To Chris anything he can't process mentally or activity avoid is a threat of serious proportions.
He is incapable of understanding normal social interaction, he see's a idealised version of real life on TV and wonders why it doesn't work for him that way. Other than giving him a convenient excuse he is unaware that his Autisim effects how he views the world and how he reacts to it.
And to be honest Autisim is probably a misdiagnosis when it comes to Chris I am reading some of my mums old books on the subject (she was a special needs teacher for adults) from around the time Chris was given the diagnosis an it was really misunderstood at the time, anything an everything was considered autistic this wasn't just in British books on the subject but American ones an the rush for diagnosis is a factor in the American texts from that era.
While I am not a expert on the subject, and I can't put a name on what Chris is afflicted with he has aspects of Autisim but they are over shadowed by other more serious issues, that have only really become apparent since he became a teen.but looking back at Christory I am guessing that the School new that when they wanted to send him to "special" school.
I am wandering into the realms of off topic here, I am going to put a thread together with my speculations on the subject at some point.