coping methods

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I am a NT and my best friend has AS. I want to help her find at least one coping method that she can use in any stressful situation to avoid huge meltdowns. We are trying to identify ones that she already uses but it is difficult. Some of them are not appropriate for social situations.

How can we find out what helps her calm down?

Tell her about Guided Imagery (Click).

Does she have a special interest? For me, it's cats. So my best friend capitalized on that and now, everything is cats. I have cat pictures, little plastic cat figurines, a stone cat, my cell phone is filled with cat pictures... if I'm about to melt down, I am armed with a gazillion cats to calm me down.

Tell her to have some small thing with her, that's related to a special interest, that she might have.

When it comes to special interest we are still unsure exactly what that is. We have talked about it a couple of times, but it is not an obvious thing. She does like history a lot, and loves her dog more than anything, and loves playing sports that are interactive/team sports.

I'd go with the dog!

The dog is great, although unfortunately sometimes the dog can lead to further stress and meltdowns if she is wanting to play or whining at all because obviously the noise and action of her movements add to the over-stimulation.