AspieMartian wrote:
1) No, drug abuse does not cause autism. If you didn't have "autistic like traits" prior to drug use and now have them since, it's something that appears superficially like autism - perhaps just depression or anxiety - but it cannot be autism. The diagnostic criteria is very clear about this - being clinically classified as a pervasive developmental disorder, autism MUST present in early childhood and be pervasive during the course of the person's development from the time it first presented. In cases where the person is dx'd well after early childhood, a proper diagnosis must include evidence that these traits have been apparent since early childhood.
2) A "spell" of drug use shouldn't cause massive neurological damage, unless you can sincerely claim to have had numerous ER visits, a few accidental overdoses and long stretchs of time you cannot recall during that "spell." Your liver, on the other hand, may not be so lucky, and god forbid you picked up HIV or hep during this "spell," but your brain likely is no less impaired than prior.
3) I doubt drugs caused your depression. Yes, drug abuse can trigger depression, but the truth is, the majority of people who abuse drugs, for any length of time, were already suffering from depression, and that dperession was a main factor in why they abused drugs in the first place. So I suspect you more probably used drugs because of you were depressed before, but like most people who abuse drugs, you've yet to realize the genuine psychological motivations behind your self-destructive behavior. And now, seeing drugs didn't "fix" what you hoped they'd fix about yourself, you feel even worse about yourself, making your depression worse and harder to deny. I'm willing to bet if you did a more indepth reflection about your whole "spell" of drug use, you'd discover that in fact, you were suffering from depression before you did the drugs, and that your lack of awareness about your depression then was a big part of why you ended up doing drugs.
4) See a therapist. If you're sure you ween't always like this, it's something other than autism, clearly, and it most likely isn't "everlasting," but something very treatable. Some cognitive therapy, behavior modification, perhaps a shorrt course of antidepressants, and just taking the time and making the effort to be more aware of why you feel the way you do is probably all you need.
It was proved I had autistic traits as a child, my friends at school kept teasing me, so I joined the drug crowd, I don't think I was depressed at the time. I was the class clown at school, which is meant to be a aspie trait. I have been diagnosed with highly functional autism, so there's doubt about that. I'm on anti-depressants, but they don't do enough. I know I need to change my behaviour patterns, so i'm waiting for cognative therapy.
23 Nov 2007, 6:47 pm
