To therapists,
“You arrive with your toolbox, which you must adapt individually to each AS case.”
You cannot rely on a single method or expect work to inevitably lead to a specific result. Learning to act in this way requires many years of experience.
What matters most is welcoming the AS person unconditionally into your heart, with total commitment. You will learn to love the AS person as they are, to listen to them fully, without fearing any risk of transference. You will thus become an integral part of the AS person's universe, and they will accept and adopt you, giving true meaning to your efforts.
A situation to imagine
I kept asking myself: how could I fight this depression engulfing me, how could I manage time that always slipped away from me? I always left too late, invariably arrived late. The very thought of waiting, even for a minute, was unbearable.
Every appointment turned into an insurmountable ordeal. The presence of strangers made me uncomfortable, and the image of an unfamiliar face kept haunting me. The slightest noise, those small sounds that ought to stay in the background, assaulted me relentlessly. My noise-cancelling headphones, supposedly there to protect me, proved woefully inadequate, and frustration rose within me until it made me want to hit something to release my anger.
I found myself questioning other people's behaviour: “Why do they act like that?” What else do they have to do?” Everything seemed to intensify my unease, from the nauseating smell invading me despite my attempts to protect myself from it to the narrowness of the space crushing me. I wondered whether anyone else felt the same distress, whether they were sad or angry, or whether they were making fun of me.
Caught off guard by my own words and gestures, I felt that I no longer had a place in this world. Other people's strange looks overwhelmed me, and every ring, every passing minute tore away a little more of my calm.
Fatigue finally took over: a sleepless night, five extra hours in a whirlwind of helplessness, without energy bars or anything to ease my thirst for respite. The crisis rose within me and I exploded inwardly, driven by an irrepressible need to leave, to escape, without knowing where to go.