Published on 12, July, 2020
I read this and thought i would share it for your thoughts.....
The obvious answer to my question is no.
However, I didn’t always feel that way. In my 20s, I saturated myself in healthism and orthorexia. I thought I could control and optimize my body and mind simply by addressing my diet, getting enough exercise, and going to therapy.
I incorrectly thought that if someone needed psychiatric medication, it meant they weren’t doing the internal and external work. I assumed they were just treating the symptoms instead of the root cause.
This was further reinforced by a brief stint of anti-depressants I took in college. After a fire that consumed all of my physical items, I entered a deep state of depression. My doctor suggested Prozac, which I took. It didn’t help. It even worsened some of my symptoms.
Worsening symptoms is something doctors watch out for when they prescribe psychiatric medication. I incorrectly thought that if one psychiatric medication negatively impacted me, then all the rest were garbage as well. I didn’t know that certain medications can impact you differently depending on how your body responds to it.
I later took SSRI’s again after my mom died. I entered another deep state of depression. The medication I took that time helped (Zoloft), but I felt like a zombie. It was sooooo weird to barely think anything at all. In some ways it was very calming, and in other ways it was alarming. I didn’t want to Zzombie my way through life, so after three months I weened myself off
I also started therapy at that time, thinking that would be enough. It wasn’t.
Look, I’m a therapist, I clearly believe in the power of therapy. However, it cannot resolve everything.
Some things are just outside of our control.
I didn’t believe that until I learned I am autistic. I realized how different my brain is than a neurotypical brain, and that it’s ok to not measure myself by neurotypical standards. I will always think more and feel more than the average person.
I certainly don't think that medication is the easy way out. It may be the easy way for the medics who prescribe them so freely but not for the patient in my experience.
The time I was on various antidepressants was one of the worst experiences of my life and there was nothing easy about it. I was experiencing severe agitation, restlessness, constant panic attacks, insomnia and horrific nightmares. After a few months of that I was experiencing constant suicidal ideation and actively making plans. None of which I had experienced prior to being prescribed them for anxiety.
Antidepressants have not been adequately tested on autistic brains. Autistic people are far more likely to have atypical responses and suffer severe intolerable side effects. Then coming off them can be a nightmare for anyone, autistic or not.
Medication should be very much a patient choice. I accept they help some people but it should be up to the patient to choose whether to take them or not. Far too often people are bullied and pressured into taking them and that is wrong. Trying to refuse is seen as non compliance by many health professionals.
It's definitely not taking the easy way out.
If it works for you then absolutely go for it! It's like when a cancer patient has chemo, they aren't taking the easy route - quite the opposite actually! - it's just to give them a chance at a happier and better life.
I tried medication but unfortunately it wasn't a success story for me, mostly I think because of the side effects.
I think I'm hyper sensitive to medication side effects because every time I have anything it makes me sick as a pig! Some foods are the same so I'm very careful with what I eat.
I was on a meditation to help with my mental health a few years ago and that one oddly didn't make me sick but it did "zombify" me. Lol. I used to be asleep most of the time and when I was about and walking I was slow like a zombie and very little made sense - I was in a total daze all the time.
That in itself has been a good reminder not to try the suicide route again. I never want to be zombified like that ever again I had no idea what I was doing lol.
In my experience medication isn't a help anyway. I'm not in any way saying people shouldn't take it, it's just that I react badly to all varieties of medication, and there is some evidence emerging that ND brains respond atypically to medication, so it's not just me
Antidepressants (SSRI)- increase dysregulation
antidepressants (maoi) - turn me into a complete zombie with a death wish
Hormonal drugs (period control) -turn me into a monster where I can't self regulate and meltdown daily
OTC Pain relief largely doesn't work
Blood pressure pills appear not to be working either getting that looked into
If anything controlled mood and allowed me to think at the same time I'd probably take it. I have been miserable almost my entire life, with very little concept of joy/happiness. If a pill actually fixed that I'd take it
I was on medication 2007 to 2016 and have tried going without since then and might try them again maybe.
Sporadic Sparkly said:I don't look upon them as magic pills that miraculously make everything seem better, but they do help to make life more bearable for me.
I'm particularly trying to weigh this up at this time in my life, drawing on my experiences so far (and reading other people's in here) and am unsure at the moment whether to try medication again or not, like you describe.
Personally I always found being autistic and having different neurological wiring means that most tablets and medicines unless they are super straightforward give me side effects. I can only do paracetemol, codeine, bismuth, antihistamines, and a handful of antibiotics, everything else either doesn't work as well as it should or has sideeffects and especially anything that affects the brain has always been a recipe for disaster. One particular incident where I stopped being able to speak in any kind of structure that resembled English at the checkout in Tesco and then had to have a whole thing and panic attack was so traumatising I have forever sworn off all psychiatric medication, SSRIs might as well be LSD for all the good they ever did me. I myself have only ever had any great success with lifestyle shifts and addressing the underlying problems that triggered the negative mental health in the first place.But I'm a big supporter of you gotta do what works for you, and if it works for you to "pop" pills then all power to you imo. It upsets me that a lot of people who do rely on medication to either stabalize themselves or get better face a lot of undeserved stigma and shaming. As if we all didn't have enough on our plate anyway. So you do you Tulip.
There are things we can do to try to boost our mood, such as improving our diet, exercising, doing things we enjoy, etc. However, sometimes it isn't always enough.
My own belief is that taking the likes of anti-depressants should not be viewed as taking the easy way out, especially if they work for a person and have the desired effect of helping to improve mood.
During the past 15 years or so, I have taken anti-depressants for anxiety and depression. Without them, there is a noticeable deterioration in my mood, and I just feel wretched. I don't look upon them as magic pills that miraculously make everything seem better, but they do help to make life more bearable for me.
Hi I find the following interesting.....
'I didn’t believe that until I learned I am autistic. I realized how different my brain is than a neurotypical brain, and that it’s ok to not measure myself by neurotypical standards. I will always think more and feel more than the average person."
As i understand it we dont need fixing, so to live free of psychiatric medication, to be our authentic selves, which would include for many, the anxietues etc or to take medication to allow us a betr quality of life? I think i have just answered my own question
Does medication help with autism? I thought it was neurological, and it was because of how the brain was wired. I know medication helps with ADHD which is a common comorbidity with autism. Also, no. You should do whatever you need to make you happy. If experimenting with the right combination of drugs has short term down sides but could potentially lead to you having a much better quality of life then it is worth it. If all of your time is spent worrying about exercise and meditation and trying to optimise your health that really isn't much of a life. You should spend it doing the things you enjoy.
Tulip52 said:I felt like a zombie. It was sooooo weird to barely think anything at all. In some ways it was very calming, and in other ways it was alarming.
I understand this feeling of being calming and alarming at the same time. When I had first tried anxiety medication, I felt so weird then it made me start panicking because I thought the medicine was changing the way my brain worked, but due to the medicine, I couldnt feel myself panic which led to me panicking even more (and even WANTING to feel panic). Anyway I stopped taking it because it freaked me out too much.