whats low frustration tolerance in autism?

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is this why we get angry very easily then most people?

why are we this way with anger?

I think it's because we get easily overwhelmed.

I get very frustrated and impatient very easily.

I think 2 things can happen:

(1) An autistic person can be delayed in their development of emotional self-regulation (ability to calm down, to cope with a lot of emotion without becoming totally overwhelmed), or never develop this ability to the same degree as the average non-autistic person even with constant effort, education, and support.

(2) An autistic person may deal with a lot more fustrating/stressful things than average, on a daily basis, in the course of just trying to navigate the world and do ordinary things (because of issues like sensory sensitivity, social cognition problems, language problems, motor skills problems, executive functioning problems, etc.).

Pretty much everyone has limits when it comes to how much stress/difficulty they are able to cope with before their mood, behavior, and/or ability is affected in some sort of negative way. An autisic person may not actually get frustrated any easier/faster than the average non-autistic person would, if that non-autistic person was dealing with an equivalent amount of difficulty.

Being bullied in the formative years might do things to the developing brain.
That's why they call them the formative years.

Easily overwhelmed. Low threshold. Hyper sensitivity. Stuff like that.

Impulse control and multiple disabilities cause frustration for me.

Very very poor stress threshold and i hate it, as soon as i become too stressed out i have severe panic attacks and meltdowns and my health becomes very poor. School is a big trigger and family deaths, and moving. and i move a lot because im poor and get evicted a lot.

I was talking to someone about an autistic boy she knew. One of the things he is learning about is how to know the difference between a situation that is a big deal (needing a bigger emotional response) and a small deal (not something to get really emotional about). The example used was when the boy spilled his drink, and he asked if this was a big emotion or little emotion thing (his grandmother replied, "little emotion").

It's something I had a LOT of trouble learning as a child and still have issues with. Sometimes everything feels like a big deal, and makes me very angry, very upset/sad, or very panicky. I think issues with emotional regulation mean that some of us have difficulties in putting things into perspective (okay, this can be fixed, it's not a big deal, nobody is going to hate me forever for this, I'm not going to get fired or divorced). It's like my emotional response is a dial with three settings: OFF, CONFUSION, and OUTBURST.

My view is that the typically low levels of the calming neurotransmitter GABA - which acts as the brain's tranquiliser - is the most probably explanation. For myself, boosting the level replaces frustration tolerance with calm equanimity.

It has been known for a long time that many people on the spectrum have an innate deficiency of GABA though curiously it is little known in ASD communities:

What the different neurotransmitters do:
http://www.moodocean.co.uk/html/neurotransmitters.html
Some Gaba studies:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/856720
For a more detailed scientific account:
http://web.mit.edu/bcs/nklab/media/pdfs ... CB2015.pdf

F. False
E. Evidence
A. Appearing
R. Real

People with autism have a hard time coping with sudden changes in plans or schedules, even when it can't be helped. If I'm looking forward to going out for lunch or shopping with someone that's usually the *only* thing I have to look forward to, so when they call and say they can't make it, it's like now I'm just going to stay home and not do anything or speak to anyone like I normally do every day.

Not all unplanned changes bother me, but feeling made to work overtime when my shift is supposed to end does upset me, probably because I get physically tired and hungry after work and so I get panicky if I'm not out on time. So when I'm given time-consuming tasks to do when there's only about an hour and a half left of my shift, I start getting in a panic and worry that I'm not going to be able to go on time. Other workers seem to not mind, unless they have a bus to catch, but me I like to get out EXACTLY on time.