Are benzo's an Aspie's wonder drug?

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I've been around the block with different medications, lots and lots of medications. None of which gave me any significant relief from my symptoms around autism, or had given my a better quality of life, besides benzodiazepines.

I recently got my doctor to prescribe me clonazepam and it is quite literally a life saver. It dulls my sensory sensitivities so much I can function and do the in and outs of daily life with out feeling completley overwhelmed and riddled with anxiety. My quality of life has improved 10fold. He's got me on a small dose though too small for any relief so unfortuantley if I want the benefits of the medication I have to take 2-3 pills instead of my one. Which is kinda BS because 3 years ago he had me on 2mg 3x a day and now I'm on .5 mg 2x a day. :/

So I'm going the route of buying medication online. New benzo's that have not yet been scheduled by the FDA so they are in a grey area to purchase, so I'm safe from any kind of legal trouble going this route.

Anyone else take benzo's? What have they done for you?

I have just started taking klonopin, it is very subtle at least it seems that way at the beginning but I do think it has done a good job at controlling my anxiety in that moment particularly the physical symptoms of it and I'm just noticing myself acting differently than I would normally in certain situations. They have me on the same dose, I don't have a ton of experience with benzos but I'll take an extra pill when things are real bad as well. Lifesaver? I dunno, I doubt I would of made it this far in school otherwise.

SSRIs and antipsychotics are poison

I took something like that a while ago, and although I felt it is helping, it actually did more damage than actually help me feel better. It seems, you only feel better with it for a short while, then after that it starts to make things worse, when you take it on a regularly basis. I'd say, you only should take these things if you have to, and there is no other choice. I take painkillers, for example, only when my head really hurts bad, and feel like it is about to explode. I'd say, use medication as a "last resort" kind of thing, when you are absolutely out of other, less risky options.

Yes. I'm pretty sure there's some trials out there showing improvements in ASD symptoms on such (haven't read 'em, though).

My theory is we have problems with GABA production, hence why we become overwhelmed with doing more than one task/something new. Or, just giving us more GABA can band aid effect that to some extent (GABA being a part of executive functioning).

The problem is that around half of all people (mice, actually) lose the effect of one dosage level and need to take more for the same effect. Unknown if it's the same with people with autism; it isn't for me (I could just be one of the mice that doesn't, though).

Valium is probably the best due to the long half-life. Not as initially potent, and perhaps harder to get a tolerance to.

No I don't think they are a 'wonder' drug.

Benzos will blunt the senses though and reduce anxiety but the problem is the side-effects and the fact you will have to take them every day for the rest of your life and probably at ever increasing doses. I'm not sure any psych meds are the answer for Aspies........ but I guess it depends how bad your functioning is.

I've used Ativan for the last 2 years so the above statement makes me a hypocrite.

As much as they can hurt, I can't afford anything but to keep my senses razor sharp.

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...I've had very bad experiences with psych meds in the past and absolutely refuse to take them .
Do you think I should not do that ?

Medicine can do you a lot of harm if your body does not need it, or when your symptoms does not match what the med you are taking is supposed to cure. Doctors can sometimes prescribe the wrong medicine, and that is the psychiatrist's fault, not the patient's fault. There is probably some flaws in the field of medicine where the professionals fail to prescribe the right medicine for patients and say it treats the wrong things, etc. That is atleast the only assumption I can arrive at from seeing many people around me taking these medicine and only feeling worse than they felt before taking it. I feel sorry for them, and for everyone else in this thread who may be taking medicine that does not fit their symptoms.

As needed they can be an effective tool but certainly should not be the only tool in your toolbox. When used everyday, that is just a recipe for disaster. Run a simulation in your head of what 1, 3, 5 years from now will look like. When you take benzos daily you build tolerance, needing more of them to get the same effect. Eventually you will reach a prescribing ceiling where they simply won't prescribe more.

You will either end up having to take the benzos that no longer work simply to avoid withdrawal or worst case scenario, your supply will either be intentionally(doctor just decides to stop prescribing them) or unintentionally cut off(doctor who was prescribing them retires, or dies, or moves) and you will be forced to go cold turkey. Cold turkeying high enough benzo doses has resulted in death. The withdrawal can last years of imaginable hell.

Taking them everyday is like mortgaging your future, paying your debts; the anxiety that incur in the here and now with payday loans(drugs). Eventually the drugs will come to collect what they are owed.

Clonazepam and Klonopin are the same thing.

There is solid research about small dosage Clonazepam (0.25mg) being beneficial for low GABA levels which is a feature also identified in research on ASD.

The initial change can be dramatic.

There are lots of old threads on GABA, Clonazepam, and related stuff.

In time, unfortunately, the brain realises that it is getting a 'free' supply of GABA given to it, so it stops making its own. This causes the level of GABA to fall, causing the perception that the drug has 'stopped working'. Actually it's the opposite - the brain has stopped doing the work, and has become reliant on external supply.

At that point you have to stop taking Clonazepam for a while and let your brain get back into production of this important calming neurotransmitter. [People - even including doctors - make the understandable mistake at this point of upping the dose - it won't work, and can indeed lead to addiction. You don't want that to happen.]

After a few months, you can resume Clonazepam at the same very small (non-addictive) dose of 0.25mg and it will have the effect as when you first started taking it.

I hope this is helpful to you. There is solid research that many people on the spectrum are born with an innate GABA deficiency. So yes, in a sense, Clonazepam can be a wonder drug for many. Low GABA is a leading cause of anxiety. If one experiences the almost immediate disappearance of lifelong anxiety after swallowing one pill, then for the person, it is an extraordinary experience, an experience of wonder, hope and joy.

In the past, they have exacerbated my thoughts of suicide and on one particularly torturous occasion led to a period in which I could not distinguish my reality from fantasy. But I must admit that in a few instances I did ignore my psychiatrist's advice by discontinuing abruptly as opposed to the recommended 'weaning' process.

Lots of good information and experience here
I've been down the route of many different psych medications, and none of them have relieved the core autism symptoms of communication difficulties, social anxiety, and limited interests. I would be really happy just to have reliable anxiety relief. Most psych meds, especially SSRIs, have *really* unpleasant effects on me. In fact I tend to have atypical reactions to a variety of meds. Benzodiazepines are the one med that actually relieves my anxiety reliably. I have cPTSD and the unexpected waves of deathly fear that come up are relieved by lorazepam. The other benzodiazepines work well with me too. However there is one critical issues - they all produce a strong rebound effect / addiction. Taking a constant dose results eventually in habituation: with intervals of relief alternating with intervals of exacerbated symptoms and withdrawal. Lying wide awake at 3 AM on a worknight. So I need something like low-dose seroquel to keep from experiencing that rebound. However seroquel tends to oversedate me, and eventually I end up habituated to the med combination anyway over the long term and getting off it involves withdrawal and even worse anxiety than I normally have. When I can be off all meds (was for years), I've felt the most stable and positive. Meds are a last resort for me when I get overwhelmed, like with the layoffs coming where I work.

I used to take Diazepam. I took it initially because I couldn't cope with losing someone I was close to, and my anxiety shot through the roof. But my anxiety never really went away, and I stayed on them (anything up to about 10mg a day) for four years. They helped at first. But the for the last year or so of taking them, the anxiety relieving effects started to wear off and they just weren't working as well as they once did. I found they actually increased my anxiety, because they started making me feel physically unwell, like being extremely hungover and that would make me anxious because anything I feel physically that isn't normal for me makes me panic. So I would take more to ease that anxiety, then I'd feel more anxious... it was a nightmare.
Then about 18 months ago I was offered acupuncture from my GP. I didn't think it would work. I was so wrong. I have needed to take only three since that time (one for a particularly nasty panic attack, one to help me relax enough to get some sleep whilst I had a dental abscess and the other when I had my tooth removed because I'm terrified of the dentist). Which is pretty amazing considering I took them daily before! I had about six acupuncture sessions and although I do still suffer with anxiety, and I do still get panic attacks at times, I have been managing them without taking any medication.