Table 5.

Examples of images, and associated cognitions

Participant	Image (typical/non-typical)	What does the image say about you, the world	Does the image make you want to do anything?
ASD, high anxiety	Alone on a bench at school, smell of my arteries popping (both typical and non-typical)	Maybe your Asperger’s is why you’re such a joke. Humanity sucks	Walk up to people, slap them and say how dare you
ASD, high anxiety	Faces—of people I know from school, and another one added in—one is grinning, one is petrified (atypical)	Possibly I’m a bad person, meaning when I die I’ll go to hell	It makes me want to stay still and not talk to anybody and go off somewhere
ASD, high anxiety	Humpty Dumpty—looked so ugly when it cracked. The eyes was the worst thing. Took months to get that picture out of my head.	Nothing	No
ASD, low anxiety	Someone not believing me, I’m trying to talk, their face is all blurred (typical)	I’m always in the wrong place at the wrong time	Makes me want to find out the truth
TD, high anxiety	Spiders, long hairy legs, eyes (typical)	I’m scared of spiders	Scream and cry
TD, low anxiety	Arguing with a friend (typical)	I’m insecure about popularity	Tell a friend I trust