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“Pseudo-Autism” as a result of psych drug injury (another consideration in protracted withdrawal syndrome from psych meds)


GiaK

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I found an article at Mad in America quite fascinating and on point. I hadn't heard the term pseudo-autism but it's exactly my experience too. I'm sharing the link to the article and my comment in response to the article here.   https://beyondmeds.com/2017/04/10/pseudo-autism/

Everything Matters: Beyond Meds 

https://beyondmeds.com/

withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug.
 

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Thanks for the share and comments too!!  Fascinating and so well written really.........definitely another consideration and more on the infectious/immunity angle too.  I  could relate to a lot of what she described......some differences, some similarities........my own personal experience.......

 

Brilliant really.

Late 2023- gone to emeritus status, inactive, don't @ me, I can check who I've posted on, and I'm not really here like I used to be......thanks.

Started with psycho meds/psychiatric care circa 1988.  In retrospect, and on contemplation, situational overwhelm.

Rounding up to 30 years of medications(30 medication trials, poly-pharmacy maximum was 3 at one time).

5/28/2015-off Adderal salts 2.5mg. (I had been on that since hospital 10/2014)

12/2015---just holding, holding, holding, with trileptal/oxcarb at 75 mg. 1/2 tab at hs.  My last psycho med ever!  Tapered @ 10% every 4 weeks, sometimes 2 weeks to

2016 Dec 16 medication free!!

Longer signature post here, with current supplements.

Herb and alcohol free since 5/15/2016.  And.....I quit smoking 11/2021. Lapsed.  Redo of quit smoking 9/28/2022.  Can you say Hallelujah?(took me long enough)💜

None of my posts are intended as medical advice.  Please discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical provider.  My success story:  Blue skies ahead, clear sailing

 

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Thanks for posting this, GiaK.  I also can relate to a lot of what she writes. 

 

Not long after being drugged for the label manic-depression, I was also diagnosed with a schizoid personality, which is similar to autism in many ways. 

 

It seems if you put someone on a large enough drug cocktail, you can remove their personality, then their humanity. And in many ways, de-humanizing patients is part of the psychiatric process, as it allows for the inhumane treatment that psychiatry has left in its wake, from lobotomies, to ECT, to forced drugging, to convincing us that society as a whole is mentally ill, deflecting us from issues such as income inequality, food injustice, lack of affordable housing, child abuse, domestic violence, etc.

 

With 1 in 5 children in the US being on foodstamps (in some studies, it's now 1 in 4), perhaps the rise in autism in this country is more about the lack of quality food and malnutrition in these early, formative years, as well as being born to women with inadequate quality diets. And some studies show 85% of children in this country are in substandard daycare, understaffed with activities such as watching TV instead of the kind of nurturing and attention that babies and toddlers need in order to develop social skills. 

 

Since the concepts of gut and microbiome issues are being put out there, it seems valid to also list the societal malfunctions that are at play. If society really wants to end this epidemic of so-called autism, perhaps we should call it out for what it is - a by-product of growing austerity. And then fix that. This, by the way, would also take care of a lot of the problems that lead to the psychiatric drug-induced form of autism, or psuedo autism. 

 

I read the full article by Twilah Hiari on the MiA site, which also links to her website with other great articles:

 

http://www.athinkingpatient.com/

 

I think she's really in the process of un-patienting herself. I hope she eventually sheds the autism diagnosis and comes full circle. In her brief MiA bio, she has a degree in Philosophy. Perhaps one day, she will label herself "Philosopher". 

 

 

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Shep,

 

Exactly......on what you say about the "schizoid personality" being very similar to autism.......and the rest of your thoughts!!!! :)

 

Hope so too......that she is in that process of un-patienting herself and can shed the diagnostic label.  Whatever brings her the best outcomes and keeps her feeling connected to the human "race"?  I fully could relate to her "in between" status.......that where do I belong now? type of thinking and some of the reactions that she is getting from others, feelings of exclusion, etc.  We are right where we are supposed to be I suppose.  It's good.  It's good enough.  It's great.  It's real.  It is so very free-ING sometimes.

 

Cool on her degree in Philosophy.  I hadn't fully read her bio I guess, or picked up on that.

 

Best,

 

manymoretodays

Late 2023- gone to emeritus status, inactive, don't @ me, I can check who I've posted on, and I'm not really here like I used to be......thanks.

Started with psycho meds/psychiatric care circa 1988.  In retrospect, and on contemplation, situational overwhelm.

Rounding up to 30 years of medications(30 medication trials, poly-pharmacy maximum was 3 at one time).

5/28/2015-off Adderal salts 2.5mg. (I had been on that since hospital 10/2014)

12/2015---just holding, holding, holding, with trileptal/oxcarb at 75 mg. 1/2 tab at hs.  My last psycho med ever!  Tapered @ 10% every 4 weeks, sometimes 2 weeks to

2016 Dec 16 medication free!!

Longer signature post here, with current supplements.

Herb and alcohol free since 5/15/2016.  And.....I quit smoking 11/2021. Lapsed.  Redo of quit smoking 9/28/2022.  Can you say Hallelujah?(took me long enough)💜

None of my posts are intended as medical advice.  Please discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical provider.  My success story:  Blue skies ahead, clear sailing

 

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unpatienting oneself -- unlabeling --- always good. let us be who we are without a box of any kind. 

 

thanks for the comments! 

Everything Matters: Beyond Meds 

https://beyondmeds.com/

withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug.
 

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  • 1 year later...

Thank you so such for starting this topic! 

 

I have gotten much better since my little updose a few weeks ago. My obsessive intrusive thoughts are now less debilitating. However I now have a symptom that is so strange and bizarre, I cannot explain what it is and I’ve searched looking for something similar on here and I still cannot find anything even close to what I’m experiencing. 

 

I hope its it’s benign and related to wd and will go away and not get worse. 

 

Sometimes if if my phone is sitting to the left of me it bothers me....it causes severe internal discomfort and anxiety, in ways I cannot explain. It is bizarre to the max, the only thing I can possibly equate it to is some sort of ocd or autistic feeling. 

 

Additionally, when I watch tv, certain movements, like from the actors, make me feel extremely anxious and panicked, and I cannot concentrate or distract. It is bizarre beyond anything I can really explain. 

 

Also just now I said something to my husband and the movement of my head and switching between doing things, like typing then stopping to say something to him, causes severe anxiety and strange feelings. 

 

And sometimes my iPad looks like it is concaved, not flat, like it’s wavy. 

 

I also have reslly bad electrical shock sensations thoughtout my whole body. 

 

I just want want to put this here in hopes that someone else understands even a little becuse i feel like I have brain damage or withdrawal is triggering something to cause me to become autistic, and I know that sounds insane, but I feel insane.

 

in all honestly I am better than when I was in the throws of my adverse reaction, many of those symptoms have gone, but I do still have left over stuff from the akathisia, unfortunately  now, I am getting new weird stuff. 

 

New stuff is always scary. Becuse you wonder, is this my life now? A melange of never ending symptoms that keep coming?

 

*Currently at 8.2-8.5 mg of my 10mg pill of Paxil (they actually weigh 12.5mg) 

january 2023 I began reducing my med again. I was a 9mg weight for years, I went to 8.9 in January, went to 8.6mg in February, and in March 2023 I went down to 8.5-8.2 mg ( my scale varies, so I stick within that .3 range because of that) 

*No other supplements or vitamins 

*Taper schedule in the pdf 

Blank.pdf

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-5vShtJtwAOGA30OxIP87steLmMdFzD29F0fzAPD564

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Nothing you say sounds weird to me. And yes those of us with these so-called autistic traits are certainly energetically sensitive in ways that most people are not. When we are this unbalanced and unwell it becomes difficult to appropriately interpret what we're experiencing. I have found that by continually paying attention and responding to my body as I learn that slowly some things begin to make sense but it's an internal process and generally people outside of ourselves don't have a whole lot to offer. It seems there are some exceptions and we get puzzle pieces from others who are perhaps wired like us and meant to share and transmit information with us. Hang in there it starts making sense but ultimately it's our job to figure out how to interact with the world this way. There aren't people who know how to help us all that much and it's part of the healing process to learn how to reintegrate. This isn't easy it's taking me a decade to start really down-regulating and calm and Soothe My over agitated nervous system. Hang in there it really does keep on changing. I have now found quite a few places to get support but it's very individualized to me it's not something that I can share broadly really and that's the thing I think we're all on self-mastery healing trips. Ultimately this is our job and it's an inside job. We can however support one another and we're all doing that the best we know how.

Everything Matters: Beyond Meds 

https://beyondmeds.com/

withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug.
 

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