A brand new study, published in Biological Psychiatry, finds a unique pattern of brain changes in autistic children with different forms of anxiety.
First off, we already know that autistic children are far more likely to develop anxiety than children without autism. The prevalence is 69% vs. 8%. Massive difference.
Autistic children often have either traditional anxiety, or autism-specific anxieties (or both).
Traditional anxiety is the kind any child (or adult) might face, and involve fears that aren’t directly related to autism.
Autism-specific anxieties are specifically related to a child’s autism (extreme reactions to disruptions in routines and extreme reactions to unfamiliar situations, for example).
Now here’s the interesting discovery.
The researchers used MRI’s to scan the brains of children both with and without autism, and found significant differences in volume size of the amygdala, but it was dependent on what type of anxiety the children with autism displayed.
Wow.
(The amygdala plays an important role in the processing and regulation of fear- both the initial “fight-or-flight” response, and forming memories associated with fearful events.
Thus, it’s not surprising that research has suggested an over-active amygdala is often associated with anxiety disorders.)
The researchers found:
In autistic children with traditional anxiety — the amygdala’s volume was significantly larger than in children without autism.
In autistic children with autism-specific anxiety — the amygdala’s volume was significantly smaller than in children without autism.
In other words, the type of anxiety in autistic children seemed to be correlated with the volume of the amygdala.
This is the first time scientists have actually observed brain differences that seem to confirm the clinical differentiation between traditional anxiety in autistic children and autism-specific anxiety.
There’s practical importance, beyond the obviously significant scientific contribution:
“You can see why it’s important to acknowledge this, because these children would be missed through ordinary screening,” [Co-first author Derek Sayre] Andrews explained. He added that this type of anxiety may require a specialized type of treatment. “That’s why it’s important to understand the underlying biology of anxiety and autism and to help these kids out in any way that we can.”
Okay, so first.
If you have a child with autism, always look first for professional help.
Here’s a good resource on getting you started in the journey, along with 10 Tips to help calm anxiety in a child with autism.
But as always, the internet is the internet.
Professional help is professional help, and that’s the place to go.
But there’s importance to a study like this beyond the obvious.
I think most Christians who are prone to cast judgmental stones at anxious individuals would refrain from tossing them at children with autism, right?
“Anxiety in children with autism is a special case. That’s part of a medical condition,” and no one would question their faith.
However, what about folks without autism who have anxiety disorders?
That’s when alpha positive Christians are ready to pick up the “lack of faith” stones and start hurling them.
But hold on.
Research has shown non-autistic individuals with both anxiety and panic disorders also have reduced amygdala volume.
In other words, if you don’t have autism, but you do have an anxiety disorder or panic disorder, your amygdala is more likely to have reduced volume, too.
So let’s not throw “lack of faith stones” at any anxious individuals. (Or anyone, for that matter. Stones are for landscaping).
If someone at church starts giving you the well-meaning but completely naïve, “Just have more faith” pep talk, you might want to keep an MRI scan of your brain in your back pocket, pull it out, and have a nice 5 minute Sunday morning chat about it.
That would be a more fruitful chat than 99% of post-church conversations.
Now… to be sure, the church has come a long way on this subject.
But in rapidly growing charismatic circles (and I don’t just mean the faith-healing churches, I also mean “main-line” charismatic churches), things are trending in a very bad direction again.
For years, Hillsong’s enormously influential pastor Carl Lentz preached sermons on anxiety like “Peace in Your Pocket” where he basically said, Just pull peace out of your pocket when you’re anxious because you have Jesus living in you.
It was as simple as that.
You’re anxious. Well, simply remember that, just like your iphone, you have Jesus in your pocket and BOOM. You’re cured.
Then, of course, after Lentz’s downfall, he literally went to rehab treatment for anxiety and depression.
Good for him. I mean that sincerely. It’s wonderful he finally looked for medical treatment for a medical condition.
But it’s tragic that, for years, charismatic preachers within movements like Hillsong have steered Christians away from professional treatment for their medical, mental health conditions by preaching sermons like “peace in your pocket.”
In our interview 3 years ago, author Sarah Robinson explained what it was like going to a charismatic church as a new believer, struggling with depression.
“From my earliest days as a believer, there was a lot of shame and a sense that there was something wrong with me — that God seems to talk to these people around me and seems to be doing all these great things for people around me, but there’s something wrong with me.
I must be bad and broken because I wasn’t getting healed. He wouldn’t fix me. I felt like I was doing something really wrong.
It wasn’t a church where people said, “Hey, maybe seeing a counselor would be good,” or “Depression medication is a thing.”
It was more, “Just do all the right things, pray a lot, and if you’re in good standing with God, he’ll give you whatever you want’.”
Oof.
Unfortunately, that’s the case in churches all across America and the world. And that message is extraordinarily dangerous.
This is why any study on mental health challenges and the brain is so important for the entire Christian church.
It can literally save lives.
[Photo: Pexels, free stock photography]
