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Anxiety depression and hormones!

NAS80294

Morning

I have a 19 year daughter who finally got her autism ddx last year.  She has struggled with anxiety and depression including suicidal thoughts.  She has been on sertraline for a year now but we are not noticing an improvement with the depression and there is a definite link with it being worse during the week before her periods.  Does anyone have any experience of this and or suggestions of better treatments/meds/help?

Would be hugely grateful for any tips as obviously want to keep her safe but make life as easy as possible for her.

Many thanks

Jules

  • Dear Jules,

    Thank you for sharing about your families experience, it sounds like a very difficult situation. I can see you have already had some great responses from our online community, I hope you find them helpful. 

    It may be worth chatting with your daughters GP or other medical professionals about this as they could offer some further advice regarding treatment or medication. If at any point you feel your daughter is in immediate danger we advise you to contact 999 or any of the mental health crisis lines listed on our Urgent Help Page: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/urgent-help  

    I have also linked some pages that may be beneficial for you or your daughter to take a look at:

    Resources for autistic teenagers 

    Seeking help -this has a list of resources on how to seek help for mental health problems

    Menstruation

    YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds

    I hope some of this information is helpful.

    Warmest wishes,

    Olivia Mod

  • in reply to Iain

    Thank you that is really helpful 

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Thank you so much - appreciate you responding.  Jules

  • Some women have a medically recognised sort of mega PMT, I can't remember what it's called, but it can be treated. I well remember the monthly rollercoaster of emotions, you need a GP who's well informed and interested in womens health, all sort of different hormones can be unbalanced, the usual female ones, but also testosterone, women have small amounts of it and if that gets unbalanced it can cause problems.

    Another option would be to try seeing a medical herbalist who can tailor make something for your daughter. 

  • NAS80294 said:
    Does anyone have any experience of this and or suggestions of better treatments/meds/help?

    Just a heads up that we are not allowed to offer medical advice here, but hopefully some people can share their experiences.

    My thoughts are that a psychiatrist visit is the best option for her as they should be trained in autism and the stressers on the mind it causes plus have the training on the use of anti-depression medication to better understand the interaction of autism and the drugs.

    Note that only a GP or psychiatrist will be able to prescribe the sort of medication in question here and the GP has far less training in issue around autism.

    In lots of cases the anti-depressants are not very effective for autists becuase it does not treat the root cause of the depression. Anxiety will typically require therapy to help it so a psychotherapist if a common way to help her with this. I don't think the NHS will cover this treatment so it would have to be privately funded.

    Anyway, all this is just talk from some random off the internet - don't take anything I say as gospel but speak to the experts and follow their lead.

    Good luck