How To Relieve Anxiety at a Party

Jonathan is a strange "Aspie." (Is that an oxymoron?) He loves people! He may not initiate conversation. He may not respond to someone talking to him. He may not make eye contact or shake a hand. But it doesn't mean that he doesn't want to be around people. And LOTS of them. He hasn't figured out that lots of people stress him out. Or maybe he has and has decided that it is worth the pain.

The catch is that he likes LOTS of people at our house. He really doesn't like leaving our house and going to another house...especially if there are dogs there. He knows no matter how much people promise the dog is locked up, the dog will eventually escape and make a beeline to Jonathan. It's never failed in nine years. Fortunately Jonathan's anxiety medication has reduced the fear just enough that we can get him reluctantly into a couple of houses with dogs. But these are only very good family friends and very quiet and tame dogs.

Recently a friend invited about forty people over to their house for a crab feast. The first strike against this evening was it wasn't held at our house. Second strike was a dog. Third strike was the wrong brand of hot dogs for kids who don't like crab. Jonathan started the evening off in a corner with me and another couple with some health issues which make it hard for them to get around or stand for long periods of time. I did not know the couple well, so this was a good opportunity to get to know them better. Their daughter works with lower functioning autistic children so they were great at engaging Jonathan.

However, Jonathan was wanting to leave about 30 minutes after arrival. People were still coming and the crabs were just about steamed. The host brought in a huge bucket of grabs and dumped them on the 12 feet of table set up for the gathering. As soon as those steamed crabs came out of the pot, Jonathan almost lost it. He definitely wanted to leave.

The gentleman we talked to earlier asked Jonathan to draw him a Purple Man comic. The host family found some paper and pencil for Jonathan who immediately put together the following. Let me set it up for you. The first frame has Perfeckto, who is one of Purple Man's sidekicks ("Because Purple Man is so awesome he needs two.") You can always tell Perfeckto in the strips because he's wearing all black, like a Ninja. 

Did you get it? Pefeckto sits down to eat a crab "Yum, yum." The crab is still alive and pinches Perfeckto. Then a series of frames showing the crab getting the best of Perfeckto. The last frame is of Purple Man hiding with a remote control. 

After he drew the comic, he found a few things he liked to eat (cheese and crackers and pickles), and then played with about a dozen kids. He didn't want to leave when it was time to go.