medication for high anxiety?

hello there, does anyone have experience with managing high anxiety using medication?  My brother, aged 36 years old (diagnosed with autism as a child) has been struggling a great deal these past few years, partly due to our father becoming ill and then dying. He has had other traumas as well in his life and now with lock down for three months and despite family trying to set up and support new routines he is in a desperate state at times, meltdowns increasing, and more self injury  and aggression to others. SSRIs have been suggested in the past which we declined partly as there does not seem to be a strong enough evidence base and we are nervous about disturbing sleep patterns (he is managing to sleep most the night at present), which I know is a common side effect. We have up until now been anti medication but I feel his internal struggles are now too great. thanks