Over the past four months or so, I've shared with you all on Facebook a number of times that my son has been dealing with pretty severe anxiety. And you all have been very helpful offering recommendations. Thank you! If you haven't “liked” Whole New Mom on Facebook, please do join us. It's a very supportive community over there.
You see, my son suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. And Asperger's almost always comingles (goes together) with anxiety.
Over the past 5 months, his anxiety has increased to the point of being well—really bad. Mainly it's been anxiety about his life threatening food allergies.
It's been hard some days to handle it.
To wonder if we can keep going.
To wonder if he'll get better.
Over the years, we're tried a lot of things to heal my son. You can read more about it in Natural Autism Healing and the Best Therapy of All.
We've tried a lot of things to help his anxiety, and are working closely with our practitioner to manage his stress.
We've tried / are trying the following:
Natural Anxiety Remedies
- GABA
- 5 HTP (partnered with B6)
- L-Taurine (this really seems to help)
- Essential Oils
- Salvia and Amber (a Chinese Herb blend recommended for anxiety and insomnia)
- hugs and encouragement (though I must admit that it can be hard to do this when mom is really stressed out from all of the incessant questions about the things he is anxious about :-))
We've been working with a practitioner for about 1 1/2 years now.
And copper causes anxiety (amongst other things.)
- feathers
- clowns
- well, fireworks–not really.
Georgia Lamothe says
Please check out Asperger Experts.com
Amazing help for families finding their way through Asperger issues. Two 20 something young men with breakthrough understanding and help!!! Most of the help they offer is free webinars or very inexpensive dvds. They have many short videos on You Tube. What they have learned by living it is changing lives! They also have a Facebook page. Please take a few minutes and look – you’ll be so glad you did!!
Adrienne says
Thank you!!
Molly says
Hi Adrienne, just wanted to say GOOD JOB MAMA and you are inspiring and I HOPE things are going ok for you and your son and family….
Adrienne says
Thank you! Hard right now but I appreciate the encouragement.
Jamie says
Awwww, so happy for you guys. My son has anxiety about his food allergies right now, not touching things with his hands and only the end of his shirt. 🙁 I also have two boys like you. I hope we get to chat soon! I now feel like I’m stalking you, LOL. But your posts are all intriguing, and I’m officially sucked in.
Adrienne says
Welcome!!!
nieszka says
I admire all of you. My 7 year old is PDD-NOS and has significant anxiety. We’ve tried GABA & not sure if its helped. I may try some of the other things you’ve mentioned. Now that my son can swallow capsules I will try ashwanganda (his DAN Dr. suggested). Right now the anxiety is exhausting me at times, but manageable since we live w/ my parents (single parent) and he goes to a small private school….however, if I were a single parent w/o any support I would be all over the medication alternative just to keep my own sanity! I have to lay by him every night in order for him to go to sleep and cannot leave one level of the TH w/o him running after me. One of my new strategies is to ask him to count to 30 seconds if I have run into another room to grab something (especially bad in winter when its dark) and I’ll tell him I’ll be back by then. Also, if I am in another room then I’ll sing or talk loud so he knows I’m there. I always inform him when I’m leaving a floor or room-his fears are genuine and I don’t what to exacerbate them. Good luck to all!!
Adrienne says
I feel for you. What is “TH”…townhome? Anyway, I read some kids can’t uptake GABA without valerian. Have you tried going off all candida-feeding sugars? We found that helped but also melatonin to help sleep. Take care.
Jean says
Hi! I ran into your blog looking for a faux Ener G recipe, thanks!
My 4 year old son has language delays, anxiety, and sensory processing disorder, which puts him “on the spectrum” though he did not get an official autism diagnosis. We learned about the GFCF diet, and saw improvements after starting it. Then I read that both soy and corn can break down into the same sort of incomplete peptides that then cause the opiate response in the brain in the same way that gluten and casein are known to do. When we went soy and corn free, he lost his sensory processing disorder diagnosis. Prior to that his fear and anxiety about some things were so great he would have panic attacks.
Since then, we too have been traveling the road of biomedical treatment to heal his gut and address potential metal problems and yeast issues. We use the same sort of supplements that you do, with the addition of magnesium when we give B6 since the B6 can cause increased hyperactivity and anxiety. It definitely helped. Melatonin at bedtime has done wonders as well.
At the present time, just going GFCF soy and corn free has eliminated the sensory issues and most of the anxiety associated with it. He can go to parades, crowded events, street festivals and the like and enjoy it as we do. He does seem to have phenol sensitivity issues that cause him to become hyperactive and somewhat anxious if we allow him to eat more high phenol (and amine) foods that he should.
The GAPS diet would not work for us. We have too many other food restrictions to address and while it may be exactly the right diet for some people with particular issues associated with their gut abnormalities, I think the current diet we are following is working well to reduce inflammation and allow his brain some relief and normalcy.
He was scheduled to attend a special needs preschool this year, but 3 months into the diet and he seems to the average person to be “normal”. He is currently attending a Montessori preschool and was right in the front row for their autumn festival, singing, dancing and following all the hand movements! I was pretty astounded. Not too long ago he could barely put together five words and was not potty trained!
We know that healing him will take time, its a marathon, not a sprint. It can be frustrating to have setbacks and bad days, but when we think how far we have come it pushes us to work harder. I could do without QUITE so much cooking though, lol!
Best,
Jean
Adrienne says
Wonderful, Jean – thanks so much for sharing!!! Glad to “meet” you!
Ulrika says
Hi Adrienne,
Just came over your helpful website yesterday evening and will add it to my favourite list 🙂
Regarding autism, have you heard of Dr. Klinghardt and HPU? Dr Klinghardt has an extremly high success rate in HEALING autism in both children and adults, also in very servere cases. If autism is an issue, I would strongly recommend you to listen to his lecture about autism and HPU:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3kRDYcvhA
It is definitely an eye opener.
Dr. Klinghardt also have his own website: http://www.klinghardtacademy.com
and here are infos on autism: http://www.klinghardtacademy.com/Protocols/Dr-Klinghardt-on-Autism.html
All the best,
Ulrika
Adrienne says
Hi there. Oh I am so sorry that I didn’t respond sooner. I have been so busy and frankly some older comments I passed over b/c I thought they were spam and/or like yours, they had info for me to look at. So I apologize. I have heard of him. I have to see what to maybe do. Thank you and hope to see you around again!
Jane says
Adrienne,
Sending you all my best! Your son’s miracle warmed my heart!
April Harris says
What a lovely, uplifting post! I’m so pleased for you and your family.
Adrienne says
Thanks, as always, April. Things are for sure not easy still, but this was a big deal.
Sarah says
Yay for small victories. We take what we can get. I myself struggle with anxiety more than the average person (do they even exist). Anyway I have found that I have had the best sucess with essential oils and accupuncture. doTerra is a great brand. I haven’t tried the two you mentioned but found that peppermint oil strangely enough helps with my anxiety.
If you get a chance I would love if you would link up your post at my Pin Party.
http://www.sarahdawndesigns.blogspot.com/2012/07/pintastic-monday-link-party-1.html
Trudi says
I’ve been going to classes locally for the GAPS diet for my own health concerns…one good thing for magnesium is Epsom Salt baths… also good for relief from die-off symptoms, and more. My sis-in-law found that her (high) bp dropped to normal after a ES bath… I’m finding it’s hard to get fully on the diet for me, but instructor said, take a step at a time! And when you finally conquer some of the “bad guys” that are sugar-fed, giving up the sugars and starches will be easier. Lots of blogs out there with recipes and encouragement! GAPS.me athomewithwellness.com
Jen says
Adrienne, What a blessing to see the little victories. Sometimes its hard to see them when everything else is so overwhelming. I am so glad you shared this.
Adrienne says
Hi Jen. Thanks for the encouragement.
Eileen says
Read a Mother’s journey of prayer that brought healing to her son in this new book:
Prayer for my Son
Mrs. Mom of 6 says
oh, you might consider reading “The Mood Cure” by Julia Ross…. it has lots of information on amino acids, and how they are used by the body. She also mentions that you need to have a healthy gut to absorb them the best. I found her book to be very down to earth, and it helped me with some anxiety and bipolar type issues. Another thing that helped my anxiety and mood issues was magnesium… I was seriously off balance with my electrolytes and it left me with adrenal issues, and mood issues. I couldn’t figure out what it was for the longest time, then I got massively constipated, so I started taking magnesium to get things moving, and I discovered that it helped ALOT of other things too. My teeth got better, (so long as I stay away from sugar and refined grains), my headaches went away, and resting finally meant I felt rested! The anxiety went away too, it was getting so bad I was thinking I was going to start having panic attacks… the heart would race, the breathe would be “caught” and I’d have an irrational overwhelming anxiety over NOTHING! Glad that the magnesium helped those things.
I think that the off balance for me happened for two reasons. 1: I had gut issues, yeast and such. and 2: I had 4 kids back to back in a span of 5 years. That can really deplete anyone’s resources.
(I did the GAPS diet for three months when I first started my daughter. After that I could eat wheat again without much consequence… until I got pregnant again and couldn’t eat anything, so then I caved and ate the sugar and refined wheat just to get some calories… right now I am trying to “kick the habit” again. grrr. Now the refined wheat bothers me again… probably a GOOD thing lol.)
Adrienne says
I’ve heard of that and should read it, but my practitioner said I am going to have a rough time absorbing Mg due to all the Al I am dumping right now. I’ll put that on my books to get from the library list. Thanks.
Mrs. Mom of 6 says
You should know that the meats and broth are what are going to be a: most healing to the gut, and b: carry the most amino acids (which turn into things to regulate mood, such as GABA, 5-HTP, Tryptophan and serotonin). While he may have anxiety at first, it should help in the end.
I think fruit should be used in moderation, and it should be eaten in it’s original form (like EAT THE WHOLE APPLE, not juice). There are certain benefits to home juicing organic fruits and veggies, because they DO have lots of vitamins and minerals. Juicing allows you to get concentrated amounts of nutrients, necessary for growth and rebuilding tissues in the body…. however, you want to use limited amounts of fruit in those juices.
You cannot completely get away from sugar. There is some form of natural sugar in ALL things, it all breaks down into glucose sooner or later. Honestly I think grains tend to hit the body more like a refined sugar than fruit does, but that may vary by person. I can’t tolerate refined flours, or even whole grains unless they are soaked or sprouted, they just get my “sugar button” going and give me bloating.
My theory on the guy with the bananas being good and the fat being bad, is that he has a serious case of candida so that he feels good only when he eats alot of fruit/sugar in a day, perhaps he has troubles with his digestive enzymes too, from eating too much fruit and not enough fat for a while. Or perhaps he wasn’t eating GOOD fats… or perhaps he had trouble with his gallbladder, due to bacterial overgrowth and oxalate levels… could have been any number of things, but I bet he is a fluke.
This has been a very interesting conversation. Thanks so much!I never heard some of the concerns your practitioner has, and that really opens my eyes to a different perspective. I like to hear lots of perspectives, I don’t want to just blindly follow anything, and sometimes it helps me to find research that might help someone else later. Thanks!
Adrienne says
I agree on the sugar thing but I am super limited now. I may try some U pick blueberries this week and see how I do. Thanks!!