Medication that helped you especially between 18 -21

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Hello all my son is late diagnosed at age 17 with ASD no intellectual disability. He is anxious and depressed and has OCD as well. Has tried all antidepressant meds no success antipsychotics make him severely agitated. His OCD is a body dysmorphic type. He ruminates over everything especially over diagnosis. He’s driving himself crazy and thinks his life is over. He has add as well. So depressed anxious ( he fears everything) OCD ADD ASD ... tried all the stimulants. Made him worse. Ativan clonezapam help but he is scared to take meds. Currently trying Gabapentin and it seems good so far.... any suggestions for meds you guys have tried that helped you to function better? He can’t sleep either and that makes it worse. Again the question is did ANY med help for you especially as a teen/ young adult? Thank you!

I had depression pretty much since birth; in fact, my first multisyllable word was "miserable". Like most aspie kids, my parents never believed I had depression, and blamed everything on the "whining". At age 12, I turned to alcohol, just to feel better. My parents didn't care how depressed I was, and my therapist not only didn't care, but also mocked me.

What helped me tremendously is Effexor (venlafaxine). I didn't get it properly treated until last year, thanks to my current doctor, who's absolutely wonderful. He listened to me for about 20 minutes, and gave me a prescription without question. The next few months were pure joy! I felt happier than I felt in nearly a decade. My confidence also went through the roof! At one point, I made out (snogged) with a woman in a nightclub with minimal effort.

The only catch is that Effexor is rarely prescribed to people under 25, and probably never to people under 18.

Thank you so much for your response! He is very depressed and nothing seems to work. I will ask his doctor about this. He is 19. Can I ask you at what age were you diagnosed? He was not diagnosed as a child but at just 18. Should one seek a second opinion? He certainly has OCD and intrusive thoughts. He ruminates over the diagnosis. We try to be supportive but it is hard as he is so depressed over it. Thank you for responding. He has not tried this med and we will ask doctor about it. Any advice helpful. I think this is a difficult age for him to be diagnosed as he is neither a child nor an adult who can reach out himself. ❤️

I was diagnosed last year, at age 36. Although to be honest, I suspected I had depression since I was 11. And looking back, I actually had it pretty much since birth. I barely spoke about it to anyone while growing up, because they repeatedly showed me they didn't care. I self-medicated with alcohol since age 12, and with cigarettes since college. Effexor definitely helps with depression, which is caused by a serotonin shortage. It raises the levels of both serotonin and norepinephrine, boosting both the mood and the motivation. Good luck on the treatment. Your son being over 18 will definitely help in persuading the doctor to prescribe it to him.

One thing to remember: DO NOT let your son get within 100 feet of a talk therapist. They don't help with depression, and usually make it worse, by dredging your emotions and absolving themselves of all wrongdoing. In fact, I started drinking as a pre-teen specifically because of my therapist.

I was about 22-23 when I started taking my medication, Lexapro. It helps me with anxiety that prevents me from functioning in certain situations. At first, I was scared to take it because of the possibility of it changing me too much, I had no experience with medication before. Now that I've been taking it for a while, it's been helpful.

Some of the side affects are restlessness and irritability so that's to take into consideration if you are considering it for you or a relative.

Oh, I forgot to list the side effects of Effexor. I had dry mouth, light vertigo, spaciness, and increased sensitivity to tastes and music. Nothing severe, but enough to know something was different. The side effects became less noticeable when the euphoria set in, and disappeared completely after 10 days.

Gabapentin helped me a lot but I think the medication that made the biggest difference was when I began taking Lamictal. It's a mood stabilizer and helped me feel a lot less depressed and Xanax also helped too with my severe anxiety. Before both of those, I could barely leave my house due to anxiety and they got me to the point where I could get out and do stuff like go to the store and even see my friends too.

Prozac age 21 made me so tired that I could not feel much of anything including depression

That was an extremely good thing

Thank you to all of you for your responses. We appreciate the suggestions. He just wants to feel better. We will keep trying! The Gabapentin I wish I could say was working but made him spacey and very negative. Seroquel was tried and it was like someone put a stick of dynamite under him and lit the fuse. Terrifying reaction from 25 mg. All the antipsychotic meds he has tried made him so much worse. Effexor is interesting. Prozac was the first med he tried at 5 mg it seemed to help depression but not anxiety. They raised the dose and it was too “ activating” I think they said. I still don’t understand why they had to raise the dose as he is so sensitive to meds. Ativan works as does Clonazepam at very low dose but he is afraid to take them.... he is not an addictive type but I guess I can understand. But they do help the anxiety. Thank you all again for sharing your experience and info❤️

I do not believe in taking medication of any kind. Aspergers can not be cured with medication or therapy. Therapy and medication did not work for me and did not change the fact that I have Aspergers. I tried anti-psychotic medication and antidepressants and it only made we overweight, zombie like, more depressed, paranoid and more anxious and never changed the fact I still got Aspergers. Medication side effects of weight gain, being zombie like and increasing anxiety or making you more paranoid, more depressed, more suicidal are all bad.

Mediation and therapy may work for other mental health issues but they do not work for Aspergers. It does not change the fact you will still have Aspergers.

Medications can't cure Asperger's, obviously. But they can certainly suppress its comorbid symptoms, like anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Why else would I ask my therapist for "happiness pills", only to get callously dismissed? Why else would I take up drinking whiskey at age 12? Why else would I deliberately give myself a cold, by wetting my hair and sticking my head out the window in winter, so my parents would give me NyQuil and Robitussin? (I took extra doses when they weren't looking.)

I know that it can’t cure him but yes the comorbid anxiety depression and intrusive thoughts make it worse as he ruminates over the condition itself. Insomnia is terrible and he internalizes everything. He has ADD as well. He was 18 years old when diagnosed and has become depressed. Hopefully with more therapy and time he may not need medication but right now he’s given up of ever feeling anything or accomplishment. He has a unique and lovely mind and thinks he’s stupid and his life is not worth living hence the quest for a medication that might help. His therapist suggested a partial hospital program as he is so depressed and anxious. Well thank you all. Hopefully tomorrow I can get him out of his room. School hasn’t been much help as he has been bullied and so traumatized. He has tried a lot of meds before his diagnosis. I just want to know what people’s experiences have been. I wish he didn’t have to take meds and he actually worries about the side effects ( in an OCD way which he also has) but he needs help. Thank you for sharing all your experiences.

For insomnia, there's melatonin; make sure you get the timed/extended release version, to prevent early-morning awakenings. (Then again, if your son gets up early for college, standard release is fine.) Also L-theanine and vitamin B6, but those are more for relaxation than actually falling asleep. I always fall asleep within 15 minutes after taking melatonin, waiting half hour, and going to bed. The only catch is that it has a side-effect: vivid dreams. Some are more fun than 1990's movies. But others are quite nightmare-ish, so take note.

I'm slightly surprised that your son benefits from therapy. What exactly does his therapist actually do? Depression is a chemical issue; you can't just "talk it away". I was in therapy when I wasn't much younger than your son. When I first talked about feeling sad, my therapist made my depression worse by retraumatizing me and mocking me. I started lying to her 90% of the time to protect my sanity. I don't know if she did out of negligence or malice, but it turned me off therapy for life.

Depression is not just a chemical issue. It can be situational and it can be improved by learning various coping skills.

Therapy has helped lots of people, including me.

I concur with Aspie1 on therapists.

It's like they ambush you with a label or pet theory, and they're more dogmatic and doctrinaire than a new convert to a religion!

You say OCD, I say PANDAS.

Or, it's something well worth considering,

Because it's almost a free role. If your son has it, it's treatable with prophylactic antibiotics just like rheumatic heart fever is treatable. One study found 50% of rapid-onset OCD was PANDAS and 50% wasn't, so it's not a sure thing. And some doctors are skeptical of the whole thing, although I have no idea why since PANDAS is related to Sydenham's chorea which has been known about since the 1600s.

A reasonable first step is a blood test which checks for the titer level of strep antibodies.