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ASD and (parental) anxiety

bigapplebridebigapplebride
in Special Needs

have any of you experienced bouts of moderate-severe anxiety?  I've been a mess on and off lately. 

Threre are a number of things that are getting to me:

- DD's CSE meeting and all the changes that will take place when she leaves to preschool setting and goes to kindergarten in the fall

- changes in her summer schedule that throw our day to day "routines" out of whack (opening the door for tantrums)

- reaching out for help (autism service agencies) only to have NO ONE return your phone calls 

- generally feeling out of control

 

Do you ever go through times like this?  How do you calm down and work through it?  I think my stress level is getting to the point where my body is starting to revolt and I am having physical problems.  No

I also work full time and have another child so it is hard for me to be on autism duty all. the. time.

I'm just frustrated I  guess.

 

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Re: ASD and (parental) anxiety

  • skittles_123skittles_123 member
    I get you totally. I work and also have another child to take care of in addition to my ASD son. It is stressful to "fit it all in." Anxiety was a huge issue for me. I couldn't sleep at night, I always worried about how I was going to get it all done. About six months ago, I finally gave a small dose of Lexapro a try per the rec of my dctr, combined with a regular running regimend. It has made a very significant difference for me. I finally felt like myself again, pre-dx. I think I would have lost my mind by now, literally, if I had not gone that route. It makes the daily stresses more manageable and less overwhelming.
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  • bigapplebridebigapplebride

    imageskittles_123:
    I get you totally. I work and also have another child to take care of in addition to my ASD son. It is stressful to "fit it all in." Anxiety was a huge issue for me. I couldn't sleep at night, I always worried about how I was going to get it all done. About six months ago, I finally gave a small dose of Lexapro a try per the rec of my dctr, combined with a regular running regimend. It has made a very significant difference for me. I finally felt like myself again, pre-dx. I think I would have lost my mind by now, literally, if I had not gone that route. It makes the daily stresses more manageable and less overwhelming.

     

    See, just reading this has caused me to burst into tears.  Can that possibly be normal?  I feel like a trainwreck right now.

    Thank you for responding.  I think I'm going to chat with my doctor to see if he can help.  I really don't want to take medication, but I'm starting to worry about myself.

    I've been taking a zumba fitness class weekly, but I definitely need to get back on the treadmill everyday.  The exercise may clear my head a bit. 

    I kind of feel like every time I get things kind of "under control" something changes and I have to start over. 

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  • bugmommybugmommy

    I think I'm the poster child for anxiety, particularly related to autism issues.  Its sort of funny but I realized after I had children that I really had anxiety issues all along, but was sort of rewarded for them in my professional career.  You can work on a project until everything is "perfect", but that doesn't really work too well with kids Embarrassed.

     I've done lexapro and I have no idea if it worked.  I also do long distance running and that really helped a lot, but may not be everyone's cup of tea.  The biggest thing I did was I changed how I handled the autism stuff.  I set aside a certain amount of time to research things, IEP stuff, make informational phone calls, read stuff, etc. every week and that is the ONLY time that I do that stuff.  The rest of the time if something comes to me I put it in the pile for my assigned time.  The only exception to this is when people return my calls.  I had to do it this way because I was always reading stuff and sort of spinning my wheels and making the anxiety worse.  This way I deal with it at limited times and the rest of the time give myself permission to let it go. 

    For the day to day stuff I write a list every night the night before of 3-5 things I want to do the next day.  This includes specific therapy activities (like maybe doing flash cards or playing a particular game) and normal stuff (like a dr's appt, grocery store, etc.) that has to get done.  Everything else is fair game and totally non-required in our house.  I found this helped control my anxiety that was making me and the kids a mess, because I wasn't trying (and failing) to be perfect every day.   It works for me, but I fully recognize it may not be for everyone.

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  • bigapplebridebigapplebride
    imagebugmommy:

    I think I'm the poster child for anxiety, particularly related to autism issues.  Its sort of funny but I realized after I had children that I really had anxiety issues all along, but was sort of rewarded for them in my professional career.  You can work on a project until everything is "perfect", but that doesn't really work too well with kids Embarrassed.

     I've done lexapro and I have no idea if it worked.  I also do long distance running and that really helped a lot, but may not be everyone's cup of tea.  The biggest thing I did was I changed how I handled the autism stuff.  I set aside a certain amount of time to research things, IEP stuff, make informational phone calls, read stuff, etc. every week and that is the ONLY time that I do that stuff.  The rest of the time if something comes to me I put it in the pile for my assigned time.  The only exception to this is when people return my calls.  I had to do it this way because I was always reading stuff and sort of spinning my wheels and making the anxiety worse.  This way I deal with it at limited times and the rest of the time give myself permission to let it go. 

    For the day to day stuff I write a list every night the night before of 3-5 things I want to do the next day.  This includes specific therapy activities (like maybe doing flash cards or playing a particular game) and normal stuff (like a dr's appt, grocery store, etc.) that has to get done.  Everything else is fair game and totally non-required in our house.  I found this helped control my anxiety that was making me and the kids a mess, because I wasn't trying (and failing) to be perfect every day.   It works for me, but I fully recognize it may not be for everyone.

     

    These are fantastic ideas.  THANK YOU!!

     

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