Gp refusing to give any anti depressants for anxiety. He recommended talking therapies instead but I'm feeling pretty low and crb doesn't work for me :(

Thanks to all of you for replying. I didn't expect such a response and really appreciate it. This is such a lovely supportive group. 

I didn't. Hemulens can be OK, and they do tend to have special interests, but they can also be rather officious and up themselves.

Fillyjonks are more prone to anxiety, I think. The Fillyjonk Who Believed in Disasters eventually found peace.

I'm the opposite.  I wish someone would offer me some talking therapy.  I don't want drugs, antidepressants or sleeping pills. My blood tablets have caused enough side effects over the past twenty years and I have to change them every few years.

One big problem with drugs is that if I/you have a stockpile. Then there is the temptation to overdose when depressed.

Don't forget the Hemulens!

I don't think CBT didn't work for you because you're "too difficult".

LOTS of people on this forum have found CBT to be ineffective. The reason seems to be that CBT is structured to suit NT thought processes and isn't easily changed to suit ND thought processes. Most CBT therapists are unwilling to change their prescribed practices, but there are (somewhere out there) therapists who specialise in ASD  (they appear to be few and far between).

Your best bet is to read up on as many types of therapy as are available to you in your area and choose the best fit, making sure that whichever therapist you choose / get, knows about your ASD and is willing to accommodate it within their prescribed practice.    

I'm currently on Venlafaxine, but have tried several others over the last four years. None of them have ever had any direct effect on my mood, but have at least made my negative intrusive thoughts easier to manage, which are the main cause of my depression anyway.

My Doctor referred me to an assessment as to which talking therapy might help me best, where I was told that CBT wouldn't work for me at all (presumably I'm too difficult), but after a long wait I eventually had a year of NHS Psychotherapy which didnt work either. I got on very well with my Psychotherapist though & it was her suggestion that I had an ASD assessment leading to my diagnosis last year.

Not sure what the next step is, my problems all seem to relate to 'My Sense of Self' (or lack of it) rather than social interaction. My Doctor has asked me to research therapies aimed at people on the Autistic Spectrum, but since there is so much variation of expression, that seems to be a bit of a contradiction, i.e. How can you specialise in something so diverse?

That question occurred to me, but I didn't ask it. Why 'anti depressants for anxiety', Moomin5? You do also mention low mood. (They also used to say that beta-blockers caused depression, but the evidence doesn't seem to be there any more.)

As a historical side-note, the psychiatrist Dr David Healy said the reason the SSRIs were marketed as antidepressants rather than anxiolytics is because of the reputation of the benzodiazepines as 'addictive'. Where there wasn't a benzo dependency problem, like Japan, the SSRIs were actually sold as anti-anxiety medications. Nowadays, GPs may be more comfortable prescribing Z-drugs like zopiclone than benzodiazepines, despite them having similar effects (short-term as against the several weeks of lead time for SSRIs). At least I know the associated feeling of being dosed up with diazepam at the dentists, which I find similar to being drunk.

Although as I say, I never found ADs helpful, I can think of one person who I think was autistic who found 'the light went on' after a couple of months on SSRIs (whether that was a coincidence is hard to say, as always with ADs). I also know a self-described depressive who found benzodiazepines very helpful, so long as they were only used short-term in response to specific anxiety. What's your regimen with the beta blockers; when do you take them? (I am not a doctor, as should be obvious.)

I don't know why you'd take Anti-depressants for Anxiety anyway - Benzodiazapines are usually best for doing that. Not that I'm recommending it, reliance on tablets, or medication. Isn't a great way to go, and should definitely be a LAST resort, as it can mess up the problem worse.
Anxiety is hard, I struggle and have done for quite a while, but tablets I believe worsened my condition, and It didn't sort the underlying conditions, which was my ASD, and the stress it was causing me. 
I found person centred counselling was very useful, and would recommend it, it helped me cope with some underlying problems, as well as finding different solutions and knowledge into NT people's mind. 

I've tried at least half a dozen antidepressants, and none have them have helped. At least that I've noticed - you get told that they take 4-6 weeks to 'kick in' (some time after the brain has adjusted by 'receptor downregulation'), so some of them I've given up on after 3 months. They've had effects starting and stopping (generally SSRIs make me sleep more even if I don't need it and suppress dreaming, and then when I stop the rebound gives me vivid dreams).

lostmyway said:

The way you think about your problems can powerfully affect how they affect you so it's well worth persevering and trying to discover the right approach for you.

Aye to that. It's a shame CBT hasn't helped. My problems with CBT have been that a lot relies on knowing how I'm feeling in response to events, and being 'alexithymic', I can't actually work that out separate from the event. Someone else might be able to tell me my emotional state better than I can.

Part of the 'behavioural' component of CBT should really include 'graduated exposure therapy', which is quite successful for phobias. If this consists of steps like 'I will attend this event for at least 2 minutes, even just to observe', 'I will go, and can leave after I've said hello to two people', this may be best practised by a social worker rather than in a consulting room. It desensitises you so after a while your heart isn't beating so fast. I'd be interested to know how the GP reacts to the idea of exposure therapy for social phobias and anxiety. Also, are there any physical things you can do to avoid the sensory overload, like sound-cancelling headphones? Back in the 1980s if I was invited out, I'd sometimes joke I was autistic to exaggerate my relative lack of interaction (little did I know). I don't think it's much to be embarrassed about - the headphones would be an obvious physical sign, an embarrassment to master.

I like Moomins, and Snork Maidens, and even Fillyjonks.

Anti-depressants are not the answer, although they have their uses at certain critical times. You're far better off learning coping strategies which can be effective but take time to learn. Once you have to rely on chemical interventions it can be very hard to come off them and you simply give yourself more problems to overcome. It's a question of finding the right kind of therapist for you and that you 'click' with, something which is much easier said than done. The way you think about your problems can powerfully affect how they affect you so it's well worth persevering and trying to discover the right approach for you.

Thanks for your really helpful advice. I've not heard of EMDR before so will look into it. 

Anti-depressants don't have a good success rate generally and most GP's are making a move away from prescribing them (in favour of talking therapies and other non-medicated routes) and they're generally thought to be even less effective for ASD. Others here will know more about all of that than me as I don't have much experience of them. All I can say about them is that they're generally about 'fixing' a chemical imbalance in the brain - ASD and social anxiety aren't caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. 

I don't think that means that you should be expected to "suck it up" though, your anxiety is still very real and IS caused by other things, such as those you identified. Having already been able to identify those things, I think talking therapy would be useful.

I haven't tried CBT but I found EMDR useful as a talking therapy. It allowed me to vent, helped me to get another perspective on things, was a relief to be able to talk without feeling judged, and helped me feel in control of my own reactions to certain things. I didn't get on well with the visualisation side of it and my therapist was happy to leave that out once I explained that I was uncomfortable with it. I think the success, or otherwise, of these types of therapies depends a lot on who you get mind you! Mine was able and willing to work with what I was comfortable with rather than sticking to a prescribed idea of how the sessions should run, which also helped me to feel in control of the process.