Published on 12, July, 2020
Does Anyone With ASD Have Major Sleep Priblems! My Sleep Is atrocious and ive had lots of medication from my GP but nothing helps. Started doing sleep diarys to compress my sleep but still struggle. Doesnt help the environment im in i.e flat with dogs barking continuously, tvs loud, banging noises all of which irritate the life out of me!!!!! Ive also tried a snooze band with calming music, pillow sprays, weighted blankets, loop earplugs but nothing seems to be helping. It effects my mood massively and feel fatigued constantly. Anyone else relate and have any other options i just find it so hard to relax, always have to be on the go! Thanks!
In my experience and from helping other autistics, if you've been given SSRIs or anti depressants or anything which further lowers GABA, it will make it worse as this is the gut-brain axis which also helps regulate sleep, aids filtering external stimuli and calm excited out-of-control and looping thoughts. I take a mushroom based nootropics supplement daily with Lions Mane and Reishi. Always recommend a healthy dose of mushrooms to boost this.
I wrote something about your post about SSRIs lowering gaba. I just said that this is not the case. You know serotonin is quite similar to GABA actually as serotonin is the second biggest inhibitory neurotransmitter. This is why it works so well for anxiety disorders amongst many people. However autism is more complex than giving an SSRI for it. But yeh they do help. I haven’t heard about lions mane mushrooms. Are they good for gaba? I take the vitamins B6 for GABA production it works for me. Only supplement I have tried that actually works. I don’t understand the mechanism for why it works but it does for me. Probably the fact that it is like a CNS depressant that turns glutamate (excitatory) into GABA and kinda shuts down the excitation. Yeh it’s cool.
Im only on Sertraline 100mg but i have been on endless amounts of medication to help me in the past. So now i just take this im not even sure if this works but i know it absolutely destroys me trying to come off when GP trys to change it.