Medication Question

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I'm curious if anyone's heard of any type of medication designed to treat sensory overload. Also I'm curious about meds to treat anxiety. If you are or have taken anything you mention, tell me how that has worked out for you and where you are on/off the spectrum.

Thank you so very much......

I'm on 50mgs of sertraline, and it's definitely reduced my anxiety. I also have ativan for when I have panic attacks. I'd just go to your doctor and tell them whats wrong and see what they recommend.

I tried beta blockers but they didn't seem to do me any good at all. No side effects either, though they're known to disagree with some folks.

I don't have much experience with drugs but I much prefer to try and tackle the cause of the anxiety rather than using a chemical cosh, though I appreciate that anxiety can get so acute that drugs would be indicated. It's important to protect your heart if you're getting a lot of hypertension, for example.

Well, even though they stink, Valerian capsules often have a calming action on me. Sometimes they even help me to sleep. They're a natural alternative, anyway.

Thank you for responses so far. I totally agree a natural approach is best and to get to the root of the anxiety, but it's not for me. My nephew's meltdowns have increased so bad at school to the point where I'm afraid they are going to hold him back a grade because he keeps missing class. They are now to the point where they just don't suspend him but request he not go back to school until a certain day so to avoid putting it on his record, and then they follow it with an in-school suspension until they can "trust" him enough to be around the other students. I have put together a packet of information for the school on how to handle these types of situations and on how to avoid them, but I'm a seriously doubtin they will listen to me or take it seriously. I'd love to talk to the principal more on the subject, but I really won't have time for that for a long minute because I'm going to be induced into labor tomorrow morning. So if I don't respond for a while, that would be why.

But I would love to hear of the options available. He is 10 years old, so many of the meds might not be suitable for his age group. The thing also is that my mother took him to a doctor and he was prescribed ADHD meds, so I can't just trust a doctor at this point. They are now taking him off those meds, but my mom seems to be head strong about having him on something. She's heard that Prozac has worked well for Aspergers, and I'm not too happy with that thought because it's an SSRI. His main thing seems to be the meltdowns. I can see a reason to consider an anti-depressant because he says crazy things during these meltdowns on a suicidal note, but only during the meltdown and usually to the point where he wants to be institutionalized because he feels crazy as opposed to because he's in so much pain he wants to end his life. I think it's being confused for depression but really it's part of the meltdown. The causes of these meltdowns seem to be a mixture of things like bullies and regular kids just picking on him a lot, sensory overload (he has a male teacher who has absolutely no control of the classroom, so the students talk a lot and pass notes when my nephew's trying to study), headaches (he seems to be complaining of those due to the light sensitivity), fatigue (he seems to wake up a lot in the middle of the night and has been complaining about being tired a lot), and honestly, he's babied meaning he whines a lot (which feeds into the kids making fun of him) and he has these irrational expectations of things because people have given in way too much throughout the last couple years out of sympathy (but not his parents who take away too much because they think he lacks discipline and they totally lack empathy...sometimes I think they think Aspergers is a myth used as an excuse). Also, during the meltdowns, the principal and special ed teacher seems to "counsel" him meaning they add to the aggravation by constantly talking to him, so I think that's why these meltdowns have escalated to the point of "suspension" because they get that bad because nobody will leave him alone. I must admit that the meltdowns seem to only occur with his mom at home or in school. I really think a major improvement will happen when they kinda change the ways they deal with things. But I don't think my mother will wait to try that out for a while before moving to the next med that "won't hurt to try." She seems to think these meds are like Tylenol where you just experiment with them and hand them out "just in case." She hangs out with too many doctors. Anyway, you see my dilemma and why I must intervene at this point. Nobody, for once, is really argumentive about my intervention. Actually, they've been somewhat inviting me to throw in my 2 cents. At this point, I have been saying to try behavior modification approaches (which would have been more effective if given when he was much younger back when nobody would listen to me on how to handle things) without meds for a while. They think they are at the "last resort" moment because they just don't see behavior modification as an option. To them, you have a disorder, you see a shrink, if the therapy doesn't work, move to meds. But with Aspergers, the therapy isn't enough. You have to take the idea home with you. That's something we can't seem to get my sister to really work on doing, but I think if I can get the school to at least do some of these techniques, there'd be a major improvement to maybe persuade his mother into attempting them at home as well. But if he's on meds as we try this out, she will just assume the meds are doing it and therefore doesn't have to try to change her ways. But if we must go meds, then at least do something useful rather than make things worse with SSRI's and psychostimulants. I do think he has an increased anxiety level with sensory overload (more so than I ever had been), and if there are meds to help with that, great.

Anyway, sorry so long, but I don't have time to edit and delete, and I know it's a lot of personal info, but who knows, maybe someone will read it and respond with the greatest advice I could ever hear. At least that's what I'm hoping for because nobody really does listen to me on things, and now that they are sort of doing so, I don't want to screw it up by being wrong about something. I want to resolve this issue for sake of my nephew, and I probably only have one chance to do this.

Thank you again very much for your comments thus far. Hopefully when I get home from the hospital, there will be more.

How about home schooling?

I take Lyrica (pregabilin) which was prescribed for the generalized anxiety. It is also supposed to help with neuropathic pain.

I take propranolol. It's not an anti-anxiety med but a drug for high blood pressure that's being used now with anxiety. It lowers the pulse so that it is impossible to have a panic attack. It's being given to people for stage fright quite a lot. I like it.

Honestly, I would really look into taking him out of the particular school environment he is in. The school is not educating him and does not know how. Looking into meds is not what you need to do. Medication for ASD is high questionable, sometimes it works, but most of the time it does not. There is to much a dependancy to rely on medication, when what it sounds like there is a major failure to address the issues in the education system in this district.

The solution will be filing a Due Process Compliant under the IDEA. Make sure it is done by an experienced special education lawyer. This whole taking him out of the classroom environment for days at a time for disciplinary issues may work for normal students, but not students who should be covered by IDEA. This is something that needs to be worked out because the school is failing this kid and its hurting his education. This is why IDEA was put forth. He should not be punished or kept back in this way because of his disability.

I've tried a bunch of stuff over the years. I've been happiest with clonazepam. It stops my fake visual input problem, takes the edge off of social interaction (making me less likely to go hide when things get ugly), helps a little with random fixations, and helps me to turn off my brain and sleep. For me, it's a good fit and has been for about five years now. I'm still strange, but at least I have a little more control.

In reading your posts, you say you have a packet of information to help the school deal with your nephew. While this is good, it also might help if your nephew got some information on how to deal with school. What's setting him off? Is it music day? Is it the lunchroom? Is there some specific class thing? There may be some coping techniques that a therapist-type-person can help to develop with him. There may be supportive things you can work out with the school, like he eats in the quieter "peanut room" and can go to the library instead of (recess, gym, whatever tweaks him out). Also, you could set up a reward system. X days of good behavior gets him cool thing Y. Sounds like life is rough for him right now, he may need some wins.

Good luck and hope you have a pleasant delivery and a healthy baby.

Thank you guys for the replies. I did have a very healthy baby and she's so cute and sweet and she's been a very easy baby to take care of.

They did switch schools on my nephew after I talked with the principal and she discovered how different he is out of school. His behavior had worsen with the meltdowns while in this class that was barely supervised. Basically, he was surrounded by teachers who shouldn't be teaching. His normal classroom had one of those jock like males who let the kids do whatever, and then the special ed teacher was one of those lazy chics whose crap doesn't stink (at least in her mind). She's the type of person where if you don't understand what you are reading, she just tells you to read it, and if you tell her that was wrong to be that way, she argues with you tooth and nail. The principal was awesome, but the staff that dealt with him regularly was a total different story. So now he's at a different school, and I don't know how well he's done too recently, but last I heard he's greatly improved.

Homeschooling isn't quite an option because both his parents work, and his mom has 2 jobs. I think this is part of the problem because I think what really happened is he had a real meltdown at school, saw all the attention it brought him, so he kinda "faked" meltdowns after that point. I've noticed with my 3 year old as well as my nephew, when they desire attention from one person and can't get that attention, they tend to go extreme on demanding attention more often from the people who do pay attention to them. I noticed that with my 3 year old because my husband seemed to have played favorites with the baby (completely unintentionally) and she drove me crazy for the last couple weeks demanding it from me. Spending quality time with dad has solved a lot of our problems. I was thinking this before my 3rd child was born with my nephew that he wanted more attention from his mom, and when he couldn't get it, he demanded it from the principal at this school, as well as his grandma and me the aunt. Yeah the faculty was working against him, but it shouldn't have brought on the extreme nature of the meltdowns as much as just some anxiety that might build for a few weeks and develop eventually into one. I mean he was having them 3 times a week, and during them, he's punched the principal, threw books, etc.

Of course when I point all this out to my family, nobody wants to listen to the autistic person, so they were a little headstrong on trying some sort of medication last I really talked about it. I guess I just said my peace and distanced myself from it because I have so much going on in my house.

Anyway, thank you all again for your responses. If the subject of medication comes up again, I will be showing my mom this page and hopefully she'll overload on the too much info being too many meds to look into that she'll just give up on the idea and realize that psychoanalyzing the situation and dealing with the root of the problem is the easy solution.