Can't Stop Worrying and Anxious Thoughts

Hi Alien,

I get a lot of problems with anxiety and it is only through a combination of medication, therapy and self-help that I have got to a place where it is not out of control.

I am just about to start on some Patient-Centred Therapy (after having tried this before and found it helpful) and I am working on some Anxiety in Autism workbooks.

I heop that you improve with time, but for me it has been a long journey. I wish you well.

Mrs Snooks

Clearly there IS something wrong- the fact that it's your mental health rather than your physical health doesn't make it any less important. If your anxiety is affecting your life this much then your GP should be recommending ways to help you manage it, not dismissing you because there's nothing physically wrong.

Have you thought about medication and/or therapy? The types of therapy usually available on the NHS aren't particularly helpful for autistic people but you may be able to find something else, and there are often self-help workbooks etc available if private access to therapy isn't an option (which is unfortunately often the case).

Alien said:

Just really disappointed that I'm still suffering with bad anxiety and I'm still no closer to getting over it.

There is good news and bad news.

The bad news - it never really goes away. As autists we are pre-disposed to this and it is just how our minds are wired.

The good news - there are ways to lessen it and even to use it to our advantage.

To lessen is - try capturing the thing you are worried about.

If you are worried about, say, what the results of a blood test will be as you worry you may have an infection, then write down the possible scenarios and what to do in each of them. This is a bit like a process of mind mapping which allows you to capture all the "what if" scenarios that seem to play on a loop in your mind, and once they are captired on paper then you don't have to keep them going as you just have to look at the paper.

As for using it to our advantage, this process has been tremendously useful to me and as the processes are often recurring then it iseasy to look up a previous one and save a load of time. It helps me sleep as well if I "brain dump" to think I am worrying about on a notepad to look at the next morning, and no longer feel the need to process it in my sleep.

The ability of us to think through scenarios in riduculous detail have been very useful for work or even helping friends with a complex issue - the same mind mapping and what-if processing can give great input into project planning where elements of risk need to be responded to.

Consider and example - I was working on a project where I needed 600 computers to be delivered, configured and deployed over 2 weekends and I had 3 staff helping me do this. What if the supplier let me down, what if the staff went sick or resigned, what if there was a power cut etc - each of these needed to be considered and contingency plans made to ensure the project could happen no matter what.

In a way it is one of our super powers so learn to harness it and get a really cool spandex outfiit to go with it - it may not be practical to wear out, but in the bedroom it is an altogether different story... Sorry, I digress