I spent 20 minutes talking with a college student today with high functioning Autism. He requested some time with me to discuss his continuing frustration with people who change plans or due dates on papers, and so on. He put forth his position that he should be able to "request an accomodation that college professors or resident advisors never make such changes." He argued that such changes "could kill me."
My response has been to walk through a detailed "probability" analysis of such fears (e.g., "What are the real odds that you would die as a result of such changes?"). Eventually, this person responded by saying that he understood that he would not, in fact, die. He also seemed to understand that a central problem was that of "enduring discomfort." I encouraged him to see discomfort as a wave that eventually crests and falls ("You need to ride out the wave").
My experience has been that individuals with high functioning autsim respond well to this cognitive-behavioral approach. I think its important to be persistent with this type of analysis, though.
1:39:30 PM 
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