Aspie in need of some advice

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Hi there

I am a 40 year old aspie and I used to love working with computers and lately I seem to be getting less enthusiastic about staying in the field, I still love technology, but not to the point of building and repairing them. I am not sure what is happening at the moment and I wonder if anyone here has this problem?

I am taking citralopram anti depressants and I think it could be the problem or maybe I am just changing.

I haven't been interested in anything since I was about 20. You've done alright so far.

Hi! I am 31 and work as an environmental engineer. I have done it for 5.5 years and am getting terribly bored so I now how you feel.

I also took Citolopram for one year back in 2007 and I lost interest in everything. I slept better and felt happier but just wasn't interested in my video games, novels, and even my motorcycle started to get boring for me (AND I LOVED THAT MOTORCYCLE!).

I switched to Prozac in late 2007 and stayed on that until June 2009 and was interested in some things again. Since 2009, I have been largely unmedicated but have to exercise every single day and meditate every single day to cope and stay healthy. Being unmedicated except for occasional anxiety meds, I find that I am highly interested in my "special interests" again.

It could just be that Citolopram is not optimum for you and/or you are ready for a change in your work field. For example, since environmental engineering is getting kind of boring for me, I am thinking of going back to graduate school to obtain a PhD in some other field of engineering.

I tend to feel depressed and dejected if I am bored and vice versa...a bit of a vicious cycle if you will.

I don't believe you, fraac. I say that because I see your posts here on WP and you are definitely interested in helping people and communicating with us. That is something!

Just to say that Citalopram reduced my motivation to zero.
I was taking it "for work" but it did quite the opposite. I did sleep and eat better but it took my ability to go crazy over my interests so in turn it took who I was.

I was on that for a while and it had the same effect with me.
Yeah, it helped a little with some aspects of the depression but the cost was my interests.

In another thread, I ran across a study, that suggested that 40 percent of men, age 45 and older have testosterone levels of that of a 70 year old man. It's not something that one would normally consider at age 40 or a thing that doctors routinely test at that age.

This is a relatively new phenomenon that has been studied from historical medical data in society. One in Denmark recently and another in the US, suggest that overall testosterone levels are declining in adult males, moreso for individuals born after 1960, as opposed to those born in the earlier part of that century.

There are several theories as to why, but no one has a definitive answer.

Low testosterone can cause all the symptoms of depression, but antidepressants won't do much good, if testosterone is at the root cause of the symptoms.

Not likely at your age, but not something to completely rule out, particularly if you are losing interests in other areas of life, as well.

It could be the Citalopran, but it could also be that your interests are moving on. It's hard to know.

"Where do I end and the medications begin" - I am trying to figure that out.

But if you are losing interest in everything, then I'd try something else. I was on Citalopran, but it didn't work. Now I'm on Effexor and Abilify, but it's different for everyone.

Thank you for the replies

This evening I was looking at building a new computer and I have no motivation at all, several years ago, I would have died to get what I want, I must admit, I feel a sense that I could be maturing slowly and my mind is trying to struggle as it used to just do it without thinking.

I do not seem to rush out and buy DVDs anymore, I take a step back and think of my finances.

You guys are really helping me as I do not have much contact personally with other aspies, I am having a social worker assessment to get support etc.

I am slow in getting things done, now it is getting slower.

Get some exercise in the sun. Go to a beach or a meadow. Try horseback riding in the woods.

This is actually great advice. I was amazed at how my outlook brightened once I started forcing myself to get out and walk for 45 minutes per day. It sounds too simple to work but it does!