Who has autism and is medication free?

Post Reply New Topic

Is there anyone who chooses to be off all medications? I used to take medication but I gave them all up because I didn't like how they made me feel. They weren't helping me cope anyway; they just made me dull and I wasn't as creative. So I thought, what's the point of these things? I went off cold turkey and had terrible side effects though-feeling very dizzy, mood swings but the side effects did go away.

Has anyone else had negative experiences with medication? Or perhaps, for you, meds are beneficial.

I have autism and don't need any medication.

A few years ago I tried some anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds for anxiety/depression/OCD (I didn't know about autism then), but none of them had any effect on me. I didn't feel any different. So I just abruptly stopped taking them (not supposed to do that) and nothing happened. It seems that I'm completely immune to medication.

My OCD and anxiety naturally gradually got better over the years. I still have them but they are manageable.

I have ADHD as well, which was actually diagnosed several years before. The stimulants are definitely helpful with focusing.

Other than my ADHD meds, I only take fluoxetine or sertraline, which seems to have made me just a tad bit less neurotic, but I can't be sure. Lamotrigine, lithium, and olanzapine all tended to negate any tendency toward positive mood, but nothing to keep my moods from crashing. I stopped taking the olanzapine and visiting that psychiatrist and just visit a GP now.

There was a girl whom I've met through here a while back, and she was diagnosed yet not taking anything. There are likely many others, but I was at the point that anything that could potentially helped seemed worth a try.

From what I've researched the medications commonly prescribed for ASD - anti-psychotics/mood stabilizers/anti-epileptics, anti-depressants, and stimulants don't really show that much effectiveness in the studies I've read. There's a lot more research leaning towards intranasal oxytocin (especially), memantine, and some other anti-alzheimer drugs. Of course, memantine was first produced in the 60s or 70s, so unfortunately it is unlikely that there will be push towards using these medications since they are not profitable to pharmaceutical companies.

One last thing: I believe for the most part any sort of contemporary non-medication based therapy (including practicing mindfulness, DBT/CBT, group social skills training). I'm actually a big proponent of mindfulness as it has been well studied and showed to improve many domains, including interpersonal.

I'm fortunate that I'm medication-free.

The last time I was prescribed medication for any sort of ASD symptom was in 1974, at age 13, when I was prescribed Ritalin for "hyperactivity." That only lasted two weeks. It seems as if I "aged" out of Ritalin, since it's actually a stimulant for people over the age of about 8 (if I'm not mistaken).

Medication free as I did not like the numbing and mind altering effects of anti-depressants. Chronic depression is quite hard to deal with but I'm learning to cope better over the years. Improving my diet and exercising regularly helped a lot with being able to do that.

I liked that I felt more focused and calmer on stimulant medication but I hated the restlessness and hyperactivity that come on as the medicine wears off (and I was scared of people being mad at me for it). It's weird to know my brain reacts like a small child, does anyone else get hyperactive and restless when the medicine wears off? Anyway I stopped taking because of that, it made me upset.

I have Aspergers and I've never taken any meds for it. My doctor told me that I could have sedatives or antidepressants if the condition got me too anxious or depressed, but I haven't taken up the offer. I did take sedatives once, before I'd heard of AS, but saw no evidence that they fixed the anxiety. I figure it was my environment that needed to be changed, not my brain chemistry, so I worked on that.

I haven't been on any medication since 2009 except prenatal vitamins and iron and stool softeners. I probably should be on it for anxiety but my health insurance doesn't cover medication.

The side affects I have had in the past were weight gain from Depakote I was on for seizures, and not being able to pee because my drug dose was too high which was Imaprimine (sp). Some other pill I was on in 4th and 5th grade for ADD gave me high metabolism so I could eat eat eat and not gain a pound.

Me. I see a therapist for occasional anxiety, but it's not something that needs to be medicated IMO. Never tried going on meds, either.

I do not consistantly take any medications on a daily basis...have tried various anti-depressants(prozac, effexor, wellbutrin) A couple other things to attempt treating the depression that where not specific anti-depressants zyprexa and some mood stabilizer that gave me allergy like symptoms. So yeah all those had side effects making them not worth while and had no real effect on symptoms aside from maybe making some worse. I am however prescribed trazodone and valium but those are for as needed, trazodone if I need to sleep and valium for anxiety/panic attacks. Aside from that I more or less self medicate with cannabis...though I don't solely smoke to help symptoms admittedly I do just want to get stoned sometimes.

I was never put on any medication for my autism, and probably never will.

I do take supplements though, but these are for issues that don't relate to autism.

I thought there's no medication for autism? If you have anxiety that's a separate issue. I stopped taking anxiety meds last June, in November I stopped taking antacid. I haven't felt too different so I guess that's OK. Right now I still take an OTC sleeping pill. But I've been taking that for years for insomnia. My kids don't take anything. They sleep like logs.

Herbs. They're great for people. I'll never understand the societal obsession with deviating from the basic natural solutions to so many common troubles. I think it has a lot to do with the puritanical revulsion towards our own anatomy.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

I don't take meds.
It's not that I totally don't need them, I just don't want to go down that path.
Sometimes I have issues with sleep so I just take two benadryls before bedtime and that usually works very well.