Medication which helps with some Asperger Syndrome symptoms

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Well basically, this time I'd like to talk to you about medications which have helped me personally with some of my Asperger Syndrome symptoms, and would also like to hear generally what kind of medications have helped you too.

About the symptoms I have, which I took medications for, and helped me, it includes things like shyness, social anxiety, fear of answering the phone, fear of making a phone call, general anxiety like fear of car accident, life dangers, and so on, bad mood, and more. The medications I took which have helped me, include:

Codeine
Lavender Oil
Dipenhydramine
Pseudoephedrine
Escitalopram
Hydroxyzine
Morphine
Heroine
Fluoxetine

Can you explain which medications have helped you, and helped you with what problems?

Can you also explain what do you think about the medications I mentioned?

Thanks.

Codeine morphine and heroin are not really medications to be taken for long periods of time. They are basically drugs, when used to change one's experience of the world.

Citalopram + fluoxetine , are more like medication , although they have similarities to drugs they dont make you want to keep taking more and more.
You could also take st.John's wort as its also an SSRI.
The SSRIs help but only a little.

For me, repeated exposure to answering the phone etc worked to get rid of the anxiety, or make it reduced.

You have 2 anti-allergy and a decongestant on the list, I never noticed any positive effects with those.

None

I posted twice in your other thread which was very similar. I am very interested in the same subject. I'm not sure if you didn't see my responses or just weren't interested. I have tidied my post up and edited it a bit more.

Pseudoephedrine --- Never tried it
Codeine - can increase social confidence, but it can become physically addictive very quickly
Caffeine - makes my anxiety and stress worse
Tramadol -- never tried it for relief of ASD related issues
DHC - Amazing for verbal abilities

Heroin - Just don't go there!! Whatever benefits it may offer, it is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. To use the heaviest artillery of one of the strongest and most powerfully addictive opiates to help with anxiety and social issues is complete over kill in my opinion. Oblivion and taking extremely dangerous substances that are a risk to life should not be the goal.

Dimenhydrinate -- never tried it for relief of ASD related issues
SSRIs and SNRIs absolute waste of time and money. Evidence seems to be emerging that is casting doubt on the efficacy of these medications. I despair at how useless they are for anxiety. I despair at what I was offered on the NHS and was forced to go down the self medication route.

For myself Benzodiazepines help a great deal. They eliminate my social anxiety, and remove that horrible awkward self conscious feeling like I just don't fit in. They help me to mask and to blend in. The positive reinforcement I get when I do take them, is night and day compared to the negative reinforcement when I don't.

I have read medical studies stating that Benzodiazepines can help some people with Autism. (I would add to that - especially those with social anxiety)

Benzos can also be addictive for many reasons, but this isn't as quick or as automatic as with opiates.

Another one to add to that list ! ! !

I have recently found that DHC (Dihydrocodeine) helps me enormously with one of the social deficits my Autism causes me. This is the problem of having difficulty simply talking to people. It's like I have trouble converting my thoughts and feelings into words, let alone words that another person would find interesting. This is the first time I have experienced this since I received my diagnosis, and so I am now very much more self aware of the processes that are going on, or not going on, within me.

Somehow DHC seems to bridge the gaps or dysfunctions in my brain. It literally feels like I have something missing, some connecting neurons or chemistry not firing, and so I simply can't talk to people a lot of the time. It's partly because I'm so inhibited about not wanting to say something weird that I over censor myself, but there is a lot more to it than that.

When I add some DHC then suddenly BOOM those neurons / neural pathways all light up and fire together, and I can talk! Articulately, spontaneously, fluently, in a lively way, all off the top of my head! All of my thoughts are available to me in a coherent and structured way. This is something I typically struggle with a great deal otherwise.

One of my favourite writers, Jack London, used to write about having similar effects due to the "kick" on his thinking from the alcohol he desired to consume. He was wired for this kick and he eventually went on to become an alcoholic. He wrote fascinatingly about the kick that alcohol gave to his mind, in his alcoholic memoirs "John Barleycorn." I may well be wired to have issues with substances if I'm not careful. There is no maybe about it, I definitely am wired in that way. However, I am also careful.

I have no great trouble getting my thoughts together in writing, on forum posts etc, but typically my thoughts otherwise remain locked away so deep in my head in the form of private thoughts that I struggle with conversation. I guess it is a skill that can be learnt or trained to some extent. I used to be able to do it. But DHC magically switches that part of my brain back on / lights up and re-connects those circuits that seem to have dystrophied or atrophied through lack of use.

Jack London felt that alcohol gave him a kick to his thought processes. I feel that DHC gives me a kick to my verbal abilities. It just fires up and connects everything up for me which otherwise is not fired up. All my memories and knowledge is suddenly online and available for me to access when I speak.

It isn't normally. I am severely screwed over by my verbal deficiencies. Many people have viewed me as simple or thick, presumably due to these difficulties. That is the easiest conclusion for people to jump to, they may be correct, but I really don't think so. They just don't know anything about me, or Autism, or what is really going on in my head. Because I'm often unable to communicate effectively. That is just one of the traits of the version of Autism that I have though, and not stupidity.

How frustrating that something that potentially offers a way forward will probably never get funding for studies to investigate this. It absolutely works, but because DHC is seen as an abusable drug it will probably never see the light of day in this regard, although it could potentially transform peoples lives.

I am aware that one cannot extrapolate from ones own experience and assume that the same will automatically follow for everyone else with similar difficulties. However, if it does work for me, I can be certain that I won't be the only person that this works for.

Opiates in general and amphetamines help with confidence and sociability and social skills and masking, but obviously these substances are addictive and difficult for most people to sustain any functional day to day use of them without causing a lot of problems.

Yes I am, or have been a "druggy". Some people will judge this negatively. That's fine, each to their own in my opinion. I am a responsible adult and I know exactly what I am doing. I see myself more in the line of self medicating as opposed to abusing substances. There is a clear difference. However, sometimes it is all too easy to cross that line.

My ASD diagnostician told me that a huge proportion of people with ASD self medicate. I have found that not many of them seem to go on forums or own up to this. Probably for many reasons.

This thread is asking about medications that work for relieving symptoms of ASD. I've named several. Shame they are probably always going to be too controversial in some way to ever be followed up with proper studies. Shame, because these things really do work.

Several people have been saying in the other thread that they don't see how medications could help them socially. Everyone is wired differently, but i can say with great certainty say that they definitely help me.

Codeine is wonderful.
However it is now highly regulated in my country
So its difficult to even get a prescription for it now.
Which is unfortunate for all the people who use it responsibly.
Or, indeed require it because its the only drug that actually works.

My system is so sensitive that I have not found any medication to be helpful except muscle relaxers for my worst back issues and paracetamol for my headaches which I rather curb by wearing sunglasses and keeping indoors when it's sunny. For sensitivities, I try to move with it so when it's bright but overcast I try to keep the blinds as open as possible and similarly refrain from using my headphones too often and sometimes purposefully desensitizing myself by listening to neighborhood noises for longer periods when I'm mentally in a stable and good place and haven't got too much plans.

Anyways most drugs I've tried make me woozy and super tired and nauseous and prevent me from cooking and caring for myself which is just not worth the exchange for me to wait for two months amidst piles of laundry and not be able to shower and spend all my money on take-out, not being able to read, work, watch tv, take a walk to maybe possibly get some benefit in the coming months while being mentally drained for months living like in a deep depression.. Not worth it for me.

But I'm pretty lucky though that I can avoid overwhelming myself at the moment by staying home or going to the woods. I know many don't have that choice and it wasn't always possible for me either when my stress levels were much higher and when I lived in the city.

I used effexor for years for anxiety (before I ever found out I am autistic) and I have always thought my morning coffee helps me function so much better.

I used phenylpropanolamine antihistamines for years before they were made illegal (for allergies year round) and I think I did great with those in my system. I drank cola with sugar, up to a 6 pack a day, for years as well (caffeine and sugar).
I have often wondered if I should also have diagnostic tests done for ADHD?

Benadryl is supposed to calm you or sedate you or put you to sleep, but instead it buzzes me out and gives me heart palpitations/chest pains. (as a normal dose, not overdosing on it). I wonder what that means?

Interesting how different our metabolisms are, one to another as individuals.

Lavander oil -- No effect for me.
Because there's no anxiety and/or fear issue to treat, plus my own chronic rhinitis doesn't do me favors with it. Relaxation isn't my issue either.

I actually like the smell it, just not it's effects (which is unfortunately none).


I need a different type of 'downregulating' (in ways lavander oil or melatonin doesn't) and 'upregulating' (in ways caffeine doesn't) that I hadn't able to find yet.


Search engine tells me that lemon balm tea has similar effects of benzodiazepines.

It doesn't turn off the chaotic background static (related to stress and emotional dysregulation) in my head, it just dictate less with how I act or think.
It's still there, just disconnected and not in control of my state.
Doesn't solve my issues, doesn't improve my functioning except just coping with hormonal related stress.

Decidedly for PMS. I found out that it's effects are not ideal and not the same for me outside PMS -- it makes me a bit sleepier, it doesn't put that heaviness
from stress in the background, it doesn't make me more 'regulated' and doesn't change my behaviors or performance much.


Hmmm...
Diphenhydramine...
Never tried but it's available enough for me.

I could try that. For my rhinitis. And let's see if it's effect on sleep isn't just giving me drowsiness/weirdness like any other antihistamines I had encountered so far.

The same with hydroxyzine and pseudoephedrine except that would be harder to obtain here apparently.
I wonder if it possible to ask an ENT to give me a prescription for this?

Not that it can be answered in this forum, because laws here are different enough that 4 out of 9 meds mentioned by the OP are strictly regulated/illegal from where I came from.

3 out of 9 mentioned meds mentioned by the OP seem to be a form of antihistamine, and one of those is also nasal decongestant. I had never tried them all.

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