Can medication give you Aspergers?

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FunkyPunky
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17 Dec 2017, 1:51 pm

So here's what happened to me: my parents say I wasn't born with Aspergers. They say when I was five or six they took me to a doctor who sat me down in a room full of toys and asked me questions. Like any little kid I wasn't able to focus on the crusty old guy while being surrounded by awesome toys. The doctor told my parents that that wasn't normal and that it must mean I have ADHD and also suicidal tendencies for some reason. They started putting me on a ton of different medicines to "cure" it though a lot of them had some really bad effects on me. One made me throw up uncontrollably and another made me cry all the time. My parents say that I didn't start displaying autistic traits until after I had been drugged to hell and back so they think the medicine is what gave me Aspergers. Is this possible?



MariaTheFictionkin
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17 Dec 2017, 2:04 pm

I never heard of medication giving someone Asperger's... sounds a little bit far fetched in my opinion, but what do I know.


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17 Dec 2017, 2:06 pm

What medication was it and how long did your parents let you stay on them for?


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17 Dec 2017, 3:17 pm

The Asperger's might have been there all the time but the medication made you unable to cope. Something similar happened to me, only in adulthood - the drugs I was taking made me unable to mask and cope, and generally pass for normal as I did for most of my life.
Or the age when the traits started to be visible happened to be when you were taking the drugs.
Or you don't have Asperger's but the drugs in your childhood messed up with your social development - in this case it maybe could be reversed by a good psych.
In either case, the doctor and your parents did really awful job to you.


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Kiriae
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17 Dec 2017, 3:40 pm

Asperger can mimic ADHD at young age. It was the case for me. And I didn't receive any drugs.
Asperger symptoms get worse the more the expectations exceed the kids abilities. Which happens naturally as the kid grows up. What was "cute" in a 6 year old is "terrible" in a 12 year old and being punished for traits you always had and that never bothered anyone is really hurtful and can cause emotional meltdowns.

Aside that though drugs do mess up with emotions and behaviour and usually have a lot of side effects. Not to mention a drug intended to make you calm can make some people nervous or overly energetic instead. Different people react differently. So drugs might be the cause for your bad behaviour. But they didn't cause your Asperger because it was probably there from the start.



FunkyPunky
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17 Dec 2017, 11:39 pm

I don't remember the names of any of the medicines they experimented me on. I do know that a different doctor finally settled on making me take Stratera. I took it all through my childhood and hated it. I had to take it at night so I could go right to sleep or else I would throw it up. When they found out I have depression too they made me start taking Abilify with it. Abilify wired me up but I still had to take it at night. That means that I couldn't sleep and would end up throwing up the Stratera every night. I eventually went cold turkey on both without telling my parents and by the time they found out years later I was obviously doing just as well (if not better) than I was when taking them.



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18 Dec 2017, 12:03 am

Sounds to me like it could be a case of requirement exceeding capacity. I can do really well up to a point. When stresses get too much for me to handle, I become much more obviously autistic. If I can keep the stress / demands within my capacity, I can come close to passing for NT. Today I had a Dr's appointment. I have quite a phobia about Dr's so I presented as having rather serious autism. I don't want to do that, it's just what happens. The Dr was very nice. He seemed quite concerned about me. He actually asked me if I was OK and was there anything he could do to help. The only thing that helps is getting back to where I'm within my capacity which means getting out of the appointment. It sucks.
I've also reacted badly to so many medications so you have my sympathy. In fact it's my long history of adverse reactions that have helped cause my Dr phobia!


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23 Dec 2017, 10:55 pm

No it cannot give you AS. It would have to be something else. I took medicine that gave me seizures but that didn't mean I had epilepsy. It was just the side affects of the pills from anxiety so my parents had to take me off them.


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