Published on 12, July, 2020
I have been doing a lot of reading about this recently, and I am finding more and more that there are potentially significant links between people with autism and people who have gastrointestinal (GI) issues such as gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
I am a 32 year old male. I have suffered from acid reflux my whole life due to being born with a hiatus hernia. I am medicated for it, and I have been told that I will always be on medication for it due to the severity of my condition. It gets worse with stress, sleeping in a different position, changes in diet... all sorts of things can trigger it to be worse.
Does anyone else, formally or self-diagnosed with autism, have any issues like this?
I haven't been diagnosed with anything that I know of, but I am prescribed Omeprazole, which I can afford to forget to take for exactly one night before sleep becomes impossible. I didn't realise it could be autism related. I always figured it was diet induced.
I take Esomeprazole and if I forget to take it for one day then I cannot sleep either. It also then disrupts my eating schedule which ultimately leaves me with an upset stomach, etc. which can take days/weeks to get balanced again.
I only know about this because I have been doing a lot of research into conditions that may mask a diagnosis of autism and GI issues like acid reflux is high up on that list.