OCD the Diagnosis Within the Diagnosis and Medications to Assist

Understanding Asperger's Disorder is complex enough, yet to add the many other co-ocurring symptoms and diagnosis makes psychologists and psychiatrists scratch their heads. Luckily for me, my psychologist is multi-dimentional in our treatment plan. Weekly visits not only gives me someone to unload all of my thoughts on, but as a Christian Psychologist, we are able to combine cognitive therapy within a spiritual outline. I was told early on in my therapy that counseling needs to be within the perspective of my navigating life with AS. We don't attribute everything to AS symptoms, however, with symptoms too numerous to list, the conversations usually lean towards obsessive thought patterns and the anxiety that these patterns cause. As he put it, Asperger's is a multifaceted Disorder. Within it lays many symptoms and co-occuring diagnosis'. Officially, my diagnosis under Axis I: Asperger's Disorder, Axis II: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, as well as Generalized & Social Anxiety Disorder. My psychiatrist called it Social Maladaptive Disorder, whatever that means. A google search didn't turn up anything useful for me to understand that one. Still, while reading the psychologist's reports, my family doctor started me on what a clinical director once told me was "the magic bullet for Asperger's". The magic bullet? Wow, I couldn't wait to try it. The first few months were brutal. Just 25 mg of Seroquel and I was nearly falling down the stairs to sleep. See, Seroquel, when taken at the lowest dose is an effective sedative. Unfortunately it took me three months to get to 100 mg's. The med was prescribed in order for me to overcome night terrors and paranoia that I have suffered with for the past 20 years. After reaching 100 mg I realized that I was literally a "zombie" in the mornings. I just couldn't function. About the same time my doctor also put me on Celexa for the anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive parts. After telling my doc that I was literally seeing things at night, and hearing "voices talking to me"...he raised an eyebrow and sent me to Coeur d' Alene for a psychiatric eval. I was told that for the effects that we were trying to achieve, I would need to move up to 300mg of Seroquel, and it would be tough the first week, but once I get through it, I would notice a world of difference. Wow, was he right. For the first time in my life I was able to sleep through the night, no voices or visions or night terrors. Similarly, I was more alert in the morning and able to carry out my day without anxiety. Still, the OCD issues still affect me. While there are medications that we can take to help with the OCD, cognitive therapy is an important part of the plan. Today my psychologist gave me some important directions in managing my obsessive thought patterns. This is what the Seroquel is supposed to help with...the explosion of impulsivity that would normally cause me to reply back with a vengeance of anger and finger pointing. It takes two to keep a friendship healthy, therefore, this is something that I need to work on, if I truly care about my friends, and I do care. I just have a difficult time showing it when I would much rather keep in touch every day for a month, then no contact for three months at a time. Hard to keep friends with that schedule. So, my psychologist gave me directions to deal with the obsessive thought patterns. The four R's: Relabel, Re-attribue, Refocus, Revalue. This really helps, and to be honest, I was ready to fire a really rude text back to my friend tonight...but instead, I used the four R's and now I'm a believer! That means I can keep the few friends that I do have and not go crazy over the arguments that would normally cause us to engage in "text wars". I think I'm on the right track!