Naming Emotions Can Help Autistic People Cope With Anxiety, Study Finds

THURSDAY, May 14, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Naming feelings of anxiety can help autistic people better manage emotions prompted by uncertainty and dread, a new study says.

People with autistic traits sometimes cope with uncertainty by labeling their feelings, according to findings published May 12 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Friends might help folks on the spectrum by suggesting the right words for what they feel, researchers said.

“Our findings suggest that discomfort with uncertainty is associated with a greater tendency to put feelings into words, and this is linked to lower anxiety levels,” senior researcher Masahiro Hirai said in a news release. Hirai is an associate professor at Nagoya University's Graduate School of Informatics in Japan.

Previous studies have found that labeling an emotion can help manage stress, whether by writing it down or saying it out loud, researchers said in background notes.

The emotion might not disappear, but it can become less overwhelming after it’s been named, researchers said.

For the new study, researchers had more than 500 Japanese adults ages 20 to 39 complete an online questionnaire that measured their autistic traits, their ability to manage uncertainty and their anxiety levels.

People who had more autistic traits tended to experience stronger anxiety in uncertain situations, a condition known as intolerance of uncertainty, the study showed.

Further, those with higher intolerance of uncertainty tended to label their emotions more often as a coping mechanism.

Researchers think others might be able to aid this process by offering the right words to describe how an autistic person is feeling.

For example, a family member might say, “I think you might be feeling anxious about that” to a person showing signs of distress, researchers said.

However, researchers cautioned that these are early findings. More research is needed to confirm this theory.

The team currently is working with people clinically diagnosed with autism to test whether emotional labeling will help their anxiety.

More information

The Organization for Autism Research has more about autism and anxiety.

SOURCES: Nagoya University, news release, May 12, 2026; Scientific Reports, May 12, 2026