Bigger issues than ART

What do I do for a student who has so many things going on that when he comes to art there always seems to be some issue that is preventing him from functioning in art class. For every lesson, not matter what it is, unless it's free draw, this student has major anxiety about what the assignment is. And this anxiety is always compounded on top of another issue, like there is a sub in for the classroom teacher, and this sub "doesn't understand" this student so class time is stressful, and this stress carries over to art time. I try to calm this student down, and I work wit him alot, and I allow him to go to the resource room next door to relax a bit, but it happens every class. The thing that I'm not sure about is whether I should just let him do his own thing each project, or if I should really push him to try something new. He's told me he can't draw from memory, or imagination, He doesn't like to color things in, especially with colored pencils. He definately doesn't like to draw from observation, and he didn't collage anything when they made the folders. The only thing he draws are these action drawings that are "a hand drawn video game". In these drawings there are lots of lines, and colors, but it doesn't look like anything really. It's almost like he's drawing the motion of the objects instead of the objects, if that makes sense. I don't mind helping him, but I can't work with him the whole class because the other students have questions and need help too. Perhaps I'll email Jess about this student and find out what he did last year. I just want to feel like he's making some progress, or at least trying to. He's very quick to tell me he can't do something with out even trying.