Medications for coping with general and sensory stress

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I was recently diagnosed with Asperger's and I have sensory sensitivities, particularly hearing.

Unfortunately I work in a very noisy environment and have a young child who is also very noisy.

This has led to a tremendous amount of relationship stress with my wife. These things precipitated the diagnosis.

I do my best to manage the sensitivities, such as wearing some $300 noise cancelling headphones all day / everywhere and listening to soothing classical music through them. I also use earplugs when needed and sunglasses to make things less bright.

I have struggled tremendously with binge eating for the last year and a half. I now understand that this is brought on entirely by stress. I generally live a very healthful lifestyle and am an avid runner and cyclist. The binge eating destroys my health and emotional well being.

I was prescribed vyvanse for this and have found it to be incredibly helpful and life-changing. Unfortunately, my stress levels have continued to rise and I have recently been struggling even on top of the vyvanse.

I am going to ask for an increased dosage, but I wanted to ask if anyone is aware of any other options out there that I could explore to help manage stress. This is not depression or anxiety, this is sensory overload stress in conjunction with stress in my work and personal life that is pushing me over the edge.

I do understand that this needs to be managed and that I cannot just expect a pill to fix everything, but I am doing all I can in those avenues and am continuing to explore stress management through counselling and other means. This is reaching the point where it is compromising my ability to function personally and professionally and I was just wondering if anyone has any knowledge or experience with medications that I could look into trying in addition to the vyvanse.

Thank you!

I feel very much the same way as you seem to when I do anything from a trip to the grocery store, to a visit with a friend, to a shift at work. I have not tried any medication because I also blame it on stress, or "overload", or "test fatigue" as I often compare it to. However, I will still mention depression and anxiety medication because those medications do not only affect things that are specifically named "depression" and "anxiety".

Personally, when I'm in those situations, my head feels sore and I lose a lot of concentration. Those medications would not help with that. But it is possible that they could help with the lasting after-effects of the stress.

It's just something to discuss with your psych and try if you're desperate.

Let me know if you find one please. I also find myself exhausted from listening to human noise (chatting, loud laughing) all day at work. I do think overstimulation in social environments is a separate problem from the depression and anxiety I have.

I wish there were treatments for sensory overload. I talked about it with my neurologist but he never suggested any treatment other than making me continue paroxetine, which didn't work for that at all and I had too many side effects with time so I had to withdraw by myself several years ago. I never heard of anything decreasing sensory hypersensitivity, if something like that exists I'd like to know about it.

I wish there could be a medication for that too.

Sometimes I feel like my own autistic symptoms are a bit like being drunk, and/or hungover. Impaired coordination, spatial problems, being unaware of behaving strangely, plus the 'hangover' effect of lights being too bright, noises being too loud, everything being unbearably intense. (And I don't drink, ever - it makes it worse!)

The most common remedy for a hangover is caffeine, which is a lifesaver for me as well. They say caffeine makes you more jumpy and irritable, but I find the opposite to be true. I need it to feel 'sober' (though I never drink or do drugs) - and it helps me to cope with the 'hangover' effect of sensory overload.

So I really do feel like my natural state is similar to being drunk and hungover - and caffeine is the only remedy that's ever helped for me.

About the same for me with caffeine. And it really helps with attention issues and anxiety. I'm more focused and self-confident so I'm more relaxed.
It doesn't help me when it comes to sensory overload itself though At best it helps coping with anxiety coming from it.

Maybe Buspar, or even just a Passionflower Tincture. Neither really have any cognitive impairment, I find Passionflower tincture to be pretty relaxing and would recommend it. I have been using it daily for over 2 months now and I haven't had any issues with tolerance building up at all. I've been on many many many medications over the last 10.5 years and while benzos would be the most effective to relax and calm someone down, they come with issues like cognitive and memory impairment as well as dependency, tolerance, and withdrawals.

BetaBlockers are sometimes used to help people mange stress & can be taken regularly long-term.

Thank you all for your replies. I will check into these options. I hadn't heard about beta blockers for stress. I do feel impacted enough that I think that pursuing the medication route is desirable, since I have had difficulty functioning in my personal and professional life due to this.

I had a meeting with my psychiatrist and I asked her about Risperdal. I am taking that now, and I feel that it is helping. Sensory stimulation that used to feel like a physical blow now generally feels lighter, or I don't feel it, only hear/see it. I'm on a pretty low dose right now and there are times where I get worn down and the effect starts to get lost. I may increase the dosage, but I read that weight gain can be a side effect, which is a major issue for me as I am an avid runner and cyclist and gaining weight is really bad for that.

I've also had issues with binge eating that have been brought on by the stress, I gained 30 pounds in a month once. I've been taking Vyvanse for that.

The two together seem to be working so far.