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Autism and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders

BeagleDad

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?

Parents

  • Very interested to hear that so many people here also have reflux problems. I developed a hiatus hernia at 30 (12 years ago) and been on medication ever since. I didn’t know I was autistic back then and all I could find about it was that it generally affected people over 60 or overweight, neither of which I was so it’s always been a bit of a mystery to me. Had no idea it may have a connection with autism - perhaps brought on by the constant anxiety or something

  • in reply to JD-on-sea

    I have found this whole thread very interesting, too! I was not expecting to hear from so many people who have similar issues to me as well as being autistic.

    Having read a lot of the responses here, it appears that it could have links to stress and anxiety due to being autistic. Co-occurring conditions are easily identified and could easily mask autistic traits. In my case, doctors weren't looking for autistic traits they were looking to treat immediately obvious medical conditions.

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  • in reply to JD-on-sea

    I have found this whole thread very interesting, too! I was not expecting to hear from so many people who have similar issues to me as well as being autistic.

    Having read a lot of the responses here, it appears that it could have links to stress and anxiety due to being autistic. Co-occurring conditions are easily identified and could easily mask autistic traits. In my case, doctors weren't looking for autistic traits they were looking to treat immediately obvious medical conditions.

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