The range of tools can be divided into those that quickly and constructively release, or slowly reduce, emotional energy, and those that improve thinking or reduce sensory responsiveness, as well as taking out of the toolbox those tools that can make the emotions or consequences worse such as self-harm. Autistic individuals appear less able to slowly release emotional energy by relaxation and reflection, and usually prefer to fix or release the feeling by an energetic, potentially destructive action or thought and emotion blocking action.

The emotion repair for autistic children and adults can be conceptualised as a problem with ‘energy management’, namely, an excessive amount of emotional energy and difficulty controlling and releasing the energy constructively. The strategy is to identify different types of ‘tools’ to fix the problems associated with negative emotions, especially anxiety. However, autistic children and adults can learn new emotion repair strategies, and these can be conceptualised as acquiring more emotion repair tools.įrom a very early age, children will know a toolbox contains a variety of different tools to repair a machine or fix a household problem.

By Professor Tony Attwood and Dr Michelle Garnett Introduction to the Emotional Toolbox Part 1Īutistic children and adults may have a limited range of emotion repair mechanisms and are less likely to use effective strategies used by typical children and adults, such as putting the event in perspective, reappraising the situation, considering alternative responses, acceptance, or being able to disclose feelings to another person, thus seeking, and benefiting from compassion, validation and affection from a family member or friend.

Cbt emotion wheel