or will be, more affected, vulnerable, and left struggling to manage in these conditions.
When the nervous system receives more sensory information than it can comfortably process, this can lead to sensory overload. Struggling to cope with too much sensory information is often accompanied by overpowering feelings and can come across to others as intolerance.
Some people interpret an autistic person reacting strongly to their environment (such as wanting to flee or having a full meltdown) as rude or badly behaved. This judgment only adds to the overwhelm and does not help the person suffering in any way.
The body’s natural responses to cope with unhealthy levels of stress can include difficulty speaking, trouble concentrating, feeling disconnected, increased stimming, anxiety and panic, not sleeping, increased irritability, and fatigue.
These are signs that the brain has simply reached capacity and that a person has gone beyond their ability to process and cope. Small stressors build up quickly; mounting tension isn’t felt until overwhelm sets in. The reactions are messages from a nervous system asking for support.
Combine this with worry about the future, climate-change-related or otherwise, and these experiences can place significant strain on the nervous system, resulting in entering crisis/fight-or-flight mode.
Emotion regulation is one of the biggest challenges many autistic people face when emotional intensity takes them past their threshold and beyond their perceived ability to cope, where dysregulation takes over.
Often added to any distress are self-judgemental feelings that you should be able to cope “better.” Or you should be like everyone else who appears to cope in similar circumstances without “overreacting”.
A healthier response might be to learn how to be more compassionate. You are doing the best you can in the circumstances. Can you take a timeout, go a little easier on yourself, speak to an empathetic friend or therapist when you need help?
Learning to notice anxiety building early on, to recognise early warning signs of emotional overload, can make a significant difference. Instead of pushing emotions down until they erupt when you least want them to, create conditions in which your nervous system feels safe enough to tolerate and process challenging sensations and emotions.
Recognizing the early warning signs of emotional overload and learning to respond with self-compassion rather than suppression can help neurodivergent people stay connected to the causes they care about without pushing their nervous systems past the breaking point. Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.
Being dysregulated can be accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, frustration, and shame, further reducing any capacity to deal with overwhelming feelings and stress.
Your body may need to go to a calm space or need to physically move to feel calm, such as walking, running or stimming to release pent-up energy. Animals shake or run off stress, then settle down when they can and will sleep. What is your body telling you it needs to do?
Try to notice how you’re breathing: shallow and rapid (anxious state) or deep and calm (relaxed)?
Not everyone had caregivers who knew how to teach them emotion regulation skills. You may have had caregivers who did not understand how their neurodivergent kids were wired and couldn’t respond appropriately to needs that built up and never got met. The goal is not to add judgement or blame, only to aid understanding to be able to recognise and address what you and your nervous system need in the present moment.
The Emotion Wheel charts can assist in naming and identifying emotions if it’s tricky for you. The “How We Feel” app (Marc Brackett Emotional Intelligence Tool) is free and a good way to identify and track emotions. Emotion scales can help understand emotional intensity.
No one becomes emotionally intelligent and resilient overnight, and difficult days will still happen regardless. It’s not about eliminating horrible feelings, pushing away climate or any anxiety, suppressing your natural responses to feel accepted, or becoming less autistic. Instead, create an environment where your nervous system can thrive and adapt to situations in a healthier way, and be kind to yourself if you fail to do this in the midst of a really bad day.
These practical exercises help calm the nervous system, offering support for managing autism and climate anxiety:
Breathing: Inhale for 4 seconds, exhale slowly for 8 (or 3/6, or 5/10, whatever works for you). Longer exhalations naturally reduce stress responses and aid feelings of calm.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Gradually tense your muscles, then release them, starting at your toes and working upward through your body, including your jaw and neck. This will help to identify and release built-up physical tension.
Create a sensory toolkit: noise-cancelling headphones, sunglasses or tinted lenses, fidget toys, soft or weighted blankets, have or imagine smells that make you feel nice, keep a hot water bottle or ice pack on hand, ready for when needed.
Give yourself permission to cancel non-essential plans: rest if you need it without guilt.
Many with autism can feel guilty for even having needs that need to be met before they reach meltdown or overwhelm. Many worry about just how much accommodation is reasonable to ask of others before it becomes a burden (which may be perceived as true but is not), which only adds to stress levels.
Continuing to push on for everyone else’s benefit and not listening to your body will only reduce your capacity to cope, potentially culminating in exhaustion.
If you already are, or when you become more practised at emotional regulation, there will still be difficult days when climate news feels overwhelming.
Looking out for yourself first is building emotional awareness, where your nervous system feels calm and safe, and giving yourself the time your body needs to recover from feeling overloaded. Emotional regulation isn’t about ignoring climate change if it’s incredibly stressful. It’s about protecting your ability to care sustainably, for yourself and the planet.
