should I take the medication my psychologist has suggested?

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I used to take some meds. They helped for quite a while. Some I tried made things worse so I was switched to other ones.

However, knowing what I know now I wouldn't take any again. I'd change my diet instead (and I have) as the results are healthier AND better in terms of eliminating anxiety/stress/depression vs. temporarily masking it dose by dose with a chemical pill doctors hope is a magic bullet to balance brain chemistry.

My 2₵s is that there is very little that psychologists or psychiatrists can do for people with autism. Especially older people. When people on the spectrum show up in their offices what they do want to treat is depression or anxiety, because they have pills for that. And, they can keep you coming back for checkups for years. These pills don't cure you, they "manage" a symptom that most people have now and then. Especially young people from 18-24 when we are all supposed to leave home during those years, find work, and a spouse perhaps. It's a time of big big pressure.

i take wellbutrin now in the mornings--i had to lower my dose (and split it into one pill with breakfast and then another a couple of hours later) because at first it made me a little shaky/twitchy, but since then it seems to work well for me without noticeable side-effects. i also managed to quit smoking last month.

to the OP: there are both benefits and drawbacks to being medicated, and it is highly individual for each person because our brain chemistry and metabolism can vary so much from person to person. i can't really tell you i think you should or shouldn't be on medication--it's up to you and your doctor to decide. from personal experience, however, i can tell you to keep yourself informed about anything your doctor suggests if you want to try it (not that we ASD people need much of an excuse to research things ), and communicate your concerns and experiences clearly with your doctor so they are best able to help you find what works for you. accurate self-reporting and being an informed patient are the best things you can do for yourself in regards to advocacy and effective treatment. good luck on your journey to wellness!

I was scared to take anti-anxiety medication. I don't have experience with the medicine you mentioned. I take buspirone. It is not a benzo or barbiturate. It is not addictive or something that gets you high. It made me a little drowsy when I first started taking it. Now I feel no side effects. My anxiety has improved significantly as has my ability to function. I didn't know how impaired I was by my constant anxiety until I started taking the buspirone and the anxiety subsided a bit.

Out of all the possible meds that can be prescribed for anxiety, if you can get it, I highly recommend marijuana. It's effective & likely the least harmful to your brain/body/health etc of any drug you could take.

agreed. I have the impression psychologists don't know what to do when an autistic adult show up. Plus nearly all the researches are made on kids and this is the age group they have contact with the most.
I think treating anxiety and depression is important because it affects our daily life a lot. At the same time they don't know exactly how to adress the sources of anxiety and depression that may be exclusive to autistics, the "roots" of these symptoms may have a different nature than of NT patients.
Here in Brazil we keep on living in our parents house while we are studying and they finance us. Usually those big changes in life and the independence come later, at 25 yo or so. For my case this is great because I can't imagine myself living alone at the age 17 or even now, I would probably have huge struggles.


I read in a research that marijuana makes permanent changes in the brain cognitive process and I wouldn't risk it
plus we can't take it. Not by legal ways, anyway. But I would never take it by illegal ways because it destroys my (and other) country. Police, militia, drug dealer, civilians, all killing each other because of the drugs. I am definitely not going to finance it.

I asked people to correct my mistakesin my signature but no one is doing this

I try to correct through modeling. I'm not perfect--but I believe I'm pretty proficient in my English (as it's the only language which I'm fluent in).
I don't think your English needs much work, actually--you make subtle mistakes with your grammar, and sometimes your semantics.

Once you continue to see how English is spoken, how it is written, and how it is presented, I believe you will be fine. If I see an error, I'll point it out to you. I believe you have been using that method, anyway--modeling your English writing on other peoples'

Is your primary instructional language in Portuguese? Or are there some courses that are taught in English? I would say, in Brazil, that there is a strong linguistic consciousness pertaining to Portuguese--a strong pride in the Brazilian version of the language--therefore, it would seem that Portuguese would be the language of instruction, with very few exceptions.

However, it is good to learn the fine points of English--since, for practical purposes, it has become a sort of "lingua franca" of the world.

I've read things like that, too. I've also read other articles saying that's false & that the negative research publications are simply the work of prohibitionists. In my opinion (and experience) IF marijuana does permanently change the brain, it doesn't destroy it. It may have greater effects on some people. It may also require a ridiculous quantity over many years to cause any real lasting changes or harm. But in general, it's my opinion (and experience) that it's a pretty harmless substance, especially when used in small infrequent quantities vs. someone smoking it all day every day for years on end. I can't say for certain, but I tend to believe there's a greater risk of synthetic pharmaceutical drugs causing permanent damage to peoples' brains than marijuana.

I recently read an article about a guy skiing some pharmaceutical company because anti anxiety and antidepressant drugs have permanently changed his brain functions for the worse. With the number of people on medications like these, I bet there are an awful lot of people who's brains have been altered/damaged by various meds, or combinations of them. I've taken some pharmaceuticals like these over the years, but I trust marijuana more than I trust big pharma.

Here, we can get it legally - but it's somewhat difficult & potentially costly. It's become very easy to get it semi-legally with a dispensary membership. I can go get one any time for $30 & then I'd have card that says I was a member and cops tend not to hassle people with them - however, I've never been hassled by a cop for anything, including marijuana, so I don't really have a need for it. Further, since so much of it is grown here it's very readily available illegally for anyone who wants it so it isn't necessary to get a prescription or dispensary membership to obtain it.

And yes, it kills people here, too - sort of. Not anywhere near as many people as in Mexico-South America, and mostly gangsters vs. innocent people.. but it's not marijuana that they die over. It's money/power/control. It's the lucrative nature of the drug trade created by the black market that people get killed over. If it were legal, it wouldn't be worth the money to fight and kill over. I just read that due to a couple of states legalizing it and so many others with medicinal programs that the wholesale prices in Mexico are dropping so far that it's not longer an economically viable crop for farmers to grow, so they're switching to poppies in order to sell heroin to America instead. Very classic economics.. "tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I'll behave." If they can't make money from weed, they'll make it from something else - whatever else they can.

With Venezuela legalizing marijuana, and with other US States about to follow suit (and then Canadian Provinces once our politicians no longer fear backlash from the American feds) maybe it will cease being a lucrative segment of the black market drug trade and people will stop being killed over it where you live? Hopefully so.

It can also have the opposite effect.

If by that you mean that it can make some people anxious, yes, that's true. It's just like any other medication. It works for most people, but some people react differently to it or to specific strains. If you mean that it could be the most harmful to your brain/body/health, then I have to disagree completely.

I hope you mean "suing." My brain took it literally at first, I was trying to figure out how it was possible.

Yes. Not sure how that happened - probably some sort of autocorrect suggestion that I just hit enter on.

That's my guess.

GABA helped me a lot. It's a non-prescription amino acid. Check out the quiz on the Edge Effect Eric Braverman google it online. This could help you decide.

apparently my dominant type according to the quiz is gaba, followed by dopamine and acetylcoline. But no type was 15 points lower or more so it was balanced according to the site.
then I made the deficiency test and I apparently have major deficiencies in gaba (highest deficiency), dopamine and serotonine. And a moderate deficiency of acetylcolinr.
well, what does it all mean? I tried to do some research but it seems like no one wants to say too much on the matter because they want you to buy the book.

There are masses of free information on the net about gaba.