Don't know if this is stimming.

[renaeden]

Went to the psychiatrist (I have a new one now) last week and spoke about tics and how they are keeping me awake, which is not good if I have an exam the next day, as I found out. I am not sure if the psych believed me at first but I demonstrated what I do and I think he believed me after that.

So he prescribed a low dose of haloperidol at night - 0.5 grams. So far it is working, mostly in getting me off to sleep quicker but I have also noticed I can stop tics easier if I concentrate on it. This is a novelty!

On the way home from the psychiatrist, I sort of elbowed GA and he said too loudly for my liking, "Was that a tic?" I mumbled yes and GA started on about "tic tic boom" to which I replied, "If I don't tic, boom!"

[goddessoflubbock]

I'm glad the doc was able to give you something that helps. Trying to function on less than a decent night's sleep is frustrating.

Nice response to GA

[Aspen]

I'm glad it's helping.

[renaeden]

I can actually sit still, completely still, for about 30 seconds. Haven't been able to do that in a long time.

[Sophist]

Sweet.

[renaeden]

That nice effect didn't last very long so the psychiatrist told me yesterday via phone consultation to up the dose of haloperidol to 1mg. I did last night and I had a nice sleep.

It probably seems I am over-focusing on this and getting obsessed. But I have thought about it and believe that the tics have gotten a lot worse in the last six months. Possibly due to stress? Plus thinking about it probably makes tics happen more.

Am trying to not look it up on the internet because I don't want to self-diagnose with something I don't have. It is hard to take an objective view for myself.

[Sophist]

Tics, stims, even seizures can get worse if you focus on them. Distraction is the best medicine in those cases, if you can manage it. Doing something that doesn't take a lot of thought but is both mentally and physically distracting I've found to work the best. And the more often you're able to prevent them in this way, they should slowly reduce.

[renaeden]

You are right, the less I focus on the tics, the less I have. But they still occur when I am not focused on them. I talked with my mum about it and she has said that she has noticed it for some years (!) and that she thought it was a sensory thing, which it is a lot of the time.

I have had the medication upped to 1.5mgs now. Hopefully it is enough.

Anyway, I can keep updating in this thread. As long as I don't spread my thoughts about this into every post I make then I don't think the obsession has completely taken hold.

[Sophist]

You are right, the less I focus on the tics, the less I have. But they still occur when I am not focused on them. I talked with my mum about it and she has said that she has noticed it for some years (!) and that she thought it was a sensory thing, which it is a lot of the time.

I have had the medication upped to 1.5mgs now. Hopefully it is enough.

Anyway, I can keep updating in this thread. As long as I don't spread my thoughts about this into every post I make then I don't think the obsession has completely taken hold.

Yeah, you can still have them even while not concentrating on them. It's just that focusing on them will probably increase their occurrence. My seizures are the same. I'll still have myoclonic seizures, but the more I focus on them, the MORE I'll have.

Seizures, tics, stims, obsessions, anxiety... while they're all a bit different, they all are repetitive neural stimulation. Break the repetition by interrupting with something else, like diverted attention, and it'll weaken that circuit.

[renaeden]

The doctor did ask if I got tics while exercising and I said no. He also told me that tics are due to an overstimulated and sensitive nervous system so it is exactly as you have said.

If you don't mind my asking, are your seizures worse now than they used to be? Has your OH seen them? Have you thought about videotaping one? Not for morbid curiosity, but for education. I don't think a lot of people know about the different types of epilepsy there are.

[Sophist]

If you don't mind my asking, are your seizures worse now than they used to be? Has your OH seen them? Have you thought about videotaping one? Not for morbid curiosity, but for education. I don't think a lot of people know about the different types of epilepsy there are.

My seizures are actually a LOT better than they used to be. Only rarely do I have any hint of the buzzing/tinnitus/dizziness simple partials. Mostly nowadays it's just the myoclonic seizures where, when I get tired, my left hand/forearm does little jerks and movements. That's about it.

Manny hasn't really noticed them, largely because I don't point them out and they're subtle enough that they're easily missed. I'm aware of them of course because it's my arm/hand that's moving involuntarily, hehe. But I usually get them when tired and right before bed. For him to notice, I would literally need to lay my arm across him or something and just say "Watch".

[renaeden]

Manny hasn't really noticed them, largely because I don't point them out and they're subtle enough that they're easily missed. I'm aware of them of course because it's my arm/hand that's moving involuntarily, hehe. But I usually get them when tired and right before bed. For him to notice, I would literally need to lay my arm across him or something and just say "Watch".

You may have to do that, he will probably be interested.

[oscilor]

Was musing on this thread last night in bed...here are my thoughts...haloperidol’s mechanism of action is to block dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens (NA).

Nucleus accumbens is a reward centre in the brain....rats with electrodes in the NA, that they can control by lever pressing, will repeatedly press the lever to get stimulation in that area, which depends on dopamine being present...are they stimming?....addictive drugs and pleasurable activities like sex or eating also involve release of dopamine in the NA...does stimming by autistics involve this too? ...

the nucleus accumbens has also been implicated in attention, esp switching attention, and in schizophrenia...how might it be involved in autism?....what is the role of dopamine in that area?

...dopamine seems to have a coordinating, attention drawing, global action in the brain...bringing different areas together, a chemical connector....as opposed to glutamate the main neurotransmitter in the brain which may be more involved in local connectivity....

going along with the connectivity theory of Sophist, if autistic brains are structurally less good at long distance connections, could dopamine be a chemical facilitator that is increased in some autistics by way of compensation? Stimming could release dopamine which could help coordination and learning and so be a Good Thing, but which might also result in a system that is over-sensitive or over-used so that unwanted behaviours could break through, like tics, anxiety, paranoia...and so blocking dopamine action could help with that

compensation theories have been proposed for the role of dopamine in schizophrenia...dopamine is thought to be responsible for things like inappropriate speech and delusions and paranoia....seeing connections that are not there...and antipsychotics are pretty good at controlling these symptoms...but often that does not cure the person and they still have cognitive deficits...it has been proposed that the overactive dopamine system is a response to deficits elsewhere in the brain

in autism, perhaps it is not localised deficits so much as lack of coordinating local activities...but overactive dopamine may still be a compensatory response.

I take a low dose of stelazine, which, like haloperidol, acts by blocking dopamine receptors. I find it quite useful when I am obsessing too much, but it is by no means a cure. I was on high dose haloperidol, administered by depot injection, for about 3 years and it was baaad! At a high dose or with prolonged use, there is risk of movement disorders or you seize up and can't function well at all. I was an agitatied zombie on a high dose haloperidol, but on a low dose, I quite like such drugs.

[renaeden]

I take a low dose of stelazine, which, like haloperidol, acts by blocking dopamine receptors. I find it quite useful when I am obsessing too much, but it is by no means a cure. I was on high dose haloperidol, administered by depot injection, for about 3 years and it was baaad! At a high dose or with prolonged use, there is risk of movement disorders or you seize up and can't function well at all. I was an agitatied zombie on a high dose haloperidol, but on a low dose, I quite like such drugs.

Geez. Injection? No wonder it was bad. I wonder if it did what it was meant to do for you?

I have always thought of haloperidol as a hardcore medication and so have been reluctant to try it. It is up there with risperidone to me, which started me twitching when I took it, a few years ago now. I am now on 1.5mgs and hope to go no higher as I am getting sleepy during the day from it.

I don't know much about dopamine (yet) except for the lack of it in people with ADHD (which I have). I have thought that maybe we all have the same amount of dopamine but it gets caught up and re-used in the different places at different times and so we get this effect of different mental illnesses and conditions.

Thanks for your post, I like learning about the meds I am taking.

[oscilor]

I don't know much about dopamine (yet) except for the lack of it in people with ADHD (which I have). I have thought that maybe we all have the same amount of dopamine but it gets caught up and re-used in the different places at different times and so we get this effect of different mental illnesses and conditions.

You may well be right. The dopamine hypothesis of psychosis is based on the fact that the effectiveness of older antipsychotics in treating psychosis correlates with their potency at blocking D2 dopamine receptors, and on the fact that drugs which increase dopaminergic activity can produce psychotic symptoms.

But when researchers tried to find differences in dopamine content or dopamine receptors in postmortem brains or in dopamine metabolites in CSF in people with psychosis, the results are patchy. There have been imaging studies but I can't remember what they have found. It is quite possible to have normal amounts of dopamine but altered sensitivity or altered balance with other neurotransmitters.

There are other dopamine pathways in the brain too. The largest amount of dopamine is found in the substantia nigra and lack of dopamine there is what causes the symptoms of Parkinsons disease. That is well established, but what causes the dopaminergic cells there to degenerate is not known.

Another role of dopamine is to inhibit release of prolactin from the pituitary - so blocking dopamine receptors can result in high prolactin levels. When I took high dose haloperidol, my periods stopped because of that. It can cause men to grow breasts.

I wonder if the haloperidol will make your ADHD worse.
(The reason I was given haloperidol was to treat my delusion of being an alien. )