Atarax/Hydroxyzine for Anxiety caused by Asperger Syndrome

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Hey guys, its me again. Sorry to come here out of nowhere and create a new thread again. This time, its about a very important subject. I hope you all can take the discussion seriously, because its very important.

Well basically, its about Anxiety caused by Asperger Syndrome. My anxiety has been quite variable, sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger. But there's this medication I wanted to talk to you about, called Atarax/Hydroxyzine, which have helped me alot with anxiety related problems, and my Generalized Anxiety Disorder. By generalized I mean I can be afraid of many things, not just one thing specifically. This type of anxiety is caused by my Asperger Syndrome, which you all already know. But this medication Atarax/Hydroxyzine have helped me with this anxiety so much, just... wow. I couldnt stop myself from writing about it on the forums now, and recommend this medication to you if you have anxiety sometimes.

Yeah, its amazing to discover such a great medication for anxiety, and a medication which helps me so much and helps me live a much better life without anxiety. I still have fears, but my fears are much smaller thanks for Atarax/Hydroxyzine. Yeah, its great to use the medication everyday and swallow the pills. However, there are some side effects which cause it to interrupt my focus on various things, so its not recommended if you are driving for example, but I think its possible to drive a car with it too, just kinda more difficult. Other than that, its great. Its best for the type of anxiety they call, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which means anxiety caused by anything which is scary. Its hard to explain why my Asperger Syndrome causes this anxiety, but its probably because of the different way I tend to look or think about scary things.

Can you explain if you tried Atarax/Hydroxyzine in the past, and if yes, what effect did it have on you, and what type of anxiety did you have?

Can you also explain what you think about everything I just said, in generally? Even if you havent tried Atarax/Hydroxyzine in the past, thanks.

I was put on many different medications before I was even diagnosed with Asperger's as an adult, and I could never remember all their names but they all made me feel a hundred times worse where I could barely function at all. Because of this I have a pronounced hatred and distrust of psychiatrists. Mentally ill and autistic people are nothing but lab rats to them.

Society wants you to take a pill for everything without questioning things like side effects or effectiveness and I hate that. The US is the worst of all, with their "Ask your doctor" ads that come on every two minutes with a list of side effects so long that you forget what illness they were supposed to treat at the end. Stupid.

Thanks for the recommendation. It seems possible that I'd qualify as having Generalised Anxiety Disorder, according to the ICD-10, though probably not according to DSM-5. It's hard to know because the criteria are rather subjective.

Frankly I think these anxiety disorders are rather arbitrary classifications and I've never found one yet that fits me like a glove. My own experience of anxiety is that I'm pretty sure I worry disproportionately about everyday risks. They don't stop me sleeping, I don't get panic attacks, and they don't affect my functioning as judged by my general behaviour. The only really bad thing that happens is that I spend a lot of my life feeling anxious whenever I notice any danger of something rather bad happening to me. I just soldier on and muddle through regardless, and when the danger is passed I heave a sigh of relief and feel OK again, but I'd love to feel more relaxed about those dangers while they're current, because anxiety is unpleasant and spoils my happiness.

As for pharmaceutical fixes, personally I just don't trust them. I'd probably just worry about what such an unnatural intervention might be doing to my insides, and I'm wary of a "rebound effect" where I might end up feeling even worse if I discontinued the drug. I feel that my anxiety isn't being caused by the lack of a drug in my system, there's something else causing it that I should look into. I wish I knew what it was. I wish that whenever I felt anxious I could find out from an expert or something whether or not my reaction was a reasonable one to the particular danger that was triggering it. After all, danger is scary.

I'd go for psychotherapy if they'd offer it to me for free. I wouldn't pay much for it myself because it might very well not work and there's no money-back guarantee. I do find that there's always an identifiable, external source for my anxiety, and my first resort is to see if I can reduce or eliminate that source directly by putting some safety measures in place or by avoiding whatever it is that's making me anxious. What I do know is that when my environment doesn't contain any anxiety-provoking elements, I have no anxiety problem. So I try to control my way of life so that things look fairly safe to me. Not always possible of course.

But, if you're getting good results, that's obviously a good thing. I would, however, recommend that you check out the possible side effects and that you have some kind of longterm plan so that you don't just get parked on it for the rest of your life. A relatively short course of a drug is one thing, but I'd expect the risks of taking it for years would be rather greater. And some drugs become less effective over time, which tempts the prescriber to up the dose. Still, if the anxiety was really wrecking your life and you can't find anything else that helps, it might be better to take the drug and worry about the downside if and when it happens.

I was prescribed hydroxyzine for a severe outbreak of hives (it's a very strong antihistamine) some years back.

Yes, it does also have anti-anxiety effects. During the time I was on it, I definitely noticed a reduction in my perpetual background anxiety, as well as a blunting of situational anxiety.

However, the anti-anxiety effects tend to diminish after a few months, and it's no longer useful in that regard. That's why in most prescribing info you will only see it recommended for short-term use (up to 4 months) for anxiety.

Also, in my case, at least, I had to taper off it carefully, not simply quit, because I abruptly became very anxious when I tried to just stop it, more so than would have been my baseline prior to taking this medication.

Your results may of course vary, but I feel it's only fair to let you know about the possibilities.

I took Hydroxyzine for allergic hives and skin itching from an environmental allergy. It did make me less anxious, but that was a side-effect of being drowsy more than anything else. Eventually that lessened as I got used to taking it, and now it has no effect on anxiety at all and doesn't cause drowsiness.