Anyone have luck with CFGF diet or specific meds?

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I'd like to try the CFGF diet to see if ridding my body of those substances could give me a little more clear-headedness and help me not to zone out so often. Has anyone tried it? Anyone have positive results? And what about meds? I've never heard of anything specifically for Asperger's or autism or anything helping at all with either but I'm just wondering. . . I'm sort of at the end of my rope. I've been in therapy forever for all sorts of issues (anxiety, depression) that I have realized in the past few years all stem from the Asperger's and it's never done me any good. The scary thing is, the older I get the worse everything seems to get. I'm on disability because of the anxiety after trying for years to work and am basically a hermit now. And it sucks, because it's like I can see just who I COULD be if it weren't for the AS but no matter how hard I try I don't even come close. As a matter of fact, every time I put myself out there I end up trusting the wrong people and getting treated like $hit. I'm very intelligent if you look at results of my official IQ test, I'm ridiculously organized and I'm very hard-working when I do have a job, I just can't navigate the work world because it's not actually based on talent or hard work but rather who can blow the most smoke up the boss' a$$, something that I've never been able to succesfully do.

Autism is so varied there is no medication that will help everyone with it. But if you have depression, anxiety or psychosis there are meds you can take. You have to change every once in a while though; at least I did, because they stop working. Or you have to up the dose. Celexa worked on me, Zyprexa worked on me, so did Geodon and Abilify and Risperdal and loxapine and Ativan. Even Haldol worked on me, but only after making me feel worse first. But Haldol gave me akathisia and I couldn't take it anymore after 2 weeks. Zyprexa made me eat all day long and gain 16 pounds in 2 or 3 weeks. Risperdal sedated me too much. Abilify didn't work at first but then it worked. Zyprexa, Geodon, and Celexa stopped working.

Thanks Ana54. I've been through the whole med rollercoaster too. Nothing ever worked on me (Abilify, Ativan, Xanax, Lexapro, Zoloft, Paxil, Pristiq, Seroquel - and those are just the ones I remember) except Effexor, which I had to discontinue after it gave me dry mouth so severe I couldn't eat and lost a LOT of weight. I'm scared to try the "harder" ones like Haldol or Lithium for fear I would be completly non-functional, like not even able to do the basics like feed myself and not piss my pants, lol. Klonopin helps with the anxiety but I can't do anything but sleep when I take it so I end up doing what I'm trying to escape doing, which is absolutley nothing at all. If that makes any sense . . .

I was also on Prozac and I don't think it worked, and Seroquel made me worse.

The only thing that has worked for me is understanding, allowing and accepting self, years of roller coaster rides before that!

Whatever our differences, whoever we are, they are part and parcel of self, stereo typing in the media is where the real damage is often done, none autistic individuals thinking they know us better than those with real lived experiences, the only thing I do know I can no longer pretend, live a lie to please others and so my best advice as someone said to me, stick with like minded individuals, it really works... those that understand and allow, as we can be no one else but ourselves and no medication, diet will change that...

and yes of course some find some medication, diet helps them, just like those not on the autism spectrum we are just as different each and every one of us..., but for me I saw my mother take medication, after medication all her life and all that happen is she became more and more lost and was never happy on this planet, no one allowed her, her differences!

none of the medications worked for me, as my symptoms they got worse. I was put on it for depression and anxiety, but it turned out that my depression and anxiety was the result of being misunderstood for my asperger's, where I was placed in inappropriate services that i did not need(group home), and other people not understanding that I am independent and can take of myself, at the same time I can not handle everyone's needs that they impose on me.
Pretty much, my issues were from the stress of other people, not anything to do with actual depression and anxiety. So I am off the medications and doing better, as long as I avoid those people and situations.
The medications were harmful, as I developed Diabetes from Seroquel, but now I no longer have diabetes, since coming off Seroquel. I even gained a lot of weight, which I now lost all of it since I no longer take anything. Before medications, i was about 100 lbs. I started taking medications at age 20 and weighed anywhere from 150 lbs.-210lbs. Now that I am off the medications, i now weight 105 lbs. I was always about 105 lbs, because all of my female relatives on my dad's side weight about that much and I take after dad. I also became academically mentally ret*d where I was not able to do any simple academics, even though I am capable of doing advanced school work(I was in the honors program in high school and graduated in the top 1/3 of my class),I did not have any thinking abilities what so ever and was physically damaged.
The medications did not work, instead they took my personality away from me and I was too "gullible" where I believed anyone and I was taken advantage of by family and my autism agency where I was easily tricked into thinking that i need them and allowed them to take over my life without having the intelligence and/or guts to tell them that I do not need them. I was easily conned into allowing them control over me and it way too easy for them to get their way with me. It was like they used the medications to "brainwash" me into getting me to do what was best for their needs, which was to control me and have their way with me, even though I do not need them and I am too intelligent and independent to be controlled and cared for by the agency and family.

As for the Gluten free/casein free diet, i am on it because I have food intolerance to gluten,wheat,MSG,casein,lactose and artificial sweeteners. The diet does not really help with my Asperger's symptoms, but helps with diarrhea and physical symptoms.

Three years ago, I was zoning out constantly and spacing all my stuff out, losing it constantly. So, I went on the gluten free diet. It didn't help. Then, an expert in AS told me that the diet is proven to work with children, but not adults.

What DID work for me was medications.

I don't have cow's milk because I may be lactose intolerant and I react badly when I drink it or eat it in other things.
Other than food intolerances obviously, I don't think it'd make much difference to cut out casein or gluten.

...I have successfully eliminated depression, mood disorder, panic, and poor sleep, aswell as reduced chronic feelings of stress/anxiety/overload etc, by excluding gluten. Whenever I re-introduce gluten I find that after a few days my mood darkens, that I become increasingly intense, driven, pessimistic etc, and if I don't stop the gluten within a couple of weeks I head inexorably towards depression.

This seems to be the case for quite a lot of people, who have few, or even none, of the classic gastro-intestinal problems indicating gluten intolerance. It can be quite a surprise to find out just how much effect it has on one. When I first went on an exclusion diet I woke up on the fourth morning feeling as if I had been living in an airport, under a motorway, next to a construction site, etc, and that suddenly the noise had stopped. I cried with relief.

I also find it helps to reduce casein too, ( in dairy ), as it has a spacey, stimulant effect on me, which can make me go hypo-manic.

One good indicator of whether gluten, and/or casein, might well be a problem for you is if you are addicted to either one, crave them, have to have some every morning to start your day, etc, because addiction to the food is a common, even classic, symptom of food intolerance.

Watch out for hidden sources of gluten; hydrolysed vegetable protein, soya sauce, flavourings on salty snacks, malted products, because they can prevent you feeling the full benefit, confuse things.

Most importantly, you see more and more positive effects over time. Gluten/food peptide opioids from gluten and casein are stocked in the liver and/or kidneys for as long as 28 weeks after you stop eating any, and the brain will take a while to recover, just as if it had been on opioids. Life can feel rather "flat" for quite a while. But the results are definitely worth it, if you are intolerant of gluten and/or casein.

Good luck.