Mental Health Matters 🧠 - Ask me anything!

What's up, folks? Welcome to another episode of Mental Health Matters, our weekly livestream, talking about issues around mental health and addiction, answering your questions, bringing topics. And so every other week we do the ask me anything episode. So hopefully the beacon has gone out. We're gonna have some folks coming in to ask some questions. Comment. So remember, feel free. If you have any question about mental health addiction, you could either put it in the community feed or you can comment on my videos.

I tend to see those. So feel free to comment. Ask a question, and it's likely in my next livestream in the AMA every other week, I will answer that for answer it for you. So this week I have a few questions that have come up. People sending me emails, people also commenting on videos and such. So I put a few together. So the first one is someone who is coming off of an antidepressant. So let's talk about that, because I see this come up a lot, and I find a lot of people get into trouble with this, right?

So when you get onto any medication, whether it's an adhd medium, antidepressant, literally any medication, I think it's pretty safe to say this is a pretty safe take, which is you want to work with your doctor now. Makes sense, right? Obviously I want to work with my doctor on it. So whether it's getting on a medication or getting off now, if it's a prescription or any med that you take regularly, it's important to consult them because it has different effects for different people. But not every med is created equal when it comes to getting off of it.

Because sometimes, whether you realize it or not, certain medications, even if it's not heroin or hardcore alcohol use, you can have withdrawal symptoms from. It's very common. So it a lot of times happens you are on a med for a while, and for whatever reason, you decide you want to stop. And that's a whole other issue. But maybe sometimes you're having side effects or you're just thinking maybe you don't need it anymore, you're not taking it regularly. What happens is often people will just stop taking it, or they're not trying to stop taking it, they just aren't taking it regularly, or they forget and they start to have withdrawal symptoms.

Sometimes they don't even know what the h*** is going like. I feel horrible. I don't know why. Often they figure it out and they're like, well, I just, now I just got to get off this stuff. The problem is that could be dangerous a lot of times because let's say, getting off an antidepressant, just like sometimes getting on it can, it, you know, alters your brain chemistry. And so sometimes people could have side effects of, like, severe depression. And that makes sense also in a more long term sense, where if you're taking it for depression, you stop using it.

Depression could very well come back. That could be dangerous or just very unpleasant. So, yeah, it's like a spectrum of, like, very unpleasant to dangerous. We don't want to be anywhere on that spectrum. Now, does that mean we just can't get off any of our meds? No. This is why it's extremely important to work with your doctor to communicate with them. And if you feel like you're not getting your needs met or what they're saying is not vibing with you, try to find someone else. Not all doctors are created equal, and not all providers, including myself or folks, are the right fit.

You don't want to necessarily, like, go rogue, but I think it's important to take charge of your own healthcare because very often, you know, a provider may overlook stuff because they're only with you for a short period of time. They don't know your body like you do, but also, you didn't go to medical school. So we got to strike a balance there. And I think it is. I think it is important, but also, why am I not finding the right word here? Let's just say necessary for your doctor? It's their duty and my belief to be able to explain their rationale for recommending what they are not.

This is like, do it as I say, do as I say, not as I do, although it's kind more of a of parenting thing, but just do as I say, don't ask questions. That's not a good approach. Right. I feel like they should, and most will explain their rationale and it just should make sense to you, and you could always get that second opinion. Anyway, I went on a little side quest there, but it's related. So now back to you want to get off that medication? You have that conversation with your doctor, and they may, like, just really recommend not doing it under certain circumstances, and that's something you still have to decide, because ultimately it's your choice.

But if you say, I'm going to be getting off of it, what do I do? The proper thing to do would be a certain tapering protocol. Depending on the med, there may be one. They just say you could just stop and just monitor, and if you feel weird about it, call me or take it again and we'll figure something else out. But usually they're going to taper you down, and if you do that slowly, slowly, mindfully, under their care, you're not going to have that discomfort. Maybe you have some, but not to the same level as if you just stop and it's not going to be dangerous.

So again, I'm not a med provider, but again, this is just general advice that I guarantee you any med provider would. And sometimes as a therapist, I need to know this stuff because I'm recommending my clients to get meds. I'm the one seeing them every week, not the medication provider, who maybe only see them once every months. So these are things I have to know. And I think it's literally 100% safe recommendation to say, do not just stop taking your meds on your own accord, unless, let's say, you get on a new one or something and then you're, like, suicidal or something.

You could. So that's why you work with your doctor on that. And so, like, yeah, so the real risk times and exceptions typically would be getting on a new med. And they should be telling you, although again, sometimes this stuff doesn't happen. They should be telling you, hey, if you experience this, this or this within the next couple weeks, stop. Call me. But otherwise, unless there's, like, a really extreme reason you should talk to your doctor before just discontinuing the med and looking at a taper is what they will normally do.

So I think that is safe to say. So that was question number one. Number two, I get a lot of questions about autism and ADHD. A lot of people, especially since the advent of TikTok, and that may be part of the problem, but, you know, a lot of folks are identifying with being on the spectrum or ADHD diagnosed or not, but it's, like, very common and a very big topic of interest. So. Oh, my God, why do I have, like, the biggest fly I've ever seen just on my window? It's winter. Where the h*** are they coming from?

It's massive. Let's take care of that later. So ADHD, autism, let's talk about what each are. Some of the similarities and differences. Start with autism. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, meaning it develops in early childhood. It's like about your brain structure, the development of your neural connections. So autism, it's really difficult. So it's on a spectrum, the autism spectrum, and it could really range here. It could range from very, not less severe, what they used to call Asperger's disorder.

Now, it would be autism level one on the spectrum, and then autism level three, more severe, where people could be, like, nonverbal. So individuals often struggle with social. Social connections, social skills. I think there's a common misconception that they're, like, just not social at all. But a lot of times folks with autism are very social, but sometimes it's just. They could be a little awkward. I say it, like, australian, because there's a show love on the spectrum where, like, I know that word comes up a lot.

It's like, hey, it's a little awkward. So, yeah, so there could be a little awkwardness in social situations, not picking up on certain social cues. A lot of folks could be very much in their own minds. There could be some intellectual impairments. So usually up the scale, there are intellectual impairments. However, there are still often deficits in autism level one, formerly Asperger's. But however, some of these individuals could be, like, super gifted. I don't know if it's the most accurate portrayal, but, like, rain man, if you've seen that movie where he's, like, a super genius.

So there are these folks on the spectrum who can be, like, super geniuses and photographic memories or. So it's not like, very. It's not super uncommon. So for some people, it becomes a gift, but it's a double edged sword because they struggle in all these other ways. So, yeah, those are some of the main, you know, individuals with autism often, like, engage in repetitive, self soothing behaviors, right. It could be, like, rocking back and forth. It could be, you know, whatever, fidget, you know, something to kind of self soothe.

They. There's, like, deficits in speech, and so sometimes there could be fixations, right? So these repetitive fixations and insistence on routine and any deviation can really throw them off. And so there's this emotional dysregulation piece. Sometimes there's severe emotional dysregulation, especially as you go up the severity levels. We don't know why it's caused. We don't know. We just know there's a lot more of it than there used to be. However, it could just be a diagnostic thing. But, yeah, so a lot of people do identify with that lower level, and it's really difficult.

And there's some controversy here because, you know, we could be socially awkward. Maybe we could be. Have some of the symptoms, some of the traits. Maybe we're still on that spectrum, but maybe it's not the same root cause as a more severe autism. Be like convergent evolution. You know, it's kind of like, both sharks and dolphins swim in the water, have fins, and have similarities, yet they're completely different lines. Evolution would be the best way to stress. So we don't really know exactly, but, you know, some of the solutions would be the same as far as, like, the different types of behavioral therapy.

And children with more moderate to severe autism do really well if they have a lot of early intervention. They have much better results if the earlier you could catch it and really do intensive behavioral therapy as they're developing. So that's autism. That's my breakdown. ADHD, so early developmental. So neurodevelopmental disorder of early brain development. And the number one defining characteristic of ADHD would be under activity in the prefrontal cortex. So the prefrontal cortex is like, our ability to self regulate.

It's the most adult part of our brain. It's what tells us to pump the brakes. It's like a red light tells us to pump the brakes. And the green light is kind of like, move. It's inactivating. It's do this, eat that. Right? It's doing things. So when you don't have that proper red light, you often can act hyperactively, impulsively, risky behaviors. Sometimes you're really. It's not just the dysregulation or lack of regulation, which is certainly there. It is a disorder of switching. So usually your neurotypical individual would have a more functioning stoplight where it's like red, yellow, green, and, like, a pretty predictive pattern.

However, with ADHD, it's like, it's red for, like, ten minutes and then green for ten minutes, and everyone's sitting around like, what the h***'s going on here? This is not the most effective way to do it. Be engaged in too much red light, too much green light. So it's like it'd be in hyper focus mode, too. So, again, that does range severity. Some people don't get diagnosed till much later because it's less obvious. You know, they say that there are two types, and that how we diagnose it would be more of an inattentive type, more of a hyperactive type, or both.

Now, there's some more recent controversy here because, and this is kind of what I believe, too, is that really, we can't differentiate it too much. Maybe an outward presentation. However, what's going on inside is very similar, which is an underregulation of the prefrontal, which could lead to more impulsive type behaviors or compulsive behaviors. But it may not be that outward hyperactivity that's so obvious. The kids who get diagnosed early are the ones that are like bouncing all over the place and there's these things, and it's the ones that are disrupting the teachers and they're getting in trouble, and then the school's like, get your kid out of medication, otherwise we can't.

It's just. Or she is too disruptive. Both of these. Which brings us to he she. More males are diagnosed with both ADHD and autism. I think autism, it's like four to one, ADHD, two to one, or something like that varies. Some controversy there, too. But I think even with the controversy of like, it's seen more in boys, more obvious. I think especially with autism, it's still safe to say it's a lot more common. Again, we don't know why. With ADHD, I think the presentation is often more subtle in women.

So I think the diagnosis thing could be. I still think, based on what's out there, that it is still more common in males, but very well with that one, maybe we find out later that it is pretty equal. It just. We don't. It's just less obvious. We don't look for it as much in women. So often they do struggle quite a bit, the women who have it, because they don't get intervened upon until much later when they, like, download TikTok and realize like, oh, yeah, I probably do have this. So you have that?

Yeah. So the similarities and differences. So similarities you have, it's. They're both neurodevelopmental disorders coming out in early childhood. Both often maybe engage in like ultra repetitive behavior, sometimes obsessive behavior, but it maybe looks a little different. This one's like a dopamine drive. This one's more of a insistence, a rigidness, a cycle, cyclical pattern or something like that. Both actually do have. I didn't mention this as well, especially autism. There's like a hypersensitivity to certain types of stimulation, overstimulation of sound.

It could be like a tactile sound. You know, certain textures can really, like, dysregulate folks when things are too loud, when things are too overwhelming, overstimulating. So both can have issues with that. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, as you could tell just by my descriptions, there are quite a few similarities, but also many differences. Now, the thing is, there are people who have both. There's a lot of people who identify, especially on social media, who, like, believe that both. And there's some folks, like one guy I interviewed who's like a really awesome, brilliant expert on this, really believes that.

And again, it's just, like, his opinion, but he believes that they're very much related, that, like, basically everyone is gonna, like, have traits of both who have these things, which I could see in some ways, but so he's basically saying there's more overlap than we think there is. And I know he's someone who identifies with having both. So. Yeah, also, you know, both have an imbalance of having a ton of strengths, especially in the lower level autism, but with adhd and areas of deficit. I say it's like swiss cheese, where it's like this delicious cheese, but you have these, like, holes all over it.

Right. So it's a double edged sword. Anyway, well, I hope you got something out of it. I think we'll just end it there. I'll save some questions for next time. But again, go ahead, comment on my videos, put something in the community feed, tag me, ask me questions, and I will answer them on the next ama. And feel free to join and ask questions while I'm there. Even on the other live streams that aren't Ama, you could always come and ask questions. I'll answer them. It was something more fun to do.

Anyways, folks, it's been real. Hope you got something out of this and have a good rest of your day.