Published on 12, July, 2020
My brother aged 60 years has his assessment tomorrow.
He has lead an extremely l9nely life, not kniwing what is wrong with him. Psychiatrists saying he is anxious and have been of no help and have even caused him further suffering by their dusmissal of his struggles. Well tomorrow may well give him the answers that he has been looking for.
While writing dies anyone experience constant racing thoughts that consume your every moment and do you respind verbally aloud to your thoughts? Not hearing voices, but thoughts? Thank you x
Outcome
My brother was diagnosed with Autism today. X
Yes, but that is my OCD that is the cause, if I am having a bad barrage of intrusive thoughts sometimes I stim motor and verbal (autism still applies even though it's OCD in origin) to feel better about it and rock my shoulders and out-loud tell my own brain to shut up.I know it makes me "look crazy" as a combined set of behaviors, but it really is harmless, I know the intrusive thoughts are not real and just manifestations of anxieties that I will never act upon, they are just really unpleasant and distressing while they are happening and need to pass over me like like rain clouds on the hills.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Yes its my brother. He does already have a diagnosis of OCD but i dont think this was ever discussed with him in a helpful way. So are you saying that OCD and autism often go togethor if you know what i mean?
Thats great the way you explain it. Hopefully if my brother understands why then it will help him accept the thoughts? He does get distressed with them. I imagine its exhausting. Thank you. Do you take medication for your racing thoughts?
Thats so interesting thank you and helpful.
Thats great that you dont take medication in my opinion. But my brother will accept medication. He is 60! Why oh why hasnt all this been picked up sooner!
To be honest no, I'm one of those unfortunate folks who find most medications that are designed to affect brain chemistry have side effects often worse than the actual thing they are supposed to be treating. But realising that the intrusive thoughts are fears not wants and are actually morally meaningless as long as they aren't acted upon allowed me to let them come and go more freely with less upset in the process, obviously they aren't nice, but the less I have spent dwelling on them after they have been and gone has reduced the cycle, ie the same ones come back less frequently.There is one more talking to myself thing I can think that I do and it is when I am in the run up to meeting someone or have finished a conversation I can find myself talking out loud in mumbles as I've been subconciously moving my moth and facial muscles scripting and working out what I will say or have said complete with what the appropriate tone of voice and facial expression should go along with the phrasings of things. But I only realise I have acted out the practise socialising after I come back from zoning out when I do it. Sometimes it isn't even prep to talk to an actual person just me soundboarding what I think a a decent conversation should go like with a totally hypothetical person I used my very active imagination to conjure up, and I even catch myself playing both "actors" parts. But I know when I'm doing it and why, I suspect I have done it ever since I was a kid and it has something to do with trying to cover for some of my irl social difficulties with tone of voice/body language etc, because I am fortunate enough to be able to read people irl but trying to send out those same signals and convey the correct message in what I say don't come naturally to me. Sadly when it comes to social cues using language/tone/expression I can receive them better than I can send them.