Anti depressants?

I'm struggling, in truth i have been struggling for a very long time, I think most of us do. My GP has me on anti depressants and anti anxiety tablets they don't do much for me at all. 

Is there anything that does help? I think that my depression is not depression but part of my autistic spectrum thing. Assuming that it is asd not depression is there anything that can make it any better? I am not sure that I can cope for much longer.

  • Depression and Anxiety are treated as generic mental illnesses however, they are very different in ASD and need specific responses.

    Yes, I totally agree with this. I have had both non-specific and autism-specific CBT since autism was first suggested as the root of my mental health problems (though, at that time, not yet officially confirmed.) This was by fortune more than by design - the counsellor that I was originally assigned remembered having a colleague with the additional training and arranged a case swap.

    The difference in the counselling was quite profound, as was the contrast between previous counselling which actually made me feel worse about myself because of its ineffectiveness, and the very obvious benefits of the specific counselling. Most notably, the specific counsellor was able to help me with my alexithymia (poor emotional cognition), which had previously always been attributed to either apathy, aversion, or even wilful lack of cooperation. You can find a short article where I contrasted these experiences in more detail in this thread.

    The major difficulty is with accessing specific counselling, which I'm currently trying to do again. Very few CAMHS teams offer this service, and to access non-profit/NGO providers may require discretionary funding from your GP's CCG, or funding via disability benefits or social services. However, if there is any way at all to obtain access, I strongly recommend that people do so.

  • Specific ASD Cognitive Behavioural Therapy could help and it’s worth speaking with your GP. You may find support from a local ASD group or local Trust. Depression and Anxiety are treated as generic mental illnesses however, they are very different in ASD and need specific responses.

    Anti-Depressants can be of help and it sometimes takes time to get the right medication. There is no research a such as to which medication works best for ASD related depression but it may be that your yet to find the right Anti-Depressant for you.

  • Well the Psychiatrist seemed to think that I might have ADHD as well as Autism because I repeatedly described that my head has always been too noisy & having both is relatively common.

    Unlike most people on the Spectrum, I prefer social situations to spending time alone because the negative thoughts in my head usually won't shut up unless I keep them permanently distracted. I have almost non-existent self-esteem & find it hard to concentrate on things I like when I am alone because of the frequent internal criticism. Conversely though, being around other people usually silences them almost completely, so I am now in the weird position that if I want to enjoy reading a book, I need to do it in a public place.

    I have similar problems sleeping & the main reason for my insomnia is that unless I am absolutely exhausted, my head won't shut up long enough to allow me to get to sleep. Sometimes I can use background noise as a distraction in order to get to sleep earlier, but it has to tread the fine line between being interesting enough to grab the attention of my subconscious, whilst being dull enough to not keep me awake. BBC News 24 is good for that, since at 3am you get things like the breakdown of financial markets in Asia.

    The psychiatrist agreed that my severe depression was a symptom of my other problems, not the other way around, so it would be completely pointless to attempt prescribing any more anti-depressants, when they clearly had almost no effect. This being also evidenced by my recent decision to quit Venlafxine. I went from 225mg to zero in just three weeks with no withdrawal symptoms.

    Assuming that the constant wall of negativity in my head is due to ADHD, he said that the medication was usually very effective, but I would need a confirmed diagnosis before they could prescribe anything. He asked me to read up on the subject & then return in a few weeks to discuss my feelings on whether I fitted the diagnostic criteria. I would need another formal assessment though, so it would be back to NHS waiting lists.

    If the ADHD meds allowed me to spend time on my own without going crazy, then I would be a lot happier. There are so many books I want to read & Netflix shows I want to watch, but which currently I cant enjoy because the negativity in my head won't let me.

    Life is rarely that simple though, & ADHD doesn't explain why I feel like I have no real 'sense of self', but at least it would be a start.

  • Sorry no idea. Don’t even know what NDs is. Frowning2️ that’s all the information I have in the link.

  • I was on this 6 plus yrs ago I just had it for depression though wasn't diagnosed anything else yet. I felt same on it as I did off someone did say I was little better on it though l. Took full time kick I  though 

  • Have they run a placebo group of NDs in surroundings that are more ND friendly or that there is a greater populous of ND individuals. Curious, that’s all 

  • Not sure if be much help but I've been on a few anti depressants and I feel same off a s i do on. Some one said am little different on th email but I take th e full time for them to kick in but I don't feel it. I've been  of them 6 yr now think I've had ups and downs and just got an AS D  diagnosis had final results today. 

  • I wish you well with the psychiatrist pirate Santa.

  • After a minor breakdown five years ago, I have tried a variety of different anti-depressants, but recently came to the conclusion that they never did anything for me at all, apart from very occasionally help with anxiety & obsessive intrusive thoughts.

    After discussing it with my Doctor five months ago, he referred me to see a Psychiatrist in order to review my medication, but when after almost two months I still didn't have an appointment, I decided to test the theory for myself. I had previously been on a fairly high dose of Venlafaxine, but cut this down to nothing in just three weeks without any problems at all. A few weeks later I received a letter about the original referral & have an appointment in two weeks time. I told my Doctor that I had stopped the medication completely & he agreed that it probably wasn't doing anything & that in my case drugs probably weren't the answer, but to discuss it with the Psychiatrist.

    My Doctor said that since anti-depressants are designed for neurotypical brains, they do not necessarily work as intended on people with Autism whose brains are wired differently. I have many neurotypical friends that suffer from depression & all seem to describe similar experiences of particular drugs, especially 'emotional flattening'. My experience of them was literally nothing, I even used to joke with my Doctor that he was giving me placebos.

    Not sure what the Psychiatrist will suggest in two weeks time, as long as I keep myself busy my depression is manageable, but my mental state is highly vulnerable to triggers which once activated, can leave me feeling terrible for several weeks. My depression is linked to my sense of identity, or rather the lack of one & I find the only thing that reliably helps is to be around other people, i.e. avoid being alone.

    I will let you know if the Psychiatrist prescribes a magic pill that solves everything, I don't want to go back on medication that does nothing though

  • I’m the same as you I have swings of depression every few weeks we’re i can get unpredictable and very angry. I’m on sertraline 50mg, propranolol 160 in the morning and amitriptyline 1 at night. It helps cram me a bit and helps me get less Hart  palpitations but nothing has ever stopped it. Are brain is not working like the norms we need to learn to live with it.

  • You should definitely talk to your GP before coming off the venlafaxine. As you most likely know, it can be dangerous unless you know how to cut drugs down appropriately.

    I'm really sorry you're feeling so bad. Death always seems so sweet compared to life. The horrid thing about it is that once you've done it you can't change your mind and come back. If it wasn't so final you could try it out for a while and see if you liked it.

    Good luck catching your arms. I wonder if they could hug you instead. At least it would keep them close to you.

  • So if I'm going to come off effexor (venlafaxine) do I tell my GP? It's not doing any good , I feel just as crappy as ever,  sea sawing between wanting to smash my head in the wall repeatedly and just ending it. I have had enough, I feel like this in spite of taking vast quantities of drugs that are supposed to change things, well they dont, so I might as well save myself £17.60 a month and feel the same but not cotton woolly.  I want to be dead, why is that such a bad thing to want.  Everything is just pointless. My arms are flying around the room. I think i might be having a bit of a hard time at the moment, just ignore me ok. I need to go and catch my arms.

  • Not tried effexor. Abandoned Mirtazapine on day 3. The bad dreams, chronic fatigue and dizziness was like poisonous snake venom.

  • Prozac is the latest thing my GP has issued a prescription for, too, so it's interesting to hear about your bad side effects, Emma. I've tried Sertraline before (made me totally nauseated for 12 hours a day so I stopped dead after 2 days) and Mertazipine (three quarters of a low dose knocked me out for over 16 hours). If you're able to give some detail on the side effects of the Prozac I'd be interested. I have to get up the courage to even get the drug, let alone try it, so some information on how it's affected another ND person might be helpful.

  • When I was taking antidepressants I had the super-vivid dreams too - it got very confusing living 2 or 3 lives during the night and another real life during the day.

    They don't 'delete' in the morning so my head is stuffed full of thousands of false memories - many of which are a bit impractical so I can label them as 'probably not real', but others are 110% real and I can't sort those from 'real' reality.

    I don't have nightmares either - just annoyingly real dreams.

    I'm taking large doses of steroids at the moment and I'm getting the same things again - I quite enjoy my nightly travels around the world and through space & time.

  • I was diagnosed with depression when I was very young and in later life have been prescribed three types of anti depressant. I found each of them worse that useless, merely making my mind numb. It was much later that a medical professional, ( have seen so many!) mentioned links between long term depression and autism. I had worked in special education for over ten years and couldn't imagine that I was on the spectrum, but I agreed to be assessed and hey presto I do have autism. If this option is available to you I would recommend that you chase it up. The sad thing is that like depression I have no hope of a cure, but just knowing that there are reasons for my feeling different eases the an set a little.

  • I took it at about 17:00 as I found the sleepiness took a few hours to come in but seemed to last untill 12/14 hours after I had taken it. So but taking it then I was able to get up at 7:00 ish  ( like I ever do anything at an ish time)

  • Have you been on effexor at all? I can't feel any difference but hubby says I am much less flipping from one extreme to the other? I am still suicidal but coherent and less angry.

    I really do believe now that the depression i have suffered all of my life is in fact my autism and much as I can take these tablets to try and make it less bad it is just part of me like my lack of understanding of emotion and my proprioceptive dysfunction.

  • Like Song, I found that taking Mitazapine later in the day was best for me too. I think Mirtazapine definitely lifted my depression better than the other med's that I'd had before (they had all been SSRIs, unlike Mirtazapine.) Taken later in the day, they helped my sleep more than anything else I've ever been prescribed too; though the incredibly vivid, lucid dreams took a bit of getting used to (thankfully, they were never nightmares.)

    The downside, as you say, was the sedative effect; it did wear off a bit (or I got used to it) over time, but never went away completely. My brain is already slow on the uptake most of the time, so it was a bit counterproductive when it came to interacting with people and my brain's readiness to dissociate. My social anxiety was improved a bit, but it was harder to retain my focus and compounded my slow social comprehension, so didn't make it any easier to participate.