Cannabis as medication for Asperger?

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So true. Many Aspies confuse "social anxiety" with "social awkwardness". In reality, when you lose your social anxiety thanks to a chemical substance like alcohol or pot or ecstasy or whatever, you lose your inhibitions and you have just as much awkwardness as you always did--only now you don't realize that you are making a fool of yourself. Getting rid of social anxiety is a good thing; but there are anti-anxiety meds that don't also cause you to lose your inhibitions and your judgment. Alcohol especially is a big offender here--an Aspie who drinks will often feel better about his social awkwardness and make an absolute fool of himself. Now, if you are with friends and you don't mind making a fool of yourself, go ahead, have fun (responsibly, naturally). But don't fall to the belief that because you are not as anxious, you suddenly have better social skills. It's likely that your social skills will worsen when you are under the influence, unless almost all of your social awkwardness is due to anxiety and not to autism (in which case addressing the anxiety makes more sense than just regularly getting drunk/high).

... yes. I did feel better about it, and I did make an absolute fool of myself. I can't lie and say I didn't have fun, but I also crossed some lines I should have been more careful about.

I gave up drinking years ago, though.

Screw that.

It's my life, I rather be a little awkward than nervous all the time. Why should I have to be unhappy so people can see me as normal? I'm odd, I accept that, I have people in my life who accept me the way I am, screw all the haters. I've found that I actually do a lot worse socially if I'm constantly worrying about screwing up anyways. If I really offend someone I know how to apologize. If I just seem kind of "weird", which is usually the case then great I take pride in that! I am done trying to be "normal".

Pot, among other things has actually taught me things. I reflected on the altered state of consciousness and copied the more helpful aspects of it into my everyday sober state, so overtime I've become more calm. I also sometimes get profound social insights. For example I came to the realization that people's judgements aren't set in stone the moment they make them. The things you say and do right afterwards can change their perception. You could say something, realize that was offensive, and then say something else that modifies the previous meaning of what you said, or turn it into a joke. It's still not easy to apply this but it's gotten easier.

It can be helpful to adopt a different perspective sometimes, and that's what an altered state of consciousness is, a different perspective.

Through the fifty years that I thought I was as normal as the next guy, from time to time drugs participated in maintaining the illusion, challenging the illusion, and consoling me when the illusions were shattered. Cannabis was a recurrent chord in that counterpoint, but lsd, cocaine, amphetamines and tobacco all played their parts.

Now that I know of aspergers, and its role in how I get along with the world, a touch of cannabis, like a touch of seroquel, helps make the situation bearable. I can train myself (slowly) to respond better; I can practice putting up the social front, although only a tiny fraction of my attempts yield any noticeable results. Overall, though, it's the sort of pursuit that one adopts when there's no hope of anything else. The sort of pursuit that an aspie siezes on when there's no other hope.

Yes, the occasional smoke softens the edge.

I've smoked pot since 1961. The best thing about at the start was it was a social thing that you did with other people, and it seemed to me that it made everyone else a little more like me. That is, it made people focus more and "get into" something deeper.

And a whole social thing quickly evolved around pot, and I felt comfortable and knew the rules and lingo.

You wouldn't know if I was stoned in your presence anyways. I've been called a stoner since I was a 'tween, long before I earned the title.



When I lose my anxiety, my social skills really do not change.. that is to say, in a normal state, I am anxious, and anxious about trying to make myself less anxious, and also awkward, made more awkward by the anxiousness. However, under influence of small green flowers, anxiety is alleviated somewhat, and therefore I am less stuck in this mind loop of being anxious, and therefore I am able to be more conscious of things like posture, stride, gait, breath.. If I do have a chat with someone, I still know I am awkward, but I am less debilitated by my awkwardness than usual because I am not constantly focusing in on my brain over the anxiety component. I'd say that's in general a positive for me, because I accept that I am awkward.

It does not always work like this.. many people experience paranoia and anxiety increase when they are high. This could be increased awareness that leads to more anxiety due to circumstances that you wish you could change.. it's like seeing a video of yourself and being utterly ashamed of the way that you act, but still being the same person you were when the video was taken..

Sorry if it does not make sense. And no, I am not stoned It is nearly 2am and I am at work.

You know what else is good medication? A person's favourite music.

That's what most people who smoke pot seem to like to think. In fact that's what most people who do any drug seem to like to think, as the most of them impair one's ability to properly judge one's self, but pot users are the least willing to apologize for the effects of their actions or even acknowledge the effects of their actions on others.

lol @ Chronos who
a) needs to 'eat' some 'pot' (i.e. ingest some cannabis in a way that won't upset his inner smoking police) and
b) is going to look rather silly if he carries on like this and I start posting links to science.

Science eats Chronos, who is only really skilled in ad-hominim and ad-populous debate.

Did you hear me Chronos? YOU are not the 'pot' expert, any more than you are emotionally sensitive enough to advise others on which medicine they use.

Your demeaning tone would not really be welcome in a genuine therapeutic setting, you can get away with it on WP but that doesn't mean it's right.

Now, what myth/rumour needs proving or dispelling, or shall we just skip straight to the boring medical explanations for why cannabis actually really works as medicine for autism (i.e. not just instilling a deluded user with the illusion of effect).

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here they are! Please preach some more! /sarcasm

I smoked so much of the stuff back in the 1980s and 90s that it doesn't get me stoned any more. Not that it ever knocked out my critical faculty or made me hallucinate. It was mostly just a nice, relaxed physical feeling, and I'd feel more enthusiastic than usual, and better tempered. I would smoke it with tobacco, and I noticed that when I had to revert to smoking just tobacco, my lungs would feel worse and I would feel rather ill. That seems consistent with the medical profession's failure to demonstrate any link between cannabis and lung cancer, even when the drug is smoked with tobacco....if I remember right, the theory is that cannabis opens up the airways and allows the smoker to cough out the polonium-210 that the tobacco, if smoked alone, would lodge deepdown in the lungs. Tobacco smoke on its own tends to tighten the airways and seal in all the nasties.

It's not exactly healthy and safe to smoke anything, but the sheer amount of tobacco needed to maintain the habit was always a lot more than the amount of cannabis, so you're getting the hit for a lower intake of burnt plant material, if you go for cannabis only, though the hit is rather different in character.

Since diagnosis I've not dabbled with it much, but when I have, I've noticed a useful reduction in my sensory issues, i.e. I feel more comfortable. I guess that's because of the analgesic properties, and it's encouraging to see that I never built up a tolerance to the analgesic effect - I wonder how many proprietory analgesics would still work on me if I'd taken them all my life, and what the side effects might be. Really I never saw any ill effects at all, possibly a bit of paranoia in the early days, but not for a long time. I also seem better able to screen out background noise and distractions.

I personally like a smoke and have done for 25 years now, but I can't say whether or not it's helped my AS beyond enabling me to temporarily forget about my symptoms and relax on solitude (which is therapeutic in itself to an extent).

I did stop smoking the high grade (ie skunk) a few years back though, because it seemed to excacerbate both my anxiety and my tinnitus. Fortunately I still have a source for old-school hashish ordinaire, which I smoke in a pipe with no tobacco.

Believe me chronos/coutzarroff, I do act much less awkward when I smoke which diminish my anxiety. Nobody fooled me, I talk from experience. Cannabis also help reducing brain overthinking problem, this mean that I'm less prone to say anything that comes through my head because I can think more clearly. Yes, cannabis DOES help thinking more clearly for people who suffer from overthinking, it slows the brain down.

Another thing Chronos, it wouldn't be possible for you to see that I'm high, People who do stupid thing while they are high are already stupid.

As for social issue, I've been able to make friend because cannabis brought me a way to connect with other people. I can tell from experience that for me, no cannabis equal no social interaction at all. I'm convinced that all the problems that people see from cannabis come only from misinformation and bad experiences caused by poor marijuanna quality.

Also, it help me a lot with my distraction problem, since it soften the sensory input, sounds and ligth are much less a problem when it come to follow my teacher. It's not proven, but I do believe that cannabis help a lot with reaction time, I do get much greater reflexes when I smoke, it's a non-smoker guy at my high school who made this assumption after seeing me catch something that droped from the table (it's hard to explain in words). Also, some testimony of people with ADHD also stated this point of greater reflexes. It may even lessen the clumsiness.

As far as I'm concerned, I have no paranoia problem at all. The only thing that might come close to paranoia is that I know my parents are not so thrilled about my cannabis consumption, but the more they accept it, the less paranoid I get. So it might just not be paranoia, but a fear to disapoint my parents...

As for doctor biased by cannabis, this is non-sense or pure paranoia. In Quebec, a Canada province (for now ) we have The Compassion Club that deal with cannabis prescription. You need a diagnosis before you can take any further action, but it's not only about paying a psy to get legal cannabis, this is, again, pure misinformation.

By the way, I'm surprised to see that a majority of the people here are in favor of cannabis legalisation.

And for your information, next week I will see a neurologist and probably get my Asperger diagnosis. So next week, I'll begin the path into getting medicinal marijuanna. Also, I do plan to grow my own and I would like to do some research on this topic. I have a friend who's most certainly bipolar (undiagnosed but show all symptoms) and another who's diagnosed with cannabis.

For me if it wasn't for the high price and having to hide when I smoke, cannabis would have no bad side effect. Help me sleep, stoped my asthma, help my social skills, help my creativity, help my introspection process, help my impulsivity, help my tics.

Head-meds alter your state 24 hours a day. Pot does so just long enough to defuse/reset, when you actually need it.

Cannabis has been used as a medication for centuries. It is not possible to OD on pot. It is not physically addictive. (many do develop a psychological dependancy on it though)Some people love the sensation, some don't. I think it should be an informed decision made by an individual. If an addictive, cancer causing product like cigarettes can still be legal I see no ethical reason why pot shouldn't be especially since it brings relief to so many - not just recreational highs.

I could go into the economic benefits of marijuana- beyond the smoke supply - but I won't bore you with those tree hugging details. It's an amazingly useful plant and several cultures revered it as sacred to the gods for many reasons. Don't even get me started on the war on drugs...

I would love you to bore me with the tree hugging details. I am a member of votehemp.com. The applications for hemp are virtually endless. It is the most amazing plant ever.