How to help and Autistic with Christmas

Howdy! I'm here to explain the difficulty of mixing an Autistic person and Christmas, and how to help them during this holiday! Christmas can be a very stressful holiday for many people, but for a majority of Autistics, it can be a tipping point.

Lighting and Noise

Lighting and noise can already be a problem all year round, however now houses have multicolored flashing lights, and often there are multiple Christmas carols playing all at once. I'd recommend trying to keep dim lighting in the room, closing curtains if necessary, and little to none music playing to allow the ears to adjust to natural sounds you cannot block. Ear defenders may also help if you have a pair!

Distracting Activities

Allow us to indulge in our special interests and escape the stress for a moment. Rest time is very important as the anxiety is high bringing in the lack of sleep and exhaustion, inducing headaches. Our special interests just may be the savior to banish that anxiety and get us going even a little. Don't push too hard though, we're still on the edge.

Sleep

To escape we may oversleep or undersleeping. While either happens, I'll explain undersleep as I experience it myself. Despite the insane exhaustion and tiredness, often we won't be able to sleep until the early hours of the morning. This may be because our minds are reeling with anxiety about what is to come, and sometimes we don't sleep a lot in general so the holiday is going to reduce us to none. Allowing us to sleep in a little longer if this is the case as sleep is needed and important. Without it, our anxiety levels will rise as well as the feeling of sickness.

People

Crowds of people can be very stressful. I'll share a trick I often use to help with Visitors at Christmas time. Headphones. They work miracles to drown out the conversation. Closing your eyes to visualize a happy place can also help, not to sleep but to not see the world around you. Time slots. Time slots are your best friend. Arrange a time each person will come over and stick to it like glue. Having a phone handy will also help as you can message your parents or someone trusted in the room to help you leave calmly without questions.

Taste for Surprises

While some people enjoy surprises, they can often be extremely overwhelming. Not knowing what's inside that lump of paper under the tree. It's very stressful. So an attempt to keep surprises to a minimum will help allow us to enjoy the mystery of Christmas presents. Sharing as much information as possible to the autistic will help, allowing them to expect what is coming and not be taken off guard.

What helps you cope with Christmas?