My family and Autism

Living with Autism - a column by The Autistic Journalist Tyler Ody. North Swindon resident Tyler Ody has been working for Swindon Link for the past three years. From the age of four Tyler has been diagnosed with Classic Autism. Here's his new monthly column.

Welcome to column number two of Living with Autism by The Autistic Journalist, best known as Tyler Ody!

So this month's column is all about family and how my autism affects my family.

I live at home with my mum Sam, dad Rich, and my younger sister Teagan. I love my family.  

I would say my autism has affected how we go about our day-to-day life. 

We can’t go to busy places as much as we want because I am not good with being in crowded places, but I hope to overcome that anxiety in time. 

My autism also means I need to know where I am going or what I am doing when out with my family. In a way, this helps me to keep on schedule and gives me a bit of stability. But when things change in my schedule it does tend to affect my family, as I do not take change very well.

I hate putting my family through stress because I do not take change well. I sometimes get in a flap because changes give me anxiety, and I do not like the feeling of having control taken away from me. 

I do feel sorry for my family sometimes, as I know they would love to go to different types of places whenever they like, but my autism tends to get in the way.

Do I wish to overcome my anxiety? Yes I do, as it would be amazing if I could not get too anxious about going to crowded places. I would also like to work on how to deal with changes to my schedule in the future.