Medication or meditation

I tried it tonight but I think that's some of my problem I felt a bit stupid sat there trying to stay calm and focused...Its a bit like singing, even when I'm on my own I feel really stupid. I'm going to try meditating again tonight before bed, get my homework done first and then I'll try.

What do you like to knit? My mum is friends with a woman who does loads of knitting. She makes bears, figurines, houses and clothes. I've seen some of what she's made and it all looks amazing. My mum does some but not a lot, she's always busy with work, I'd like to try that too but my hands are too shaky to go it good.

How did your second try go? I did some just before bath. Sat crossed legged, tried to relax and my mum bought me a scented candle to use today. She said it would help me relax. I didn't feel relaxed. I couldn't focus on relaxing and peaceful thoughts...I could hear my breathing, it sounded really loud lolol and I suddenly became aware of all the sounds around me. I'm going to try again tonight before bed.

I'm on an SSRI, but for my generalised anxiety disorder- it works for that, but if the source of anxious feelings is related to my autism (e.g. sensory overload or an imminent meltdown) then it makes no difference. If nothing else, it's done a good job of helping me to recognise what's an anxiety thing and what's an autistic thing.

Meditation is a more complicated one: I can't do a lot of the traditional/more common techniques because I have chronic pain and something like a body scan is counterproductive. I do like guided meditation though, especially at a yoga class, because I can focus on the voice and not whatever nonsense my body is up to. Mindful crafting (e.g. knitting or sewing) is a way of meditating too, for me, because the rhythm of the stitches and the counting work in the same way as focusing on your breathing or body does.

In the end I couldn't do medication, it messed me up more. How I won the battle against anxiety, learned helplessness, and agoraphobia was daily mantra. And a bit of self-tailored CBT, doing small and short bursts of exposure therapy with a friend to accompany me places until I got used to going out myself.

I won't lie, yes it (mantra/meditation) feels stupid in the begining (I hated talking out-loud in a mirror, so I just read the affirmations off the poster I made in my head instead) and you feel like it's not going to work for a long time, but it's a fake it until you make thing, and eventually you believe it and more important is you realise you can and do believe in yourself.

Hi have you meditated today? I did this morning, my mind kept wandering, but this is common i am telling myself. I am going to give it another go now, as i need to escape from my mind x

I lived in a meditation community for 5 years, I found the whole thing generally very stressful ironically although I'm glad I did it nevertheless for various reasons. I left the community and began long term depth Gestalt psychotherapy and tried mental ill health medication via my GP at the same time (for the first time, I'd avoided it and was against trying it up until then). I continued with both then stopped the medication after 8 years and the psychotherapy after 15 years. I think meditation, medication and other appropriate treatments e.g. Gestalt psychotherapy can be very helpful and it depends on other factors going on too in my experience and opinion. I may well do all of them again (not necessarily at the same time) in my future 

thats the thing though, anxiety and stress does tight chestedness and so on... but when you have jaw or arm effects then thats when you check out for anything possibly worse.

although the nhs are pretty rubbish, when i spoke to them about my chest pain they told me they will see me in 4 months then when they saw me they didnt really do much and said its probably just musculoskeletal strain or something lol but they did a blood test to be sure anyway and that pressure thing.

I don't think I need medication at the moment. Most of my problems are linked to my autism I am almost certain of it. Autism and anxiety, I think both are my problem... Though the trigger of the anxiety is a mystery to me. I don't really have a trigger, I just feel anxious all the time and it worsens when I'm out or in unknown circumstances.

I do need to get a new doctor though. Mine is no good, just constantly dismissing me all the time. Does the exact same thing to my older brother who is special needs. 

Teeth grinding sounds horrible. It might be an idea to get a mouth guard for you to use...My mum grinds her teeth at night because of anxiety and she now wears a mouth guard when she sleeps and she's not had a bad thing to say about it. She did say it takes a while to get used to it but I guess that's to be expected. I do grind and clench my teeth but luckily not when I'm sleeping, it's more when I'm doing something which causes me stress, like when I'm out shopping and at school. I think it's my natural reaction to tense up at certain times...I think that's why my muscles hurt so much...My stomach too.

Lolol  I love the idea of falling asleep when you try to meditate. Lol I think that will happen to me too as I fall asleep really easily. It's a bit of a habit. I think my body is always trying to hiberna...I need my sleep  I will be giving meditation a go, just to see if it actually helps. I read online it's a luck of the draw thing, works for some but not everyone.

Mostly medication for anxiety as that's something I struggle with every day. I don't like the sound of the medication though and I've read that it doesn't help many people. I was doing fitness and exercises last year but stopped because my muscles were super painful...so I stopped then. Muscle pain and spasms is another thing I suffer from. Likely from anxiety.

I sometimes worry about heart problems but I think it's just anxiety. Obviously if it gets any worse I would see the doctor but it's not that bad, more annoying than anything else...I'll be sat or walking and then suddenly can feel my jaw gets tight and starts pulling. So uncomfortable and painful. 

Personally I won't be taking antidepressants. I've just got off them after 25 years and they never worked, I just didn't stand up for myself and they wouldn't assess me for autism. 

What I have learned since being diagnosed is that anxiety isn't really what I experience. Everything that I used to think was anxiety is actually sensory. For example it is overwhelm from noise, or from brightness or proximity of people who smell bad. Anxiety medication is not going to fix this. 

So I would really analyse your own anxiety before you decide whether to take medication. See if you can figure out the cause, cos you might do better trying to accommodate your own needs then filling yourself full of drugs.

That being said there are times when life is too hard and you should never be afraid to ask the GP for help if you are really struggling mentally. But for us on the internet it's hard to advise, your best bet would be talking to your doctor. You can change doctor if your current one doesn't understand. 

I realised a few weeks ago that even if I feel completely relaxed and not in the least bit anxious when I fall asleep, I always seem to wake up with my teeth clenched, and with the rest of my body feeling tense. It's caused me to wonder if I grind my teeth in my sleep, and whether it would be worth my while to invest in a mouth guard. If I woke up tense, at least I wouldn't need to worry about whether I had been inflicting damage on my teeth by grinding them.

As anxiety is something that seems to affect everyone with ASD, I think it can be all too easy for us to conjure up worst-case scenarios and then become fixated on them. For example, I have suffered from migraines since I was a young child, and I can remember going through a phase of being convinced I had a brain tumour. Earlier this year, I had a water infection and noticed faint traces of blood in my urine on one occasion when I used the toilet. In my mind, there was absolutely no doubt that I'd got terminal cancer.

Of course, the logical thing is to consult a medical professional about any health concerns, but that's something else that many of us with ASD struggle with.

It's true that anti-anxiety medication can be hit-and-miss for us. I've been prescribed SSRI anti-anxiety medication for a good many years, which seems to help to level out my mood, although not always as much as I would like. If I'm having a good day, I find my medication helps to keep my anxiety at bay. However, if I'm at rock bottom and feeling depressed, they can seem useless. As I understand it, they aren't intended to completely take away my anxiety, but to make it more manageable. The only time my anti-anxiety medication caused me to feel truly chilled out was within the first day or so of taking it. That was when I truly understood the meaning of feeling "spaced out".

Meditation is something I have tried too, but like Tulip52, it's something I have struggled to "get into". I either end up falling asleep and not remembering a thing, or else my mind will completely drift off. If it's something like a guided meditation telling me to visualise strolling through a meadow full of flowers, I can guarantee that is when some random thought will pop into my head. 

What kind of medication have you been offered? SSRIs have horrendous side effects and tend to make autistic people feel worse (we need less serotonin, not more). Benzodiazapines work but are highly addictive. They create a feeling similar to coming out of a long meditation session, without the difficulty of getting into it.

waait just right there...

sorry but when your chest pain turns to jaw effects and jaw pain.. then your looking at a potential heart issue and you need to ask your gp about that and bring that up with them.

Thanks for this link. I haven't heard of it before but I'm going to download it now, hopefully my first step in to a better lifestyle.

Fibonacci Squid said:

Digestive issues in general are unfortunately very common in autism. 

Yeah weird really. I reckon anxiety plays a huge part in this as well, probably all of it mixed in together is like this huge recipe for suffering lolol

I also have the Calm app which includes meditation practice. Its a nice app, its free but restricted access and if paid annually isnt too costly 

Calm - The #1 App for Meditation and Sleep https://www.calm.com/

Yes exactly, knowing someone else is hoping to do it for the same reason is good. I will look on youtube, there are lots on there.I am going to set a reminder on my phone and put a note by my kettle now