Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello my autistic 16 year old son has recently been diagnosed with GAD and PTSD. It’s been a difficult journey to get support - he’s been too anxious to engage with therapy and been off school for some time and missed the whole of year 11. The hope is that the meds might help him enough to start to engage in life again and eventually access the therapy he needs. However, having read about the side effects he is just terrified of how he might feel if he takes the meds. He has lots of sensory issues around feeling nauseous had some general issues with his body and feeling uncomfortable. Although rationally he can understand that he might feel better he’d rather just stick with how he is than risk being the person who gets all the side effects. He is happy to take other medication such as painkillers and antibiotics but feels very different about this. I’ve told him he doesn’t have to take them and to think about it/wait until he’s ready. But I can’t help feeling frustrated.
Has anyone else experienced this or got any advice on how he might be encouraged to try the meds?
Thank you
I was prescribed fluoxetine when l was 21. It made me feel worse and I took an overdose of them.
Exercise has helped me for the most part. But l did get prescribed sertraline recently for anxiety. That's also made me feel worse and I'll be binning them tomorrow!
Don't want to sound too negative. Just my experience of medication!
Thanks for sharing and sorry to hear your experience was negative. I am also encouraging him to try and exercise a little.
I have found exercise to have a surprisingly strong positive effect on my anxiety. If he is too anxious to go outside to exercise, can he exercise at home? Although being outside also helps if he can manage that.