All protocols

After each writing bout, allow 5–15 minutes to settle down before returning to normal activities. Build this recovery time into your schedule; use it to regain composure, let breathing return to normal, optionally wash your face with cool water, and reorient yourself to the rest of the day.

After the fourth session, do not review what you wrote for at least one week.

Avoid doing this writing exercise immediately before sleep, especially if the material is highly stressful or traumatic.

Before beginning, ask whether you are prepared to handle the emotional state that may come with accurately recalling the event 4 times. If needed, start with a less severe stressor, rank candidate events by stressfulness, and stop the protocol if it creates significant psychological or physical stress or impairs daily life.

Delay caffeine intake in the morning to help partially offset post-lunch sleepiness and an afternoon crash.

Keep a small notebook with you to capture ideas immediately, especially because many good ideas may arise within the first hour after waking and can disappear if not written down.

After a setback, shift attention to something unrelated that consumes your focus.

After a setback, reinterpret the experience by focusing on learning, progress, or broader goals; examples include asking yourself whether you made yourself better today or made someone else better today.

Carry a pen with the notebook for capturing ideas in the moment.

A pencil also works for capturing ideas in the moment.

Maintain physical distance from people who are sneezing or coughing, and ask sick people to keep their distance or isolate if necessary; anyone actively sneezing or coughing should be treated as contagious, and closer proximity increases likelihood of contracting a cold or flu.

Keep the air you breathe sufficiently humidified, especially at night while sleeping; may also be beneficial during the day in office or home environments to support nasal passages and respiratory defenses.

Use an air humidifier in indoor environments, especially where you spend a lot of time and particularly at night while sleeping, to add moisture to the air, support nasal passage health, and help if you are prone to colds and flus.

Avoid sleep deprivation when fighting illness; poor sleep can worsen symptoms and likely reduce ability to ward off infection.

Ask people who wipe their nose to wash their hands afterward to reduce transmission risk.

If you are sneezing or coughing and do not have a tissue, use your elbow rather than your hand to reduce spread via surfaces and touch.

Continue exercising during winter months outdoors if it can be done safely; while doing so, try to nasal breathe unless mouth breathing is necessary.

After being outside in the cold, getting chilled, or after air passages dry out from hard breathing, take a hot shower or hot bath to heat back up and rehydrate nasal and oral passages; steam room or humidifier access was also mentioned as helpful.

Be cautious about taking medication to lower fever because fever is an adaptive response that helps combat viruses; however, dangerously high fevers still need treatment.

Back off from social media and external noise in order to notice what you actually like and dislike.

Intranasal administration; early autism studies used a single dose of 24 international units. In the Stanford trial discussed, children received oxytocin twice per day for 4 weeks, and those with lower pretreatment blood oxytocin showed greater benefit.

Parents of autistic children should discuss oxytocin treatment with their physician and may bring the relevant study. In the discussion, oxytocin appeared relatively safe and potentially helpful for a subset of children with low baseline oxytocin. The preferred use discussed was acute administration before a behavioral therapy session rather than chronic use, to reduce fear/anxiety and potentially enhance therapy effects.

Children should be screened for autism early, and intervention should begin as soon as autism is identified. Screening should be widely available and inexpensive, since early intervention during developmental windows may be especially important whether treatment is behavioral alone or combined with medication.

Do not try vasopressin on your own. It can affect blood pressure and other critical physiological systems, and dosing should be medically supervised in controlled settings due to risk of severe adverse effects.

Intranasal vasopressin administered twice daily for 4 weeks in children ages about 6 to 12 years with autism was associated with improved social abilities on parent reports, clinician evaluations, and laboratory-based tests in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Because vasopressin affects blood pressure and other important systems, it should not be used without medical supervision.

Vaccinate children. Scientific and medical consensus does not support a causal link between vaccines and autism, and many scientists and physicians vaccinate their own children and recommend vaccination.

Use a 900 lux LED light as a cheaper alternative to expensive daylight simulators for waking and melatonin suppression.

If shift work is a regular long-term pattern over months or years, get whatever sleep you can.

Learn an instrument, ideally early in life but even later if needed, as it can greatly improve the ability to learn many things.

Avoid social isolation.