Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anyone else on here freak out if they are prescribed medication by a doctor? I’ve had a couple of bad experiences in the past with side effects from medication and Now I almost have a phobia about any medication and possible side effects. Does anyone else have this?
Autistic people can be sensitive to medication, or may experience it differently to how it is meant to work.
I've had difficulty with different medications, either anti-depressants or low-dose anti-psychotics that autistic people tend to be given to help with thoughts/moods. Usually made me too drowsy and/or more withdrawn, it took a long time to find something that worked without too much negative effects.
Please don't feel like you have to answer, but out of interest, what medication did you find worked in the end? My teenage daughter has tried sertraline, fluoxetine, and aripiprazole, all of which seem to have made her worse rather than better. Her anxiety and sensory overload is so bad she hears terrible voices almost constantly, making school impossible. I believe we need to give up on all medication but she's not so sure.
I had a bad experience with aripiprazole myself, and Respiridone which is commonly given to autistic people.
What worked best for me is Promazine, and can take it up to 4 times a day if I need to. It is sedating so I have a low dose otherwise I wouldn't get much done.
Psychiatrists can be funny about you suggesting a particular medication, but its worth trying, or try other ones and see if anything else might help.
Medication can help if anxiety and sensory responses can't be controlled another way, but it might be she needs help to manage her thoughts/feelings more than anything. Mindfulness might help, maybe CBT techniques to think more healthily, and interests and positive sensory experiences she can turn to to feel better. Things that might help with the voices is she if shouts 'stop!' or 'not now' as taking control of what's going on can help. Also make fun of them, laugh at what they say, and that might reduce any bad effect they have.
Thank you!
CBT can be difficult for autistic people, but it helped me just to think less extreme about things, which is what CBT is really about - what we think leads to feelings, and if we can think less extreme or better abou things, then bad feelings will reduce and also spending time thinking about good things will help.
Autistic people can though be affected by things that aren't thoughts, such as sensory triggers and differences or difficulties in processing internal and external things. CBT can't really help there, apart from helping to manage any thoughts that are triggered that can worsen things.
Mindfulness can help but again some autistic people don't find it works for them. Normal mindfulness where you focus on breathing can be difficult or even raise anxiety, in my experience so that might explain it. Mindfulness is about focusing on your senses rather than thoughts - your brain can only focus on thoughts, or focus on senses, it can't do both at the same time. You can only focus for a second or so on senses and then the brain will focus back on thoughts, so you have to keep focusing back on the senses. I read that in Ruby Wax's book 'A mindfulness guide for frazzled' and it made a big difference. I start to focus and keep refocussing on background noise, or music, and that really worked, you get a break from thoughts and the feelings reduce. Its something to do everyday, and whenever you need to focus.
Thank you, my daughter does have Promethazine, which I assume is the same thing. I agree, this has actually been really helpful for her when she's really struggling. I know she's tried to tell the voices to stop and we've talked about making fun of them but it hasn't seemed to have helped so far. CBT also hasn't even touched the surface, even though she's really tried to practice some of the techniques, but I agree she needs to find something that gets her head into a happier place. We'll keep searching. Thank you for replying!