Published on 12, July, 2020
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
With escitalopram, in the beginning I was afraid that I would become too gullible and trusting, but this is not at all the case.
What does make a big difference is that the medication enables me to be more neutral towards people where before I had a tendency to treat people in a negative way. And that's often a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Do you see this the same way?
Hi
I am 34, female and diagnosed with autism. I take Sertraline to manage anxiety and find it has helped me enormously. The first two weeks were very rough with side affects which then subsided and by month three I was noticing a significant lessening of anxiety.
Hello I take veneflaxine I take 150 mg for anxiety and part of my bipolar treatment
its done me good having it has it’s helped anxiety a lot I used to be an anxious mess
I take escitalopram. It took a full two months before it started to have full effect. It's had a very positive effect on my life.
This just to tell you that it can work, and I'm happy I found the right medication. I hear some people try different types, some have no luck. In any case, make sure you get this started - if you do - with the help of a psychiatrist, and preferable also a psychologist.
Before the medication I had the tendency to look for conflict and competition, now I'm more looking towards cooperation and mutual benefits. That makes a difference, I see the others less like a threat. The lockdown and working from home were even a blessing for me...
First, just to be clear, you are not suggesting that, but medication doesn't help autism as such.
Concerning anxiety there is hardly anything better than SSRIs and I am surprised you object to those.Usually they improve sleep patterns. Citalopram works for anxiety I was told by my GP.