Autism related generalized anxiety disorder

Post Reply New Topic

I live my life normally or atleast trying to live a normal life, and I use medications like many other people do, in order to deal with generalized anxiety disorder, and so on. But sometimes I have strong anxiety of possibly being murdered or shot at, and so on, especially when I hear about things like terror attacks or mass shootings.

Have you ever also been afraid of being murdered or shot at? For me, I sometimes have fear of going outside, and I have trouble focusing on daily activities. Medications sure help, but the anxiety still exists anyways. The problem is also fear of general things like being involved in car accident, not necessarily being murdered.

Its impossible to avoid completely, but at the same time I know I need to live my life somehow. I was hoping you can please share what you think about this type of anxiety, thanks.

What disorders have you officially been diagnosed with?

Knowing that will help us give you better advice.

This is one of the few yet significant things I cannot relate with other autistics; which is dealing with anxiety on regular basis.


But sure.
I deal with anxiety when I'm PMSing badly.
Hmm... Lemon balm tea just makes me less violent and more controlled...

Still doesn't solve whatever stress and overwhelm related issues I have.

Taking certain meds, or eating certain foods then getting triggered during PMS gives me worrying thoughts and foolish mental conclusions -- though I'm not worried at the prospect that people would kill me -- more like I want them to just get over it and do it.

Doesn't make me feel paranoid or afraid -- more like I'm significantly aware that this isn't me and I want it to just end.
Because I'm aware enough that isn't my normal, so I don't give significant meaning to the anxiety except it's just my head, it's just hormones and my body being stupid, it's just one of those times I hate my inner child -- it does not come from "me".

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

I get worried about the least likely things happening to me too. Cancer is the first thing, as the statistics are 1 in 2 people get cancer. 1 in 2, that's half the population. So you're just as likely to get cancer as you are being born a male or female, or flipping a coin and getting heads or tails. That's some scary stuff.

I also get anxious about being raped or murdered when walking out alone. And when I get on an airplane I worry about the plane crashing. I know car crashes are more common than plane crashes but I think plane crashes are scarier when being up in the air, where as car crashes usually happen quicker before you get a chance to panic. And if it's a minor car crash most people survive.

Oddly enough I actually think less about some things that happen every day rather than things that rarely happen. I think that's how anxiety disorders work - your brain overthinks things rather than just what's needed at the time.

I mean, what if some of the families of the 9/11 victims were worried of their loved ones going on a plane and people were like "it's so rare for a plane to crash, it's not good to happen to your family, it's not worth even thinking about" - then the unthinkable did happen. I bet some of those families are still grieving to this day, wondering why their lost loved ones had to be on that plane at that time. But even if 9/11 happened to a different plane then there'd be a whole load of different families grieving.

Same with murders. It can happen to anyone at any time, and I'm no more special than anyone else so it has the same chance of happening to me as it has everyone else.

I hate my brain.

I've been in extremely violent situations where my life was at risk and I was profoundly injured. A person was charged with attempted murder. As a child I experienced SA which also caused me to fear people or carry a lot of stress.

I have CPTSD, PTSD, GAD, Panic Disorder, and Agoraphobia as a result.

Prior to my trauma(s) I always had GAD to a certain degree because of my autism. I always knew I didn't fit in, and I always felt extremely vulnerable in social situations.

As a parent most of my fear or anxiety is about my kids' wellbeing. My son and his best friend were stabbed in a random attack of violence four years ago, and his friend nearly died. My other son has been beaten up and attacked several times in his life because he's travelled the world on his own, and he's been homeless for short periods of time. My daughter travels the world alone, so I worry for her safety and wellbeing as a woman.

I don't even worry about things like car accidents because, compared to what we've already been through, a fender bender would be the least of my concerns.

So far, mentally, I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar I, PTSD, Asperger’s (I was diagnosed under DSM IV-TR)

Physically, Diabetes type Ii, hypertension, and stage 3a chronic kidney disease.

Growing up in the 1960’s and 1970, and the prevailing attitude has not changed, diagnosis of mental disease means you’re nothing more than a slovenly, lazy-a$$ed motherf!cker who doesn’t deserve to live.

Certainly if I were to list the things that bother me in order of importance, anxiety would be at or very near the top. My anxieties are often rather out of proportion to the actual risk and/or (perhaps to a lesser degree) to the consequences of that risk being realised. But I don't know how it would be possible to objectively compare my own feelings of worry with those of other people, as such feelings aren't objectively observable. And maybe, if I do feel anxiety more strongly than the average person, it's simply because I may feel most things more intensely than others do. So I tend to feel skeptical about the validity of the concept of "generalised anxiety disorder," and I think some of these psych ailments are just constructs designed to force reality into pigeon-holes so that the health professionals find these things easier to think about.

My own anxiety doesn't normally mess with my functioning, except that it's rather uncomfortable and causes me to spend a lot of time taking precautions against whatever risks I notice. There's a "condition" called defensive pessimism in which taking such precautions is the way of managing stress, and it's been said that it's better not to try to interfere with it lightly.

I did notice once that I felt surprisingly gung-ho about some dental surgery after drinking a green liquid the dentist had strongly recommended. He was rather vague about what it was, and just said it was a relaxant. Normally I hate having dental surgery of any intensity, but that one experience was not unpleasant. I'd drink that green liquid quite often if it were without any downside and if it were freely-available and affordable. Anyway, it gave me a glimpse of what life could be like if I were more relaxed. But apparently being relaxed isn't the only thing it does. The dentist insisted somebody accompanied me home in case I walked under a bus or something.

I've been scared of being shot at, but only because some jerks who lived nearby kept firing guns - including something very loud that was probably an assault rifle. I think my fear was reasonable, and given that they were breaking the law by firing them at all, it's hard to imagine that they were particularly responsible people, so I figured a stray bullet might come my way. I had no way to determine whether or not they were using those guns safely all the time. But the gunshots eventually stopped and I haven't been scared of any such thing since.

There's a particular kind of risk that I hate - one in which the risk is of devastating consequence but the degree of risk is fairly small, while mitigating the risk is cumbersome and possibly harmful in itself. It's very hard to decide which is the better option.

I usually feel a lot better about dangerous situations if I know I'm doing something about them. I feel worse when I feel I'm allowing myself to be paralysed by fear or procrastination. Often when I've known there's nothing I can do about a risk, I've not felt very scared at all.

I have always been a worrier. I'm diagnosed with GAD, but I don't know if it's accurate tbh. Or perhaps my meds are just effective so that I don't worry about random stuff as much as I did before. Idk. (I do agree with my OCD diagnosis.)

Some people make fun of me for being anxious (mostly on forums like this). I heard it's intelligent to worry, but I don't think it is in every case. In my case I worry because I'm not very knowledgeable about a situation. So when I ask I suppose I sound dumb.

A lot of my anxiety is social anxiety, thinking that everyone is watching me and judging me. I feel a lot more confident when I'm with someone else but when I'm on my own I feel I have to make decisions myself and I feel afraid that I'll look nervous or embarrass myself in front of people and everyone will laugh at me. The reason I lack confidence is because I've done some embarrassing things by being confident. Things don't seem to work out for me like they do everyone else. I copy what other people do but when I do it it suddenly feels wrong and stupid. So I back away, into my shell, nervous and worried about what everyone is thinking and feeling. All this leads to anxiety and even avoidance.

^
I don't see worry as an intelligent thing at all. Appropriate concern, that might be intelligent, but I see worry/anxiety as the uncomfortable by-product of concern that doesn't help the problem. Though it depends on definitions, and it could be that without the pain of anxiety to drive us towards looking for solutions, we'd take too many risks. OTOH sometimes people overcompensate, or they just don't look for solutions at all but sit there suffering. I've occasionally suspected that I'm no more anxious than anybody else, but just notice it more because my perfectionism wants it cleared out of my life so I can be perfectly calm and happy all the time.

Went through a brief paranoid-like phase after I had been beaten up by a gang of muggers one night years ago. But got over it.

So no...I dont go through life worried about being physically assaulted all of the time.

How do you get diagnosed with all these disorders? If I ever go to the doctor, they usually dismiss my problems.

I've had so many horrible things happen to me, I don't know why I don't get diagnosed with anxiety etc. I just have to soldier on, overlooked. I generally find out what works for me and do that, with no help. No idea why. I suppose I say the wrong things to the doctor.