I need medication advice

Post Reply New Topic

I've recently decided to turn to medication for my anxiety and stress issues. The main reason is that I've had shingles (stress related re-outbreak of the chickenpox virus) over a dozen times in the past two years.

I first went to a doctor and let him pick what to give me, as I was clueless and deferred to their judgment. I should have known better than to expect a random doctor know know what to do with an autistic adult. He had me try three different drugs (all for depression, even though I'm not depressed). All three made me suicidal. At $300 per visit (after the medicine cost), I wasn't willing to go back.

Now that I'm seen at a local free clinic, I've decided to try again. The doctor put me on Paxil first. Within three days of starting it, I was having major hallucinations. While waiting to see him again (two months), a friend who takes Xanax gave me two pills and told me to see if they would work for me. They worked perfectly and produced almost no side effects (I was just a bit drowsy).

A few days ago, I went back to my doctor and asked if Xanax would work (I didn't tell him that I'd tried it). He said he won't prescribe it for anyone because some people get addicted to it. Instead, he gave me Buspirone (Buspar). I'm now a few days into that, and have slept a total of MAYBE 4 hours total, I'm extremely nauseous, dizzy, and am having terrible muscle cramps. It still hasn't done anything for my anxiety (I've read it takes two weeks).

I have a few questions:

*Has anyone else had such severe side effects to medications like I have?

*What does everyone else take for their autism related anxiety?

*I've learned that doctors require you to ask for medication in a certain code that I'm oblivious to. How do I ask for something I'd like to try?

Thanks, everyone

That is what I have just been prescribed (Buspirone) and it is having, more or less, the same effects on me! It gives me stomach cramps, makes me shaky and dizzy, and doesn't help my anxiety. I have been taking it for about two weeks. The only non awful side effect I have is that it makes me feel fluffy and soft. I was talking with the counselor at my college about that and she said "It sounds like you're high...".

I used to take Prozac because my head shrinker got it in her brain that I was depressed. I was not and tried to explain that to her. She ended up saying "well, it is also prescribed for anxiety. i want you to try it.". Basic Pez Dispenser scenerio. So I took it and my panic attacks INCREASED from 3 or 4 a month to 5 or 6 a DAY. I ended up becoming agorophobic and failing the 11th grade because I stopped leaving the house. I quit that s**t cold turkey (I wasn't aware that that could be harmful, but nothing bad came of it.).

There's good reason to avoid the Benzodiazepines (like Xanax, Valium etc). They're useful as a short term thing, but
one you build up a tolerance and some people have to keep upping the dose, two people do become addicted in
the sense of having a relationship with the med instead of the med helping have a relationship with people, the rest
of the world etc, three if you have to go off of them it can be HELLISH. There are people that would gladly trade
their regular anxiety for the first few months of benzo withdrawal. Yes, months. Some people even have seizures
coming off the stuff. Look up benzo withdrawal on youtube. I was on the stuff for a month and when I decided to stop
taking it it took me another month to get back to baseline so to speak. So yeah, there's very good reason for your
doctor to be reluctant to prescribe those.

I didn't like any of the antidepressants they tried either and the ones they tend to try for anxiety are frequently histamine
antagonists and as a side effect make you REALLY hungry. I had kind of a similar reaction to the SSRI's (pazil, prozac etc)
as you and even once the side effects calmed down they just made me sort of flat.

What did finally seem to work for *me* was a combitation of Lamictal, Neurontin, Atenolol, and Lunesta. The first 2 are
in the anticonvulsant category that are used off label as mood stabilizers. The Lamical had the most dramatic results
in me of the 2. The Atenolol is a beta blocker that shuts of some of the adrenalin.Stage performers sometimes take
shorter acting ones for stage fright and such. The Lunesta is simply a sleep med that doesn;t really have a huge withdrawal
and the only side effect I notice is water tastes funny while it's in my system. Warning: the Neurontin can have a very
nasty withdrawal period if you go off of it. Not dangerous, but really awful for about a month.

That's what worked in *me*. Hopefully some of that information will be helpful to you. Good luck man. It very definitely
can get better.

I do not react well to most drugs - even a lot of over-the-counter medications - and am tired of doctors not taking me seriously when I try to explain this to them.

I've held onto a prescription that was written for me by a 2nd doctor almost a year ago for a drug I refuse to take for pain because the side effects are just awful, I'd rather deal with the pain! I tried to explain this to her, but she didn't believe me.

I'd been prescribed a bottle of it by the 1st doctor, took a couple of half doses to see how my body would react, only to discover that my body does not react well to it whatsoever.

I plan to take the 98% full bottle back to the 2nd doctor, along with the prescription that she wrote for me that I never had filled, to prove to her that 1) I'm serious about not taking this drug, and 2) I'm not selling it or using it for purposes of getting high, so 3) please write me a damn prescription for something I can actually take for pain!

I hate doctors.

I'm so happy to get replies to this. I know it was my first post, but you guys really made me feel welcome. Thank you

I'll throw in some more info:

I'm also a chronic pain sufferer, thanks to a botched surgery on my hand two years back. As such, I've had almost every pain medication on the planet. Most pain meds don't work on me due to the side effects, but I spent about a year on Percodan and six months on Morphene. Other than physical side effects, I had no problem coming off of them. It's pretty hard for me to get addicted to anything. I guess it's that aspie willpower

I've taken Neurontin for the pain from the nerve damage in my hand. It REALLY, REALLY slows down my verbal processing skills. I also had trouble doing math, and just generally thinking.

rabchild- Thank you for explaining the real risks of Xanax and like drugs. No one ever breaks this stuff down logically, making me even more glad I finally posted on here. Since Xanax works so well on a single dose, can it be used just to prevent panic attacks as I feel them coming on? I'm thinking of taking about 2-3 a week at most. I have the willpower to do that, but I can't get any good information on if that's just as dangerous. It doesn't seem like it would be.

bethmc- I hate doctors, at this point. They refuse to listen to me, most of the time. That's why I'm getting no treatment for the pain that I'm in with my hand. They only want to prescribe things I can't take.

Overall, I'm glad to hear everyone is having these kinds of side effects. I'm willing to bet it has to do with chemical imbalences in the autistic brain. My girlfriend is an RN and she was even doubting my side effects with this last drug hitting me so hard. Seeing this thread helped change her mind and help her realize I'm not crazy or drug seeking.

the problem is the things that work well are addictive, so they try anti depressants and whatnot instead. as someone with Asperger's, you're more likely to react to medications differently.

The worst medication I ever took was risperidol. Eight days into samples, I had about half the side-effects listed on the packaging. Instead of improving my concentration, it completely destroyed it, made me very woozy and dizzy, and I was starting to suffer constipation. I mean, really. Those were the only eight pill of that medication that I ever took.

There was also an issue I had with benadryl. I had just come home from my OA induction (camping) the previous night, and when I started mowing the lawn, and sweating, I started to itch and break out into hives all over my body - somewhat painfully too. It took nearly an hour to find something to get the itching under control, which was mainly benadryl ointment. I wound up self-medicating with benadryl pretty much around the clock, as being hot and/or wet usually triggered symptoms, and I had all of summer to get through. Eventually, the benadryl wasn't enough so I decided to do some research. As it turns out, benadryl is not intended for continuous use longer than a month, and could create the same symptoms it was meant to relieve. I'd been taking it for 3 months, but addiction was minimal, so I stopped.

Apparently that was just part of what I now know to be "allergic asthma," which gave me symptoms of a cold for couple years, in addition to the itching thing. I'm glad to have a treatment that works now.

I heard the trick with meds for people on the autism spectrum is to go on a lower dose than what would normally be prescribed for the condition the medicine would normally be for. Anxiety / depression medications might work if they were prescribed at 1/2 to 1/4 of the dose that is usually recommended for actual anxiety / depression. Our brains need to be re-calibrated but possibly not to the extreme calibration needed to pull someone out of major depression.

For example, I take Zoloft 25 mg / day, sometimes only 14.5 mg / day (1/2 pill). I did get headaches and some insomnia the first month or so, but I could definitely tell it lessened my anxiety. I take it at night because it can make me a bit drowsy when I initially take it. You might want to ask someone like an Occupational therapist or a psychologist who works specifically with people on the spectrum for a doctor who is used to prescribing meds to those of us specrumites. Dr. Grandin also talks a ton about medication and the autism spectrum because it has helped her a great deal. She also researched medication and neurology in her "free time." so yeah. Some of her work may help you figure things out.

I told the doctor what I needed by telling her that I had done research and I presented her with my official dx records and she agreed that I should go on medication. Being proactive but not too pushy and having that official dx to back it up really helps get what you need.

@Apera: Good god I don't doubt it. Antipsychotics are the sledgehammers of the psych med world. Companies direct marketing for use "when your antidepressant isn't enough" of abilify ( an atypical antipsychotic) nearly enrages me. Why you'd give it in any but the most dire circumstances is beyond me.

* I am not a source of medical advice. This is just an area that's one of the things I've gotten obsessed with over the years*

I think there's some confusion about what addiction actually means ( yes, related to and part of the subject of my obsession).
It's not being dependency on a med. Every cancer patient who takes opiates for a long time becomes dependent, very few become
addicted. If someone doesn't become addicted, it's not because of their personality, or some kind of uber willpower. It's basic
brain biology. Actual *addicts* end up having the part of their brain that governs motivation rewired to associate the drug or
drugs with survival. At that point, if someone tries to stop taking the drug it's like trying to stop eating. Part of the brain thinks
they're trying to kill themselves and reacts to prevent it. The WIKI page seems to have it right, there's a really good 2 part lecture
by Dr Akira Horita titled something like "the reward pathway" that lays it out well and though I hate to say it, and I'm really a
NON fan of "reality" television, Drew Pinsky (yes CR and loveline) has 2 books, "Cracked" and "When Painkillers become dangerous"
that describe *precisely* what I've seen friends and family go through. In the same way Tony Attwood seems to *get* Asperger's,
he *gets* what addiction is. I really want to when I see someone use willpower as an argument, but that's getting off topic.

@ TheEternal Fantastic ! If your brain biology allows it, that might be a good solution for you Your doctor has probably just
had some patients go off the deep end on him and it makes sense to me he'd be reluctant, but there are people who keep it in
their "toolbox" so to speak and who it works well for. Possibly ask him to do it on a trial run with a limited supply ? Not sure
how you'd approach that one

I've heard cannabis tincture is perfect for stress and anxiety

In fact, ganga derived from the Sanskrit word gangika, means 'stress- removed'

As an update: I'm two days into withdrawal from the Buspar and the muscle cramps have been getting steadily worse. I can barely stand, my legs hurt so bad right now.

Does this go away?! How much longer should I expect this? I'm so shocked I'm withdrawing this hard after only taking it for less than a week.

I have been prescribed pretty much everything under the sun and have not had success with medications. Currently I'm on trial of Zyprexa and Abilify, and although both are too expensive my doctor believes that if I feel better on either then I may feel benefit from something more affordable he can prescribe me. I did seem to feel a little better from Zyprexa once in the past, but it doesn't seem to be working this time around.

I do take Ambien for sleep but seem to have developed a tolerance for it. I have never felt sick from anything (except alcohol, which can make anyone sick) or had withdrawal symptoms, and I have taken benzos.

Unfortunately I have experimented a lot with many meds I have not been prescribed which I have been able to obtain, and have taken doses strong enough to knock out a horse and felt nothing at all. I seem to have a very high innate resistance to substances. No amount of cannabis at any dose has ever had any effect.

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Check out my IMDB page!

Dont muck around with stuff which makes you sick! Side effects are minimal to zero with correct herbal medications!

"Herbal" or "unscheduled" = doesn't work. There is a reason why drug companies spend BILLIONS of dollars to develop new medications.

Not that anything has ever really worked for me, but in trying to treat my sleep issues, my doc and I tried everything under the sun, and anything that was marketed as "herbal" or "natural" had positively zero effect. And some of that stuff is mad expensive! I saw a whole bunch of it on clearance at the store recently. Because... it doesn't work.

If it does work it's because you think it will, and in that case you probably didn't need medication to begin with.

Just my two cents.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Check out my IMDB page!

I'm with you on that one.