Anxiety. and coping

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I wondered if constant anxiety is common in AS? I am new to group here. ..how do you relax when you're. 'out in the world'?

I've experienced it and I've seen people here talk about it to variable degrees.
I even got a theory running concerning the effects of stress on the human body and mind related to autism (link).

Relaxing while you are 'out in the world' can be done by taking a sensory break. Breathing excersises, stretching, meditating, keeping yourself calm, etc.

Preparation can help too. Taking enough rest and relaxation, sports/yoga, ritual, diet, writing down/expressing your frustrations.

Cheerfully,
Wallourdes

Thank you Wallourdes~i am not sure I have AS but have been on meds effort anxiety~do many AS people end up on meds?

I asked this over on the livejournal aspergers group a while ago, quite a few people responded - I got the impression that it's a common problem, maybe about 50% of aspies.

For me anxiety is *the* main problem as it's continuous, all day every day and it makes doing anything and everything a battle. Work in particular is difficult because I work in an open plan office and get very anxious if there is someone sitting nearby facing me (which is basically all day). I get the startle reflex going if the phone rings and I get anticipatory anxiety if, say, I know the phone is going to ring. Frankly it's perghas best described as living in pergatory. This has been going on my whole life, although you don't realise what is wrong when you're younger of course.

How do I relax? I get away from people, watch TV/film, work on projects, do research, surf the internet and meditate on a wide variety of subjects. 'Out in the world' - nothing much works really, take deep breaths and crack lots of bad jokes, I think you need a well developed sense of humour to get by with a condition like this decade after decade.

locster

As far as I read on this forum most use meds for anxiety or related issues.

Thank you Wallourdes~i am not sure I have AS but have been on meds effort anxiety~do many AS people end up on meds?

Constant anxiety? Huh. "constant" feels like something of an understatement...
Always. Day in, day out. There is always something I just have to pick over, analyze and worry about its effectiveness, or adequacy, or completeness, or correctness, or relevancy.
And the more involved I am with people, the more intense it gets because there are many more things happening to get anxious about.

I relax with music, but sometimes I'm too far into the anxieties to manage that, and then it's practically impossible to relax.
A glass or two of wine usually helps, though.

Hi, it seems to me that it's the issues that come up in daily life that are the cause of your anxiety, would that be accurate? Because for me I'm fairly certain that the issue is physiological, to do with build up of toxic metabolties and/or 'wobbly' neurotransmitter equilibrium(s). E.g. soem of my symptoms are simialr to what happens during a viral brain infection such as the epstein barr virus, where your brain and/or the meningis surrounding it swells up. Anxiety and fatigue beign the two principle effects of such an infection.

locster.

Last edited by locster on 16 Jan 2011, 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hi
Issues in daily life, yes. Some anxieties because of my interactions with people, others with things that I do on my own. Always the little analytical machine ticking away.
As far as I know none of it is due to physiological reasons although that's not been specifically checked because no suspicions have arisen about it.

How are you able to know yours may be physiological?
(genuine question, just curious )

A few things, the top one being that my anxiety spontaneously and completely went away for a few months in 2008 following some experimentation I was doing with vitamin supplements. It was very clear to me on those first few days that all of my previous internal debate about whether it was mainly psychological or not went away - it was physiological for sure. And, as I say there's quite a bit of research documenting measurable physiological differences between control groups and people with ASD, schizophrenia, etc.

BTW to date I've not been able reliably recreate what happened in 2008 - it's something I'm still working on.

Apart from that I also have tinnitus which I've come to realise over the years is very strongly correlated with my anxiety level. I also have a mild scoliosis (curved spine) and acne, both of which get worse in parallel with the anxiety and tinnitus (I get a bad upper back/neck), I also get twitches in my face, arms and legs sometimes - they come and go (you could argue that some of this is psychological I suppose, but at this stage I'm totally convinced it's not).

Err yeh, I think that covers most of it.

locster

Hmm, interesting.
I did try vitamin supplements some years ago but nothing happened.
Shame really because I'd almost convinced myself that everything would be fixed if I took them.

If I'm really involved with a special interest project then the general anxieties diminish quite a bit but I think that's because I'm thinking about nothing else except the project. The rest of the world might as well not exist when I'm doing that.

You migth be interested in this post/thread I posted yesterday...

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt148886.html



I think that's very typical of aspies.

locster

I had my fair share of anxiety that caused me to have to spend hell week with my mum. I had even more anxiety the week that I got back to my place, due to te unfair treatment that I got from my mum. Part of the anxiety is that I look like a very young version of a male celebrity who's very vulnerable and sensitive. Like him, I'm also vulnerable and sensitive. I was afriad that the teenagers in my area would be able to pick up on it and try to take advantage of me. I was put on Trazedone for a month, so that my sleeping patterns could reset themselves. Those kids haven't gave me a hard time yet. They gave me a harder time, when I was wearing disquises as a punk. I've been a lot calmer for the better part of 15 months now and I'm happier than I was with that hard green hair and heavy jacket.

I am taking paxil plus antianxiety med but my heart still races at the slightest thing~like when I was a kid~i find myself drinking alcohol just to quell this anxiety~and am afraid of wjat would happen if I dodnt quell it~and most of it feels like as sensory issues that im dealing with~how does anyone deal with this? The noises, smells, lights, people...without wanting to run away?

I try to control my breathing as soon as I feel myself going off. It works once I realise. Don't overbreathe.

The anxiety often comes out of me,that is not a response to otjer people/stimuli...just a thought alone has sent me into dysfunctional places...then I talk myself back from that place...but how to prevent getting there? The deep bteathing etc is helpful...but I wish to prevent the problem entirely...