I love Wrong Planet but it keeps frightening me

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I get a lot of joy going on this site but I keep getting frightened by extremely terrifying things that I have read on here. Things like every mass shootings happens to be by somebody with Asperger's, and normal people with Autism and Asperger's who go on anti-depressants can increase their chance of becoming mass murderers, and people on the Autism spectrum will be put into concentration camps sooner or later. I read it and become scared. Today I was actually supposed to start my anti-depressants but instead was at the doctors crying out of fright because of hearing on here that I might suddenly have irresistible mental urges to break into the nearest primary school and kill everyone in sight, then live to regret it for the rest of my life. And I'm so scared that one day I am going to have army men knocking on my door and forcing me into a truck with loads of other Aspies to be took to concentration camps to be tortured just because I have a mild neurological disorder. I think I might go back to the doctors and pretend that all this time I was misdiagnosed, so that I can take the condition off my records and they won't be able to track me down and take me to a horrible place to be tortured then finally killed in a gas chamber. I've always wanted to go to Poland, but not to be tortured and killed.

It is no joke, I wish people would stop mentioning this sort of thing as though it's just a casual thing. I do tend to believe everything I hear because I'm stupid and timid of the world, and I do not want to become a murderer or be put in a concentration camp like the Jews were back in the 1930's and 1940's. Those days were over, I thought these days society was more tolerant of different groups of people. Nowadays gays are accepted and people with different religions have to be taken into consideration. What's so wrong with Autistic people?

If everyone on anti-depressants shot up primary schools there would be no children left. It's the exception that gets noticed. And as for society deciding to lock up and torture autistics, I think that's a little out there. You may be experiencing paranoia.

I would be in prison for life (no death penalty in Canada) for killing kids at schools several times by now if my medications caused it as a side effect. Not that the temptation is never there with the high school just across the street and the teens constantly hanging out on my doorstep to smoke and drop trash and spit everywhere, I just have the intelligence and moral sense to ignore it. Well I don't really want to kill them, I just want to throw ice-cold water or rotten eggs or garbage at them. I believe I have violent tendencies however, and can become very destructive and aggressive during a meltdown. Just the other week I smashed up a living-room chair late at night. I think the only reason I think the police didn't show up at my door is because I live alone and the neighbors either didn't hear me or ignored it. Last night I had a dream that I had murdered someone but I didn't know who or how and had no memory of doing it at all. I guess I really am a psychopath.

I try to stay away from the areas that are most scary. Politics seems like it could be. If a thread bothers you, go elsewhere. Even the people posting anti drug messages usually are saying we don't trust drugs rather than that they will lose control. And Joe, mass shooters are typically men and in this case as for many things, gender trumps neurological wiring.

But as scared as you are, it's perfectly ok to say no to the antidepressants they are offering you, and it's ok to still ask for help. They should try to see you and provide support even if you say no. I realize there is pressure to accept medication, but you should say no if that is what you feel is best.

Can you speak with a counselor instead?

Well, not to upset Joe90, but there are far more instances of violence (generally in teens and 20somethings) connected with SSRI meds than are widely reported, because they don't all result in mass fatalities. Even in the cases that make headlines, Big Pharma does a good job of keeping mention of their products to a minimum.* That said, those are SIDE EFFECTS, which is to say they don't happen to everyone who uses those medications, but as there's no way of predicting who may be affected that way and who won't, I personally opt to avoid them altogether.

Call it paranoia, but even the most remote possibility of not being entirely in control of my own thoughts and actions makes me uncomfortable. I don't mind numbing my cognitive and fine motor skills for a few hours, or even taking a peek through the doors of perception, but I'd rather reserve my powers of decision-making and impulse control to myself.

I do know people who have used SSRIs with positive benefits and no ill effects whatsoever, but I've also known people who found themselves awakened by police in the middle of the road at 4am, with no knowledge of how they came to be there. I suppose alien abduction might be one possibility, but in that particular case, I doubt it. It was more likely the Ambien.

I do think the notion of a "Final Solution" directed specifically at autistic people is highly unlikely, barring a huge resurgence in the popularity of the NAZI party. Nobody ever engaged in any genocidal pogrom to eliminate people with Downs Syndrome - on the other hand, I do worry that, like Downs Syndrome, if a prenatal test for ASDs is created, that the number of autistic individuals in future generations would decrease drastically, as a lot of prospective parents would opt for abortion out of fear of the very word AUTISM. That would not affect me, personally, but it would be tragic and pointless.


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* Then, there's also the possibility in some of those extreme cases, of covert MK-Ultra type involvement, making the appearance of Medicinal Side Effects a red herring. But that's getting really paranoid.

I take Abilify, Effexor and Seroquel. Not sure if those are SSRIs, but I find they increase my rationality with regard to decision-making and impulse control. I'm am far more afraid of myself when not taking them. They don't make me not me anymore, they just help to reduce my unrealistic mental activity and make me functional. But that's just me.

For all the aspies that killed to all the NT's that killed,
There is far more a chance of being shot by an NT, even if aspergers makes you prone to violence. The only reason people are shocked when aspies lose their marbles is because it doesn't happen as much, and it is a shocker.
If you consider yourself a peaceful person, calm down, your probably more peaceful than NT's anyways.

People are obsessed with bad news. I guess it gets them off a bit to gloat and moan over the state of the world today.

There's probably more of a chance of you deciding to go to clown college and start a career as a party clown (I know you have social anxiety) than turn into a homicidal maniac from taking SSRIs. You're more likely to get killed by a falling tree branch than end up in a concentration camp because you have AS. Why would some people talk about such things? Some people are paranoid, some people are overly-dramatic, some people exaggerate to ridiculous proportions (use hyperbole) to illustrate a point etc. etc. I agree that it's not funny, maybe some people have warped senses of humour and think it is.

I take an SSRI called Ciraplex which has a calming effect on me and helps me sleep at night, that's it.

I was on anti anxiety pills and anti depressants and I did not experience what you described you are afraid of.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could control it, if I did happen to suddenly turn into a homicidal maniac with the urge to kill. But I'm just scared that I might wake up one morning (after a couple of days of starting the meds), be at home on my own, and suddenly have a mental urge to get the sharp knife out of the kitchen drawer and march up to the nearest school (which is basically right near us), and start the tragedy, without having any conscience or rational morals telling me not to. Then I will lose all my friends, my family would be horribly shocked, and practically the whole world would hate me. I have always been a very trusting person all my life; I would never hurt anyone, steal anything from people, or anything like that.

I just hope these meds don't make me lose my conscience and turn me into some sort of evil psychopath, when all I'm doing is trying to myself feel happier and help other people around me feel happier. I do have a tendency to feel horribly jealous of people with better social lives than me, but that's the only bad trait I've got really. Mostly I'm a good person with good intentions, and I would not even hurt a fly. I actually mean that literally - I hate killing any insects, even if they are pests!

You won't turn into a psychopath. You're too nice of a person.

Dear Joe90

We are not talking about illegal hard mind-altering drugs here, but about professionally prescribed medication which is in a controlled environment if you follow the correct dosage. You sound like a really amazing person and I know you'll never turn homicidal because of taking antidepressants. Feel free to discuss your fears with your medical professionals; they will put you at ease.

You do appear to have a battle with paranoia - it's a part of your condition - one that I can identify with myself as I've had various phases of it in my life. The people who are true psychopaths usually have a number of co-morbid (I think that's the term) conditions and you fit the profile of a psycho killer at all. Theya re almost always male, as someone already mentioned, and there were warning signs that no-one noticed, before they did those terrible things.

No-one is going to put you away or euthanize you just because of your mild Autism spectrum condition. Focus on making your life as stress free and purpose-driven as possible and don't brood on all these "worst case" scenarios.

Wishing you the best as we all sail these stormy seas together....

I've heard that paranoia is a comorbid of ASD, sometimes, and I know that I've struggled with it. It was especially bad when I was in high school, just a few years younger than Joe. It also sounds like she has a horrible anxiety problem, which is also a common comorbid. I found that atypical antipsychotics have helped with paranoia and anxiety with me. I too would get anxious over big events that I had no control over, and justify it in my own head by saying people SHOULD be worried about a war or a terror attack happening to them, when in reality a person is more likely to be hit by lightning.

The thing is, the Jews in Germany had plenty of warning that the people and govt were turning against them, in fact the Nazis wanted to deport Jews at first and actually sent about 170k of them to Palestine, but the rabbis were telling people that "the Messiah has not yet come" meaning that the time was not yet to go to Israel. The Jews who listened wound up dead, the ones who got out while the getting was good lived. If things got that bad in England I doubt that they'd start off building camps, instead they might offer to send you elsewhere. In fact with England being so jam packed I'm surprised that the Govt doesn't offer incentives for people to emigrate, like they used to.

I doubt that you’re likely to become a mass murderer, but there are unpleasant side effects that are less dramatic. I believe they can still be life-threatening in a long-term, indirect way. I wouldn’t touch them if it weren’t necessary.

I tried a bunch of them several years ago and will never try it again. A series of three different shrinks gave me a variety of combinations of crap that did nothing positive and left me with mild but scary side effects. One of the weird little side effects lingered for a couple of years, after only a few months of actually taking the stuff. (This was long before I heard of Asperger’s, which changed my views on everything.) I really believe those shrinks had no idea what they were doing.

Have you looked into alternatives? For example, I’ve heard of manic depressives who manage it with a diary. Keep track of what you eat (including vitamins, milk, wheat, sugar, green tea…) menstrual cycle, activities, sleep patterns, stressful events, exercise, sunlight, and anything else you think might matter, look for patterns, and figure out what works for you.

If things like that can work for you, it would be better for your health, your budget, and all around.

Everything in moderation. AAAAH F*** ! !! !! . Take it easy on yourself. People who do those things have intentions of doing it before they take the pills. Besides, I would be more enclined to believe they were misdiagnosed sociopaths anyways. Besides, if anything bad happens, just blame it on your doctor. He gave them to you. The stigmas of stereotypes are hopefully nearing an end. Bad people do bad things. Does not sound like your one of them.