Component 5. Reviewing Culprit Medication
Somehow I missed posting this information originally, so I'm adding it after the fact. Here are my notes on Component 5. Here again, the advice in Dr. Shah's book about meds is really for doctors, and you should give your doctors the book, but there are some basic take-aways. Ativan, under close supervision, is often really helpful for catatonia, and as a matter of fact, it can even help doctors diagnose catatonia, because it tends to work differently on catatonic and non-catatonic people. (If your Ativan is all of a sudden making you feel more lucid and awake and capable of fluid movement/normal speech, whereas it used to make you feel sleepy...that's one possible sign that your severe burnout might actually be catatonic.) On the other hand, anti-psychotics can be really counterproductive for catatonia; they are usually a Bad Idea. (Tl;dr: if you think you might have/likely have autistic catatonia or severe burnout, don't let your doctor put you on something like Abil...