Chatty thread for ND mumsnetters

[whiskeyarmadillo]

I thought I'd try and start a friendly chatty thread here on the ND board. All are welcome. Bring a cuppa.

I'm whiskeyaramadillo. I'm late 40s and AuDHD. I have a ND parent and two ND children - my third DC is NT ish. I work full time and live on the western edge of London but my heart is firmly in the countryside which is where I grew up. I have one black and white cat who is my sunshine although he is in my bad books today after bringing in a mouse.

Today (Sunday) I'm sorting out my very very messy house - again. Making sure homework is done and uniforms are clean. Putting endless pants and socks in drawers. If I'm lucky I'll get to lie on the sofa and continue reading 'Wintering' by Katherine May or watch a bit of a crappy fantasy movie with a giant mug of tea.

What is everyone up to today?

@stickygotstuck I have wondered if menopause is making things things worse as I'm 52 ..but not having any symptoms because I'm on the progesterone only pill .
Sorry to hear of the panic attack..I use propropnal when I get panicked..it does help ..but I can only take 3 a day ,so I try to limit myself

It's a long wait ..I'm on NHS waiting list ,have been for over 3 years now.
They do sometimes shut the waiting lists to new people just to give themselves time to catch up

Hope everyone is keeping warm with the snow if you have any and the yellow/amber weather warnings

No snow here ,just a bit of sleet yesterday morning..I'm very central in UK ,so always miss the best bits of the snow

Hello, so glad to hear that you went back and felt it was worthwhile.

Yeah i'm not sure we're sposed to enjoy it as such.

I like what stickygotstuck posted about it being like bleeding a radiator - thats a terrific analogy.

I think generally in life when you are dealing with something that has been hanging about for a while, it's likely to get worse before it gets better.

For me the best antidote to anxiety is exercise and in the past i've relied heavily on yoga - ideally an hour, but in a tight spot 1o minutes can be enough to reset me back to functioning. Lots of good stuff on youtube.
Recently ive acquired an exercise bike and discovered the addictive fix that is the endorphin rush. That really helps me - i only have to do 20 mins at the start of the day and i find the rest of the day generally goes better (i still dont like doing too much peoply stuff, or things not running to plan etc, but it doesnt totally derail me).
But if you cant exercise then i concur with JewelleryCat that craft/colouring is great. ive been an avid crafter all my life.
However it only works for me if i also put on a talking book then my hands are doing something i dont have to think about and my brain is being fed a nice story.

I do swim every morning
Yesterday I didn't and had a very bad day .
So I would agree exercise definitely helps

Hi ..happy New year
I'm @Loobyloo9 ..I got locked out of my account and had to go back to using an old one and lost all the threads I was on .
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and happy new year

Happy New Year everyone

Happy New year

I'm still going with the counsellor,and very glad I persevered
Started on escitalopram a week ago ,but that's not going so well ,so I've decided to come of it and just stick with propropnal
Side effects were not worth it
I've been reading some articles about autism and antidepressants
And how they don't even include autistic people in any trials of antidepressants because we are not the target group ..and thus they have no real idea of the effects on the autistic brain...( Not my view ,just what I read)
(Well they probably do ,a bit ,with lots of people taking them over the years ..)
I also read ,that autistic depression is usually burnout ,and a different type of depression that is caused by trauma and society influence rather than a lack of serotonin in the brain ..so autistic people tend to have enough serotonin in their brain already ..
Has anyone else read anything similar

I’ve not read anything like that but it sounds interesting

Thanks for the good New Year wishes. Happy New Year everyone!

@Newyearsparkle , I am naturally very resistant to the use of ADs in general. I know they absolutely help some people, but personal experience has taught me that a lot of meds don't have the expected effect on me (no idea whether due to autism or not). Also, family history of close relatives being medicated for years with no improvement (I've now come to believe them to have been autistic too).

I know what actual depression is and, on the rare occasion I've been to the GP for help with what I now realise was burnout, I jus knew we were talking different things, so refused to take the ADs.

I do think autistic burnout/despair at lack of human connection/insert your own flavour is often mistaken for 'plain' depression with a cause and an end to it. But they are different things.

Yes I am the same after 30 years of different doctors trying me on every antidepressant possible and me not being able to tolerate them.
I'm feeling much better now I'm of the medication

I was wondering who has used chat gtp
Id been using a lot and had a thread on here ,here I decided it probably wasn't good for me .
But in hindsight,it actually was good ,and really helped me understand I wasn't depressed,it is burnout
It was brilliant at coming up with ways to help me to help myself
The only downside was ,I wasn't bothering as much chatting to other people,it was meeting my needs for interactions
Has anyone else been using it much

I’ve never used Chat GPT, not really sure how it all works or whether the information it gives is truthful

I do not use it. In fact, I actively resist it.

AI in general can be unreliable and, of course, it's programmed by humans, so it's bound to be biased.

Also, I don't think moving away from human interaction is wise for anyone. Let alone autistic people.

It's more time consuming (or just what we considered normal until now!) but searching for reliable research online is probably a better option, I'd say.

Hi, I have used chatgbt and it has really helped me work through some difficult decisions in life and analyse my interactions with my husband in a way that is constructive and sympathetic towards him. Recently I have got an app called rosebud which is an ai journal, a bit similar to chatgbt but more like counseling. I'm currently doing a 7 day trial and can't afford the year subscription/ justify the price. But I think the free version is better for me than subscription as it's more surface level help and not rembering me/ replacing real life interactions. And I could sink too much time into the subscription.

@stickygotstuck when I've tried to use it to help with my uni research it was pretty useless, as it got things wrong. And reading around the subject was important.

But, if your aware if the limitations I've found it a useful tool. Sometimes it's an irritating sounding chamber, but overall I have found it positive

On the talk of antidepressants, I was prescribed setraline when I was pregnant with my first and it gave me such bad insomnia, increased imagination and I am an imaginative person. I resisted antidepressants for much of my pregnancy, towards the end I started on qutiapine, after a psychiatrist consultant appointment (pregnancy does open doors). And it worked really well for me to level my mood. Mostly I was happy I could sleep and not have headaches. I never worked up to a therapeutic dose before having my daughter early. And came off it after 6 months. I know it could help me in the future.

With my 2nd I had post natal depression I'm sure but didn't want the stress of seeking medical help for it. But I didn't have the emotional crying type, more the checked out, not bonding with my very screamy baby, not actively problem solving why he's screaming, not bothering to track his nappies, feeds, just going through the motions type.

I have discovered onsen
An app ,I highly recommended it ,it's helping my mental health hugely .
I'm feeling much better of the antidepressants..I'm working on ways to manage my anxiety with just propropnal.
I have the dentist tomorrow,so it will be interesting to see if just propropnal is enough

Onsen app? What’s it about?

Bit like therapy or help

Not like counselling as it's more practical help ..I'm finding it helpful
You have to put information in ,like it asks you questions to a full picture first

Oh cool. Is it working for you and how was the dentist?

I only use it when I'm desperate for support/ having a crisis..and so far it's been good
Dentist was ok

How are you @JewelleryCat