Stress Control Tips, Please

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Right now I'm under some serious pressure, having to do a lot of things, including new things; which is making all the problems I have (AS and non-AS related) hit me much harder than usual. I'm having to put aside a lot of things I should be doing, just to have the mental energy to keep going to school, and I'm having huge problems with inertia/perseveration. To clarify: this is mental exhaustion, not physical, though it can put you to sleep just as easily.

So... I need some tips. How do you keep your stress level down? Is there a way to do "too much" temporarily, without going entirely crazy? I really just have to last through one more week, and then I'll be done with finals and I'll have spring break to spend entirely curled up under my comforter if I so desire...

What are your stress control methods?

Well my meds help me the best to stay calm tbh. The best advice I can give is to get away from the places you feel drained in. Maybe its your room or house etc. Whatever the place try to have a change of scenery, maybe study at the park or in a library. Try to stay away from places which you have already felt stressed out.

Another thing is to get your mind off whats stressing you out. If its your studies, try to find time to something which isn't relate to it in anyway. This is the best advise I can give I'm afraid.

Breathing methods work good enough for me ^^ . Coupled with some visualisation tricks.

Making sure I exercise regularly has been the best help for me, even though it doesn't get rid of stress entirely.

yes I had the same problem when I left home and started school abroad. From the start it was all seen by me as a challenge and I wanted to cope with all my thoughts. It ended with me getting poked in the face (quite hard) by my best friend asking me if I was OK in a worried voice. I had passed out and started to twitch and kicked a small table in the air during my pass out. When I came to I had a horrible white noise in my brain like a broken transmission, this is called white noise and is a irregular time jump from one memory to the other basically frying your brain from overworking it and pressing it to collapse.

I realized I can't be a superhero and I let people close to me know I felt bad or get the f**k out of my life. Health comes first, you can not control your life if you can't control your mind.

I hope my story helps, I sure learned from my mistakes. It happens from worrying and over thinking things over and over + taking in additional info and processing it with the rest of your thought pushing from behind.

Don't f*** with your brain or it will proper f*** you back.

When I do a lot of research, I usually set aside an equal amount of time for pacing: one hour of studying equals one hour of pacing. This actually helps me quite a bit in combating mental exhaustion. Good luck on your finals, Callista.

Nutritional therapies can be VERY helpful with stress. There's a lot about stress that becomes a hormone and metabolic problem after a while, on account of the body shifts into different functioning when under stress. Your body chemistry literally changes when you are under stress for a while.

There are some nutritional effects in bodies under stress: you can develop deficiencies in B vitamins (which is why a lot of "stress formulas" have high B vitamin complex). You should also take in good quality oils, like olive oil and omega 3 marine oils. Your body uses omega 6 oils to make stress hormones and you can get out of balance because omega 6 fatty acid processing competes with omega 3 fatty acid processing for the same metabolic pathways.

There are amino acids that your brain uses to make specialized neurotransmitters and inhibitors that help moderate anxious, tense and obsessive mental states. A lot of so-called "calming" natural remedies actually contain these amino acids and help support the brain nutritionally to lower stress. These amino acids include theanine, taurine and methionine.

Theanine is an important amino acid that is a precursor to some calming and anti-seizure metabolites in the brain. GABA is a metabolite of taurine, and a synthetic analogue of GABA, gabapentin, is a popular drug being prescribed for anti-seizure, anti-insomnia and other uses. By supplementing with theanine in the evening, you can help reduce the cognitive effects of stress on the brain, including manic, obsessive, anxious thought behavior, insomnia and etc. Gabapentin, and GABA is considered very safe, and certainly theanine, an amino acid that's part of our normal nutritional intake, is a safe supplement to take provided you don't take insane amounts of it. When you supplement with theanine, your brain produces more GABA and other stress-relieving metabolites.

Taurine is also essential for proper brain function under stress. According to Wikipedia and its references, "...[in] animal studies, taurine produces anxiolytic effect and may act as a modulator or anti-anxiety agent in the central nervous system." It is also used for people who have hypertension and high blood pressure.

A good supplement I just ordered for someone else is "Source Naturals Serene Theanine with Relora" that is currently half-price on vitacost.com. It contains, among other things, theanine, GABA, taurine.

Another amino acid and its metabolite that has a big effect on brain function under stress is methionine, and its metabolite s-adenosyl methonine (SAM-e). The problem with SAM-e is that it can induce mania in hyperactive people, but if you are depressed or stressed, your natural production of SAM-e can become depleted, and this can account for some of the lack of energy in stressed people. So depending on what effect stress is having on you, you might want to supplement with methionine and/or SAMe, especially if you are feeling run-down and lacking energy. Some people don't know this but you should take SAM-e at least an hour before eating, on an empty stomach, or your stomach will dissolve and break down the metabolite into methionine and leave you with an expensive way to get more methionine, a common amino acid.

There are a lot of herbal remedies for stress, that target different parts of the body, like the adrenal glands. These are called "adaptogens". Here's a well-worded blog post on adaptogens:

ALL Adaptogens:
Have antistress qualities that provide stabilizing effects on the neuroendocrine system.
Increase the body’s resistance to physical, bio logical, emotional and environmental stressors.
Help to modulate and enhance the immune system.
Provide antioxidant nutrients.
Are non-toxic (unless abused).

How to Experiment
Read about adaptogens and choose one or several to experiment with. Then, take the recommended dose (or less) of quality adaptogens daily for at least 2 weeks. After each week evaluate if you noticed a change. If you noticed no change you can stop for 3 days and then re-evaluate. This test may not be entirely reliable for many reasons. One reason is because some adaptogens have a cumulative effect and keep working after you discontinue use. Your dose can be adjusted after one week up to double the recommended dose. You can also combine adaptogens and take many at the same time.

Because adaptogens are tonics and can be potent, I suggest picking a time to take them on a regular basis. If possible take on an empty stomach or 20 minutes after a meal. Here are some suggested adaptogens and best times:

Early Morning: rhodiola
Day: holy basil, eleuthero, schisandra, ginseng, astragalus, shatavari (women)
Day or night (including before sleep): cordyceps, reishi, ashwagandha
Tea (any time): holy basil (tulsi), Jiaogulan

Some of the above herbals are calming, but some are energizing and support adrenal gland function, like ginseng. Astralagus is energizing and helps support your immune system, which can get compromised when you're stressed. It's not hard to look up what the adaptogens are used for specifically, using Google.

So you are saying you have stress, but are you are getting hyper and anxious and need to free your mind so it can relax, or is your problem that you are getting low energy and run down, or is it that your immune system is run down and you're getting sick?

Each of these stress effects are related to specific metabolic things that stress can do to your body, and a natural healing approach would be to eat and supplement in such a way as to address the nutritional depletions or other physical problems that stress causes.

The best very quick and effective stress reliever for me would be physical activity that is very demanding, like running for 2 hours or something else that can reset your brain chemistry and flush stress out of your body. So I recommend challenging physical workouts. Also, settling whatever problem is making me anxious or afraid, really helps. And definitely getting good nutrition and supplements are important when having a lot of stress for a long time.

I've been doing a few nutritional therapies for my husband in the past few weeks, and he's really improving a lot despite working 14 hour days. Now, he doesn't like to leave the house in the morning without taking his vitamins and supplements (I have to set them out for him b/c there are several preparations for him to take). He says he feels really badly during the day if he skips taking them. He's the one I ordered the theanine/taurine/GABA complex for and we're looking forward to trying adding the amino acids to help him relax and sleep better.

A lot of the above herbals can get bought from a good-sized drugstore or Target vitamin section. Whole Foods has a lot of good quality pre-mixed herbal compounds for things like "stress", "energy" and so on.

Last edited by ephemerella on 13 Mar 2009, 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Exercise is good, especially for aggression, but if your fatigued, it doesn't always help. When reading, try to read while exercising like walking on a treadmill with a magazine or a stack of printed papers from internet research. Grab a highlighter as it may be your best friend. Don't work harder, but work smarter. Any time you can use the same research between papers, go for it. Find a method you can use that doesn't waste time, with research and study. I find it best to research mostly online (getting book stuff done first). There are online libraries where you can subscribe for like 20 bucks to get access to books that they scanned in online. Studying, first you want to study for the exams around the same time you plan to take the exam. If you study MWF at the same time you take an exam on a W for two weeks, you've classically conditioned your brain to think about that subject at that time. So recall is usually easier. The other thing is to color code your classes, and then use highlighters and markers with it. It helps your brain separate classes. But I often find myself in situations like sitting in music appreciation exam thinking was that in this class or history?

On stress, make sure you pace yourself to the best of your abilities. Also, make sure you do have time to have a little fun. Don't party till you drop, but go dancing or watch a movie or whatever you like to do to relax and have fun. Before you fall asleep, day dream yourself to sleep with thoughts of graduation rather than trying to relay information you just studied or argue your paper in your head or reminding yourself of things to do. You can also imagine yourself in your field or with a published paper or winning some award or whatever. A good one, imagine yourself at your 10 year high school reunion with your degree and showing off your major accomplishments to old classmates. But that way you are reminding yourself why you are in school, the daydreams of what you can achieve with all this work, and also, it's relaxing and not something that will keep you awake. Often we get to a point where we are too tired to sleep, and you waste time by trying to fall asleep. Daydreams are good. Also make your area good where you are getting good sleep. If you are dreaming the whole time without entering deep sleep mode, then you are going to feel more stressed through the day. Eat healthy as well. Protein is great for long lasting energy. Carbs are only temporary energy. You also want your daily fiber as constipation can make you feel sick. I know, TMI. But, also you want Vit C and Zinc so you don't get sick. You want to keep meals light where you aren't full like Thanksgiving dinner, but you aren't starving.

I personally find prayer to be relaxing and removes a lot of my worries. But if you don't believe in God, then you may find meditation or yoga or something like that relaxing. Try to keep yourself organized and your place of study clean. Too much clutter clutters your mind. And do something to make yourself feel like you look good. I didn't pay attention if you were a dude or not, but either gender, go get a massage or a hair cut or something. If you are worried about time or money, go down to walmart and see if they have any of those stress relieving dollar facials. That and a hot bubble bath is awesome relaxing. Dudes can do that too as long as nobody catches them doing it, right?

It's very tough being an engineering student. Here are some tips from my own experience:

Don't ever fall behind, even by one week! Read ahead if you are caught up and have free time.

Every year gets exponentially harder than the last, until you're expected to be a super brain machine by your senior year.

Definitely avoid sugar and refined starches (white bread, white pasta) during midterms and finals, because the unnatural glycemic index spikes lead to the body responding with insulin spikes that lead in turn to depressed blood glucose levels. So you get into a sugar rush-crash cycle that is very exhausting for the body after a few days/weeks.

If you drink coffee, try to transition to green tea during mid-terms and finals weeks, as that will give you caffeine, but won't rough up your body as much. You have to drink more green tea to get the same caffeine as coffee, but the effect on your body under long-term stress is much better with green tea than coffee.

Get as much great nutrition as you can. Take good quality nutritional supplements and eat a lot of fresh vegetables and whole grains. Try to sleep. Think of what you are doing like being an athlete during a tournament. You have to keep your body in good condition if you want to have good brain function while under a lot of stress.

Good luck w/midterms!

Edited to add: it was in school that I first started eating RAW vegetables so much. I simply had zero time for cooking and couldn't choke down the junk food at school food courts. So I just threw carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, yogurt, cubes of cheese and some whole grain crackers in baggies in my backpack and ate them throughout the day. Practically zero prep time, no cooking time, I could eat in between classes and I turned out healthier and had more energy when I had no time and was eating the raw foods than when I had more time and cooked. Only later did I learn that you get more energy from eating raw veggies etc, than eating a lot of processed starches.

Last edited by ephemerella on 14 Mar 2009, 6:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

Seriously, I thought nothing could help, and then I tried going to a yoga studio. As socially awkward it is and as difficult as it it, it has really aided in clearing my thinking and allowing me calm control over my emotions (especially anxiety) which I did not have before.

Yoga is really effective for people who have AS, in my experience. It's almost miraculous! I should start doing it again... thanks for the reminder.

yeah. i did Iyengar Yoa at one stage and my stimming and anxiety was considerably reduced.

re anxiety and stress now;

1. Exercise. yoga or walking, or swimming.
2. diaphragmatic breathing.
3. sensory dysfunction management - reduce external stimuli with hat, sunnies, earplugs and ipod with your favourite music.
4. good diet. lots of veges and complex carbs (rice not wheat) and protein. skip the crap food.
5. flaxseed capsules - omega 3,6 and 9 and excellent for the brain and wellbeing.

Wow, you have great strategies in place. It took me decades to learn the last 2. I'm only now looking into the breathing.

I bet you have lived a very proactive life.

The strategies were obtained last week - tuesday 2.30-3.30pm EST, from my very cool psychologist who is an AS specialist. He works specifically with ASD people and works closely with Attwood's bunch up on the Gold Coast and Brisbane near me.

He is very, very good and my sessions with him are about viewing AS in a positive light and seeing it as an asset and doing all one can to reduce the more difficult aspects some of us have (sensory issues etc.) whilst celebrating those aspects that are truly wonderful.

and they are.

and the diaphragmatic breathing has changed my life in a week. I stim VERY severely and obviously. I have a lot of repetitive movements that look very strange and eccentric. these have been reduced by about 50% through proper breathing strategies.
i laughed with my AS psych the other day.....all the money wasted on normal therapies...and it all gets solved with a notebook on the kitchen bench (for executive dysfunction), an IPOD, and free air.

I am 46. the strategies are newly acquired....

And i have lived a very strange life.

God bless you. Thank you for your positive, constructive post.

It's so hard sometimes coming here, with all the pain and despair surrounding some AS.

Then I come across posters like you, who get up and face the world over and over with hope. It's inspiring and healing.

Yes, I remember now, before I was traumatized the last time... hope and faith were great against stress.

well ephemerella, life is a s**t with AS at times....but it is bloody fantastic too.
i really would not swap it for the world. Never.

the perseverative capacities and tendencies, the hyperfocus, extreme visual thinking, strange synesthesic processes, acute sensory refinements (shall we say ) and highly individualised ways of thinking and experiencing the world can also make it a fun way to live.


it is good to rejoice in the positive aspects of AS.