ASD & Dopamine

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Having a larger than normal capacity yet lacking the ability in many cases to fulfil it is generally what causes our issues. A lack of dopamine (or in our case not fulfilling it enough) tends to cause the following: exhaustion, little motivation, inattentiveness, an inability to focus, impulsiveness, forgetfulness, boredom, restlessness, resistance, and generally being uncooperative and unempathic. In an effort to correct this many of us seek out more stimulation or our preferred type of stimulation that won't overload our systems in amounts that generally annoy the people around us - essentially where stims and special interests come from. Also the reason video games are addictive and house chores aren't.

Something I choose to experiment with personally was nutrition, after I observed a significant change in symptoms as a result of treating my medical condition. The interesting part was it didn't' just affect my medical condition, it affected my ASD symptoms too. After investigation, trial and error and experimenting - I managed to take my AS severity level from moderate to mild through the use of diet alone. It doesn't cure ASD of course, which will always be there, it simply brings my symptoms to a more manageable level. For example, instead of the usual 3 hours of people interaction per day, I can now handle 6 hours without overloading too badly - so for that to double without drugs suggests that this entire thing is much more treatable than it would seem from traditional literature if you know what you're doing.