Anxiety: must be a cure?

Hope you sound like me,, totally. Do you have a high IQ, because I think subjective reality(focus as the observer) is increased by intelligence(mind awareness).

Hope said:

Should I ask someone, for example a work colleague, for a lift to the station so I can avoid my fears?

In short: yes.

I am particularly worried about tomorrow at the moment. I have a job that requires me to be out in the evening now and again. I get particularly anxious about being out in the dark, even as early as 6pm in the winter, because it is harder to see potential threats in the dark. Last time I went out in the evening, I had a panic attack when a youth approached me with a bull terrier type dog off the lead. I had palpitations, felt sick, and VERY anxious, to the point that my legs felt as though they would give way.

To repeat, I am really worried about tomorrow - worrying whether I will have another panic attack. The place of work is a 10 minute walk from the train station, and all the dogs I am scared of seem to come out in the night-time, plus groups of drunken youths, which I always find threatening. What can I do? Should I ask someone, for example a work colleague, for a lift to the station so I can avoid my fears?.

Hello everyone. Thank you all for your supportive replies, which have helped my anxiety a little.

Scorpian0x17: I will do as you suggest and consult my GP. I have not been to the doctors for a long time, mainly because the doctor surgery fills me with dread, but maybe I can get a phone conversation or a home visit?. I will try and do this ASAP, although I do have a tendancy to procrastinate about these things. Or I could send them a letter?. I have moved to a new area recently so will have to register with a new GP, and I could bring up the matter then, especially regarding my hypochondria. I agree that I am likely getting a poor deal if the professionals have not been able to help me due to no specialist training in aspergers.

The Imp of the Pe...: I have been offered medication ,but declined, because the thought of swallowing drugs and the possible side-effects is a source of anxiety in itself, although I can appreciate that they help many people. I would like to find a drug free way out of my problems. I accept that I will always be a bit more anxious than most people, but I want to get to a point where anxiety does not occupy my mind 24/7, because the thought of it continuing like it is at the moment, with no let-up, is unbearable.

Jon: I agree about the outside world aggravating my anxiety, although I accept that my anxiety is mostly neurological in origin. That said, I believe that we can re-wire the brain to an extent , through supportive therapy and re-conditioning.

Hohner: I think my anxiety stems from the need to control every aspect of my life, and the fear of being vulnerable.

Azalea: I have tried meditation on You Tube and listening to relaxing sounds. This helps a bit, but not enough in my case.

We can clean and clean, but it never is clean enough.

We can build fences and fences, but is never high enough.

So maybe the willpower of control, seeks out perfectism also.. bringing high standards and thus anxiety because they are not getting met 100%.

I suffer from anxiety also most around people, situations and new places, which I can not control.  I think anxiety is root in the emotion of false willpower, wishing to control(will). Will I get harmed or not i.e(uncertainty, unknown, unknown environment boundary pressure). Anxiety maybe the wish to control the stimula of harm but unable too 100%.

Hi Hope,

i have had CBT too. Not from a practicioner experienced with AS. It was pretty daft and made me feel worse. The focus was on changingt the way I feel/see/do with no regard to the factors that were causing the problems. If i was unable to change then I was a failure. The process was not able to accomodate the idea that there might be a porblem with the world, there was just a problem with me.

I've suffered anxiety all my remembered life and my simple observation is there is no one single silver bullet that solves it or lessens it. I don't know why I get like this but there seems to be cycles of anxiety that I can't control. Practical things that help me are getting deliberately physically exhausted through exercise, playing a musical instrument and trying to write songs, writing down my anguish always helps when it gets really bad...I don't advise this one but screaming makes me feel better, for which living in the country is a must!

Concentrating on breathing is a strange aid for reducing anxiety...for stopping hyperventilation maybe but not anxiety. I don't know if this is any help but when I used to live in the city I would go out and feel agoraphobic but I would force myself to stay out but I would sit somewhere and just observe everything in minute detail. Perhaps when you go out you never stop and just let everything just BE. It's easy to go out and try and do a lot and go to a lot of places but I wonder if you ever just sit and stay out and just look at everyone passing by. I realise this could be a recipe for sensory overload but if you can find somewhere a bit quiet and a bit open it might help with getting over seeing 'home' as a quick sanctuary for rising anxious fears.

After all that qualitative approach, I have to confess things were so bad a few months ago that I had to have medication and I found it helpful at first during the day to maintain my sanity but it began to make me very sleepy, so I just take it now to fall asleep if I'm feeling a bit hyper around bedtime. I'm hesitant to suggest this but if you've been anxious a long time, a small course of medication might help because I'd been forgetting what it was like to live without anxiety and when my meds stopped it for a brief time, the relief was immense. I really had forgotten what a non-anxious state was like. To not feel anxious felt a bit like a revelation at the time. 

Do you feel it's actually possible to live without anxiety or would you be happy to be able to suppress it enough to fulfill your potential?

I don't think I'll ever be rid of feeling anxious but keeping it manageable is an OK idea and would make me happy enough, being realistic.

You need to find out if there is a therapist in your area with autism training, or ideally one that specialises in treating those on the autistic spectrum, who will take NHS referals, even they normally do private consultations, and then go to your GP and insist that they refer you to them.

The more information you can give your GP, not in terms of who you want to see, but why you wish to see them, the better.

I believe there's something in the recent Autism legislation and/or the NICE guidelines that deals with this kind of thing and why people on the spectrum need to see therapists with specialist training.

Unfortunately like so many things with the legislation, many local authorities are still playing catch up, and your GP is likely to need to apply for special funding in order to refer you to the right place.

I suggest this is something you may want to ask your support worker to help you with. She should be able to help you find out if there is anyone in your area that specialises in treating those on the spectrum, help you put your case to your GP, and chase the GP up on it if necessary.

I've managed to get to see a specialist counciller where I live, but only through my Mum and my Housing Support Officer putting pressure on my GP to apply for special funding for me, and then on the PCT to actual provide the service I need.

Good luck, and don't give up - the legislation and NICE guidelines are all on your side, so it just requires the right amount of pressure to be applied in the right places (as well as for a suitable service to exist in your area (which it probably does (but privately (but then, by law, cost should be no barrier, and they should refer out to private providers when the NHS can't provide for the needs of the patient))))

None of the therapists I have seen were trained in the autism spectrum. They all work in a community mental health team, so are used to dealing with people who have mental ill health, but not necessarily aspergers. The physiotherapist I saw actually made my anxiety worse by suggesting there is a  correct deep breathing approach for relaxation. Even my support worker felt anxious after leaving her office!.

My support worker is trained in autism, but she is not a psychologist and so cannot offer formal therapy.

How can I see a therapist who can offer me the right therapy without going private, which is not an option for me because I would not be able to afford it? (I am on benefits).

Have those that have administered your CBT, physio, and other therapies, had a good working understanding of Asperger's and other Autistic Spectrum Conditions?

From what I've heard and read, this is really important, because therapies aimed at neurotypicals often don't work for those on the spectrum, and instead have to be tailored to cater for our different ways of processing sensory, psychological, and intellectual information.