Uncertainty Tips only please, nothing negative thanks.

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Hi

IMPORTANT please read this post before posting. I am very fragile mentally and cannot cope with hearing about difficulties coping with uncertainty. I dont meant to sound unfair to others who have had problems, I just can't cope with negativity at the moment.
I am Aspergers and soemtimes, uncertainty cannot be avoided, all I am looking for tips on how to cope with it.
All tips welcome but no negative experience as I am not strong enough to read about difficulties with it.

Build in uncertainty in your mindset. Understand there are things you can do and a bunch you cannot control. I found in complex working situations, for example in one where I was constantly interrupted, I simply made being interrupted a part of the job. It helped with the frustration I would have felt in that situation normally.

It is not as easy as it sounds. But I find consciously putting those behaviors difficult for me into a situation gives me the framework with which to solve them.

Not sure that was helpful...

I don't believe you need to apologize for being in a fragile state. It happens, just accept that's the state you're in at moment and don't add blame on yourself or you'll keep spiraling down. Thats the advice my psychologist gave me.

Then make lists. Write them down. For example, take one uncertainty and write down different outcomes that could happen. Go through each possible option of what could happen, worse case scenario for each. Then come up with a plan to deal with each possible outcome. It gives you back a sense of control because you then have a plan for whatever happens. It is hard at first but by the end it helps let go of some of the feelings of confusion and feeling like your drowning.

Hope that helps. This is all stuff my psychologist helped me with. I won't give examples from my life, but it has helped me.

somewhere I have seen a pre-made list of things you can control and things you can't. There is something in a serenity prayer about accepting the things you can't control and changing the the things you can, and having wisdom to know the difference. I did teach myself to avoid fretting (worrying , obsessing) over things I could not control, and the lists helped me sort out which was which. I will see if I can find a list like that to post here. It also helped me to learn about self assertive behavior, where I learned to have healthier response to lots of the things I could not control. I did not even know I had choices because the way I grew up was rigid, controlled, and I never suspected that I could respond in other ways to any circumstances. The book "when I say NO I feel guilty" helped me recognize when others were trying to control me through guilt, intimidation, physical abuse, etc etc. It is by Manuel J Smith and can be found online, in book sales places, it is out of print now but easy to locate and usually quite inexpensive. The book saved my life and sanity. I learned how to help myself in those situations. Now I will go look for that list, and will post in this thread when I find it.

things I can control vs things I can't:

I can not control other people's words, actions, behavior, reactions, ideas, thoughts, mistakes, body language, feelings, attitudes.

But I can change and control my own words, actions, behavior, attitude, effort, ideas, decisions, body language, reactions, thoughts. I can choose how I respond, or if I respond at all.

I can change and control how I respond to others but I can not change or control what they do. It really helped me to sort my own behavior and the behavior of others. Best wishes.

My anxiety and fear has got less as I have got better at practicing this idea.

Unfortunately, when it comes to uncertainty, us with Asperger Syndrome / ASD, are not well equipped to deal with such things due to the way our neural networks are. i.e. rigid, low capacity to stress etc.

Over the years I have experimented with perception and found reading and attempting to practice Tao-ism, as well as learning breathing / walking mindfulness meditation / relaxation techniques, can sometimes work.

I recommend books on Tao-ism
The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet

Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts

The Tao of Pooh

the sayings of Lao Tzu

I was in a similar position to you just over a year ago.
And i had been struggling with extreme anxiety and frequent meltdowns for years!

For years the General Practitioner Doctors had prescribed me their latest fad antidepressant
without an inkling of an understanding of what effects the meds would have on my abnormal neurological make up.

I am afraid most GP's (and perhaps even most Psychiatrists) simply don't have a clue and in my experience don't care.

I was on an SSNRI called Venlafaxine for several years with bad results.
I was taken off Venlafaxine and put on a SNRI called Duloxetine (aka cymbalta).
I was kept on both of these meds for years and if I continued to say that i had anxiety, the doctors would simply
up the dose.


The problem with this strategy when treating people with ASD, is this.
Many people with ASD have sensory impairment, with the most common being sensory hypersensitivity, with auditory sensory information being the most common of all.

Some are also hypersensitive to other sensory information such as visual stimuli and touch/smell etc.

Being hypersensitive to sensory information likely increases certain neurotransmitters in the brain.
In particular, norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline). so people who are hypersensitive to sensory information likely have an increased level of norepinephrine naturally.

This neurotransmitter is known as the neurotransmitter that the brain needs to get up and go but if increased to an extreme level whether naturally or synthentically, then you are going to end up getting really anxious as well as hyper vigilant.

Now here is the thing. If we as hyper-sensitives have naturally high levels of norepinephrine
then we won't need our levels boosted

but this is exactly what happens with a lot of the newer antidepressants
which results in causing people who have ASD and hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli to go nuts! making us more anxious and more hyper vigilant

to make things worse, because the doctors and psychiatrists do not understand why we are going nuts
if we return to them and tell them that we are now even more anxious

what they will do, instead of taking us off the med that is making us ill
they will more likely to say, " i know what, lets up your dose of the Venlafaxine / duloxetine etc. to double!"

Sheeesh! morons!! !

so guess what happens when they do this....

Yep, we end up going berzerk because of them! and then they have more reason to scold us, punish us, section us or imprison us. That is what happens.

I almost got arrested just over a year ago, because of the exact type of abuse in the care of a psychiatrist who was simply out of his depth, and thus incompetent.

Luckily for me, i have a very good analytical mind
and i was able to search the net, read books and eventually find some really interesting advice from Temple Grandin
as well as a study paper that was put together by one of the big Autism Charities that gave the results of a US national survey that studied the effectiveness of a large amount of different meds on people with ASD>

For people such as ourselves, what appeared to be the most effective is 1st generation antidepressants known as tricyclics which primarily work on serotonin levels.

These meds have been superseeded by newer one size fits all meds, the newer SSNRIs SSRI's, SNRI's etc.
Apparently for most, the newer meds cause less side effects (well at least that is what the big pharma companies want us to believe).

The older meds such as tricyclics can cause some minor side effects in some, but still work on reducing anxiety and depression without messing with other neurotransmitters.

I found one called Clomipromine which is very good, apparently works on boosting serotonin and is reported from clinical trial evidence to regulate norepinephrine.

In addition, i take valium for meltdowns. Which i also think is the only humane way to treat meltdowns.
but meltdowns are much less frequent now! so the frequency is now a lot less than before transferring to clomipromine

One of the positive effects of clomipromine as well, is that it is slightly sedating
so when i wake up in the morning (after taking a pill before i go to bed)
my thoughts aren't as busy or distressing

before taking this med, i did have really bad GAD with some OCD style symptoms
these symptoms, while still present are now much more maneagable

but more importantly
i am no longer hyper vigilant, aggressive and in danger of getting either arrested or sectioned
I seriously recommend that you consider to follow my example, if you can find a doctor or psychiatrist
who will prescribe you this med

the med isn't a dangerous or addictive one
but it is less commonly known these days, especially by new younger doctors

i would imagine if you were to find an older doctor, perhaps one who is 60 plus
he would have experience in this med

it is that or try and find a psychiatrist who isn't an arrogant a hole
or one that is an expert in neuroscience and autism (if such a person exists who is open to clients)

Otherwise
I wish you luck
seriously I am a different person now that i have come off the new SSNRI's and SNRI's

I realised after coming off these offending meds,
that it wasn't me that was nuts, i was nuts because of the drugs that these morons had me on

i feel that i lost 20 years of life because of these jerk offs
if i didn't live in the UK, and lived in the US, I would sue the a holes!! !

but alas i live under Monarchy dictatorship
where the common people have no voice or real rights
just laws that make us think we have rights....

but you try and get a lawyer to help you fight such a battle in court.
without thousands to pay their fees...
that is the true nature of Monarch Rule

those with money are right
those who have no money are wrong
God Save the Queen!

hello
Here is a link to the document that i mentioned

Rating of the Effectiveness of 26 Psychiatric and Seizure Medications for Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results of a National Survey

In the UK, it isn't uncommon for psychiatrists to prescribe anti-psychotic's to people with ASD who have meltdowns.

Sensory Overload Meltdowns which are caused by a dysfunctional neurological make up of the individual with ASD can be caused not only sensory hypersensitivity (including increased distress when placed in a busy multi source sensory environment), but also can be caused by a reduced capacity to deal with stress, and abnormal frontal lobes that reduce the ASD individuals capacity to process emotions.

What happens during a sensory overload isn't psychosis but something different, in the same way that a Tourette's tick, nor an epileptic fit are not psychosis.

However, largely due to lack of experience and knowledge in how to treat people with ASD.
The less informed psychiatrist will often use anti-psychotics, which inevitably will not actually prevent sensory overload meltdowns from occurring, and instead suck the life and energy out of the patient.

Now, I am not suggesting you should stop taking your meds. I am not a doctor and am not a psychiatrist.
I would suggest that you follow the directions of your psychiatrist.

However, if you print off the above document and give it to him for review.
He will likely be able to review the findings of the survey.

I have read this document and found it interesting. The conclusive evidence found in this document suggests that anti-psychotics weren't particularly efficient at treating people with ASD, and that in some cases, antidepressants, as well as anti-convulsives proved to be more effective, along with the use of valium.

Personally, i use valium for meltdowns and think nothing works as efficiently.
I am lucky in that i do not need to take the valium daily, due to the effectiveness of the other antidepressants.

The following link will take you to an interview with Temple Grandin
where she explains that she presently takes a tricyclic antidepressant called Desipramine, which she has taken since the 80s.

If you want the exact paragraph, look under the heading "How has your health changed as you moved into your older years? Have you had to make any changes?" on the page.

Temple Grandin interview

Hope that helps

Just to say, after reading up on how Desipramine works, I would likely avoid this one too if you are sensitive to sound.
As Desipramine appears to cause not only serotonin but also Norepinephrine to re-uptake too.

Which, if you already have a high level of norepinephrine or are hypersensitive to norepinephrine due to neurological dysfunction / brain damage. then best steer clear any meds that boost or optimise norepinephrine in my opinion.

Clomipromine however does not boost norepinephrine, but instead regulates it, and in my experience, it is a much less "stimulating" (psychiatrist language) than the other antidepressants that i have taken over the years.

Btw Venlafaxine withdrawal is pretty nuts. I had to cold turkey from Venlafaxine, to transfer to Duloxetine.
I got random brain zaps, like being struck by lightening, as well as extremely unstable mood.
Not something i want to experience again. Prefer not to if out of choice.

Duloxetine sucked too!

Anxiety to Meltdown by Deborah Lipshy

Sorry, forgot to tell you about this above book that explains why people who suffer from ASD suffer from Sensory Overload Meltdowns.

Included in this book, there are strategies for health professionals to use when treating people with ASD who have sensory overload meltdowns, as well as some strategies for people with ASD to use when they experience sensory overload meltdowns.

The author has an insiders insight into this Autism Specific phenomena, as she herself suffers from ASD.
She also has significant experience working as a paramedic, so has developed her own systematic strategies to use when dealing with a person who is experiencing a Meltdown.

The book is also foreword'ed by Tony Atwood, one of the leading authors on ASD and Asperger Syndrome, as well as qualified clinical psychologist who is specialised in ASD / Asperger Syndrome.