Many people with social anxieties and fears will have some degree of paranoia. Research has shown that many autistics can have an enlarged right amygdala,...the amygdala is the fear center. What isn't known is whether it is a chronic anxiety issue that causes the hypertrophy,...or is it the hypertrophy that causes the anxieties, and susceptibility to PTSD, OCD, etc. One of those "what came first" questions,...the chicken or the egg? We also know that people that are susceptible to suggestion and conspiracy theories, devoted followers of political and religious cults, people that emotionally over-react, people with paranoid behaviors,...often have enlarged amygdala.
The thing is, once the amygdala is in control, rational, logical thinking is bypassed,...factual truths do not matter,...and an alternate pathway of irrational, illogical thinking is replaced. However, the brain does get confused between reality and the alternate reality. The alternate reality becomes logical to the person affected by it,...but others just look at them like they've got a screw loose and need a straight-jacket and a padded room.
Stepping back from all the psychiatric talk, the brain is an organ,...like a heart, a kidney, a liver. When neurotransmitters are out-of-balance, when the brain is not physically healthy,...it affects behaviors. As a medical professional,...I tend to lean on the medical model. I have said this many times,...as an autistic,...our brains are inherently different,...down to the micro-anatomy of the neurons, how we process neurotransmitters, etc. Our brains can suffer from neurotransmitter imbalances, oxidant-to-antioxidant imbalances, chronic inflammation, cerebral edema, and immune dysfunction,...and that's the short list. Knowing this, we have to take special care with ourselves,...not unlike someone with a cardiac condition, diabetes, chronic lung disease, etc,...but with us, it's our brains.
There are over-the-counter supplements we can take that may help,...and do help me,...L-theanine, melatonin, resveratrol, N-acetyl cysteine, ubiquinol, magnesium, omega-3 oil, methyl B12, methyl folate, vit D/K2, etc. It's a combination of things. Rest,...pacing yourself,...being self aware of how your brain feels,...mental fogginess, irritability, sensory issues,...all of that. If after a while,...several months,...if it doesn't seem to fade away,...time to see a psychiatrist for a prescription. Do your own research on this,...click onto PubMed and/or Google Scholar and pull up the scientific journal articles on the supplements I mentioned, as well as your symptoms as it relates to autism.
