It is often said that anxiety and being autistic go hand in hand. As I recently read the book Autism Out Loud by the great authors Kate Swenson, Adrian Wood and Carrie Cariello, they dedicated a entire chapter of the book to the comorbidity anxiety and mostly note that nearly half of both of autistic children and adults have the comorbidity of anxiety. They also explain how medication to treat anxiety has been a life changer for their children and I too can say that medication for anxiety has also been a sudden game changer in my life too.

Without a doubt even before I was diagnosed as being autistic I experienced bouts of anxiety, however there were many issues that I was experiencing that being anxious often came second place to the things that I was experiencing. It was not until I was in my twenties and had a new psychiatrist that understood that I was experiencing the anxiety and introduced me to the medication Lexapro.

Within a few days, many of those around me could tell that I was less anxious and able to manage life as I still do nearly two decades later. It can be hard to imagine what life was like before the medication was introduced into my daily life, but it is what helps me get out the door and get going with my day. I was literally all over the place in the beginning about doing things that were outside of what I would find uncomfortable and for the longest time they would be very much uncomfortable to the point where I would want to hide from those things and do what had become natural to me because I found comfort and solace in it.

But there was the reality and the potential that others saw in me that I knew deep down that I had that others could see even though I often would not be willing to take the leap to do what were things that I knew that I could do. The medication has helped me by leaps and bounds in being able to do things like hold down a job, ride the bus and do other things that would have otherwise seemed impossible without the assistance of the anti-anxiety med.

Granted, I have learned the hard way about the necessity of all of my other medications including my antipsychotics and the dangers of not taking them can produce. I do not want to experience the ways that I was when I was not being honest and deflecting the fact that I was not taking my medication. Things could have ended up in a totally different way than they ended up, and even as turbulent as events are in the present moment, I now understand fully how important it is to be fully adherent to my medication regimen as life is always subject to change and could instantly produce anxiety.

Anxiety is always a makeup of my life, but it how I manage myself in the process that is key for daily life. Medication aids with having that quality of life that I need to thrive in the way that I do. Even as hard as it can be sometimes to feel as if life is all together, it can also be hard to imagine what my life could be with my anxiety untreated.