Being high

Post Reply New Topic

If being high were even similar to AS then someone with AS would likely say that being high would be like, oh, being in a large, noisy, crowd of people at a fair or something. This wouldn't be true if the very degree of severity of AS symptoms changed the manifestation of the symptoms, but I see no reason why it would.

Goldfish, have you always had AS symptoms? Like from when you were a kid? Also, you've said that your AS symptoms have gotten worse at some point in time I believe? It seems more and more likely to me that whatever you have experienced isn't AS. I believe you've had all sorts of symptoms that are described by it (although as to if they're actually perceptually similar depends on how good our language is at conveying internal states), and I believe you when you say you've felt drug highs similar to what you've experienced regularly. But even just the physiological nature of AS, where there are too many cortical connections, it seems like a couple of weeks wouldn't be enough time to noticeably alter the brain's structure that much as to overcome and 'learn' things that NTs brain's learnt as infants. But to chemically alter it, like if you've had parasites or something, well, drugs can hit in a few moment's time.

Also a little weird to have you tell someone else that they can't properly discern the state of being high from having AS because their default state of being is AS, when you yourself are also claiming AS as your own default state. Surely you're not drawing from your own experiences being high recently, when you've started feeling better, while you've been following a strict cleansing regimen, or are you actually saying you've been high recently while unsymptomatic such that your comparison is unclouded?

That sounds like a possibility. A lot of the mental states I've experienced sound similar to other people's description of being high on drugs. My symptoms have improved with supplements and diets as well.

If being high is like being autistic then I definitely don't have autism.
I didn't enjoy the one time I've been noticeably high. I couldn't keep a train of thought long enough to write a sentence without other random thoughts interfering, trying to connect into something that made sense but ultimately didn't. Like my working memory wasn't working :-p
My visual perception was similar to being incredibly drunk, although without the spinning.
Overall it made me anxious and I didn't enjoy the sensations at all.

Sensory overload can be like a bad trip. Or maybe that's my hypoglycemia.

Also, this flashing banner ad is about to give me sensory overload.

Leave off Goldfish too. What does it matter what he believes? What's better is a person's well being. People try to tell me things like I could be more borderline and it's none of their business. To hell with the facts. You don't always have to be right especially when it just continues this argument that goes around in circles anyway.
I know I gave him a hard time too but er well...sometimes I just want to give people a hard time. Sorry about that man.

Sounds more like ADHD or bipolar.
You get used to the racing thoughts. Well, you don't but you learn to write things down a lot.

Yes, I've always had AS symptoms from as far back as I can remember (5 years old, before that memories are very few and far between.) but I didn't know until a couple of years ago that AS symptoms were what I've experienced my whole life. As with anyone who's read "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome," either the book describes you to a T or it doesn't - and for me, it did. Nothing else explains the internal thought processes, behaviours, sensory experiences, the gait to my step, the prosody of my voice etc.

Yes, my symptoms had gotten worse and worse over the last handful of years especially. I had functioned much better before that period. It all makes sense to me now since it was caused by a physical infection that had gotten worse and worse over time. Now that I've rid myself of it, I've never functioned higher in my life nor been happier or healthier.

It may seem more & more likely to you, but I know what I've experienced my entire life & I know that it matches the textbook description of AS. It doesn't really matter what you think; I know what I know just as well as any of you know what your life's experiences amount to. Just to play devil's advocate, I could sit here and question your diagnosis & what you experience just the same - but I won't because I have no reason to doubt what you say is true. Further to that, I haven't given (to the best of my knowledge) any reason for anyone to doubt my statement that AS is how I've experienced the world for over 30 years. That and I have no reason to fabricate it or all the troubles it's caused me over the years. what's in it for me to BS myself and this forum about it? Nothing.

I haven't felt precisely the same thing on drugs as AS symptoms. I've drawn the comparison, because in general, both result in altered perceptions, senses, thinking, motor skills, anxiety etc. I may have felt precisely the same things in some moments, it's a little hard to pin down when you're on drugs & enjoying a trip vs. analyzing it to compare it to your neurological defaults.

It may not have changed brain structure within a couple of weeks, but it was only a matter of days before my audio hypersensitivity/audio sensory overload & sky high anxiety were greatly diminished. I had previously had my headphones in for more than a year to drown out background noise and keep myself calm. After a week or so on this diet, I went out to dinner with family to a busy pub, without my headphones in, and managed just fine because I wasn't anxious and the background noise wasn't driving me insane. That was a very significant milestone in only a matter of days. I don't propose that several days of dieting rewired my brain, but rather I believe that it detoxed the food chemicals that were tripping my brain out in the first place, as well as reduced inflammation in both the digestive tract & brain, and began lessening the physical infection that was perforating my intestines causing the leaky gut in the first place - possibly beginning to reduce the permeability of the intestinal lining within those first couple weeks.

"To chemically alter it," as you say via drugs... and just what do you think food/herbs are? Chemicals. And drugs. Virtually every pharmaceutical is derived from a plant. Plants have medicinal properties in their raw form. Herbs are natural medicine - they just haven't been partially synthesized, patented, standardized in dosage & sold for a profit in a pill bottle. It's been my experience that these herbs have had a medicinal effect right from the beginning just as one might expect to have by popping pills.

My post to willard is a bit tongue-in-cheek because he seems to think he's an authority on my symptoms & experiences. He is not.

I've been stoned recently in my new state of ever higher functioning, and being high is bit of a trip like altered thought processes due to AS. I have not done any hallucinogens or anything over the last several months, or more recently/now, in order to make those comparisons again. But I have experienced various drug highs, as well as AS symptoms, and in my experience there's a very realistic comparison between the two and I've elaborated as to why I believe this. Parasitic infection -> Leaky Gut -> Food chemical induced drug trip.

Goldfish -- my first memory of you is that you were promising all of us some kind of diet that would cure us all. I'm all in favor of good nutrition and exercise, but really? You can't change your neuronal structure through food. It's just not possible. That's like saying you can change the position of your windows by using Windex. I'm not saying this as a personal attack. And I'm also not doubting that you really do feel better. But I've been on a great diet and work-out plan for years, and while it's improved my proprioception and my overall appearance, it hasn't changed my brain.

AS is an altered experience of the world, but it's not "trippy." When I visually process the world in parts that I put together in my mind, there isn't any buzz that goes with that; just a feeling of being removed from reality and slightly dissociated.

Maybe if I had more synesthesia, I could grasp the drug parallels. But the comparison doesn't ring true to me at all.

You are what you eat. You can change your physical body via diet, so why not your mental state? Consuming drugs changes one's mental state. Same goes for the medicinal effects of foods. Besides that, the diet isn't to change your brain chemistry directly. The diet & treatment protocol I've been following is to kill and clear a digestive tract infection that caused the leaky gut that in turn caused the neurological trip that AS symptoms & other comorbids have been.

My brain structure may not have changed one iota (it likely has not. I never said I believed it did.), but my symptoms sure have. I'm not the only one who notices the differences, either. I know what they are from my perspective and experiences, but the feedback from others has been completely positive - unsolicited - and further proof that I've changed. At one Christmas party, my cousin said "For the first time... you seem.. Happy." and she was right. At another party, an old neighbour who's place I lived at for 18 months a few years ago said "Rich, I'm so glad you finally figured out what was wrong with you," (in a nice & sincere way, not a joke/sarcasm.) as he noticed the massive differences in me now vs. when I lived at his place during approximately my lowest of lows & worst functioning period of my life. Physically, my buddy/old boss has commented several times about how I "carry myself," much more confidently now. Also physically, my best friend since high school's wife complimented me last week on how clear my skin is compared to how it's been forever. I'm not the only one who notices my mental, physical, behavioural & social changes - it's everyone around me that knows me as well.

As I said before, I have an identical twin brother who refuses to acknowledge his AS symptoms and thus has not treated himself in this way (or any). Put us side by side and observe and you can see the differences clear as day. when I see him, it's almost like doing a before and after comparison on myself and I'm reminded just how much I've improved. I used to be much worse off than him, now I feel like I'm lightyears ahead and am about to leapfrog past him in life/social success/business/finances etc over the next year or two if he continues to deny his symptoms & the root cause of intestinal dysbiosis that we both inherited from our mother at birth.

what is the diet you've been following? IF your symptoms are caused by a similar digestive tract infection that I've dealt with, then certain foods will fuel the infection and it won't die off and clear out. It'll hold on stronger as it clings to the intestinal walls. Further, it's not just diet alone that I used to be able to clear this digestive infection. If you've read my thread, you'll note that I performed dozens of high volume herbal enemas over the months in order to deliver medicine directly to the source of the problem, kill the infection, and clear it out of me. Had I not done this I have no idea how long it may have taken to clear via diet alone, if ever. I believe it's been a crucial part of this treatment protocol that can't be overlooked.

I know what AS is. I've lived it, too. From my experience, it's a food chemical induced drug trip. It's not a hallucinogenic "trip," but rather altered perceptions, thought processes, senses etc. A couple of summers ago I went through an extremely philosophical stage. That was caused by the salicylate acid sensitivity part of all of this, as I wrote about. If you'd care to creep my Facebook timeline, you can scroll back and read my philosophical status updates & comments on news articles and so forth as evidence of the state of mind I was in at that time.. and the very very obviously Aspie status updates/posts about my frustrations with e v e r y t h i n g lol before I even knew about my own AS. The mother of an Aspie, my cousin's cousin, messaged when I first made a status update about figuring out that it wasn't just ADHD but also Autism and said she "always knew I was an Aspie, but didn't know that I didn't know."

The drug parallels are on altered thinking & sensory perceptions, not visual hallucinations or anything like that.

I'd have to say no.
For one, not being NT, I don't know what the relative difference is.
Also, since I am aspie all the time, it is everyday normal. "High" is something one would experience occasionally with a mental state different from baseline for that person.

Synesthesia is great.

Eating certain foods really makes my ADHD and mood disorder symptoms worse. I've never really had a worsening of autism symptoms though. I try to stay away from food I'm sensitive to and I can just manage my symptoms a bit better. Plenty of sleep helps too. I think my mood symptoms are due to drug damage though. I'm not sure if I could cure that through diet. I probably would have some symptom alleviation but I buy my food from one store. It's a tiny grocery-supermarket.

I'll probably never give up the food that are bad for me. I'm trying to give up alcohol (on NYE lol) but I wonder how long that will last.

Being high is like being high.
Being drunk is like being drunk.
Rolling is like rolling.
Spinning is like spinning.
Trpping is like tripping.
Being autistic is like being autistic.

It seems like people are more likely to think I'm high when I'm not than when I am actually high.
This suggests to me that being high, for me, is like being NT for others to some extent, at least in terms of outward appearances.

Ain't no thang but a hyperchicken wing...

I'd second this...shock is closer to the mark than high.

AS is nothing like being high. I have a really concrete sense of reality at all times; the closest I'm usually getting to "high" is a sense of confusion and detachment from the reality of others. Still, everything seems real.

"High" can mean so many different things. Probably the most usual is having taken marijuana/weed. Maybe that makes some people feel a bit detached from their worries, and have trouble interpreting things or having motivation. It's distinct from AS but perhaps SLIGHTLY similar.

I've tried many other types of high in the distant past. I am extremely happy to have gone through that period in my life, it really opened my consciousness, took me to new levels of joy and enjoyment, made me think deeply about my relationships and the future. I think I said dozens of times back then that I LOVED the experiences I was having.

I can categorically say that a "high" from MDMA, ecstasy, ketamine, speed and cocaine is nothing like AS.

Interestingly, I told people to stop giving me cocaine, because it never did anything for me. I thought that it disinhibits people and adds confidence (they all think they're totally fantastic when using coke); and personally I don't have a whole heap of social baggage and didn't need to shed social rules, so I actually just felt a minimal euphoria.

Despite the positive things I said about getting wasted, there are many many huge potential negative consequences so I would almost always try to stop people trying illicit substances unless they were sure they had to do it. In that case, I would give them all the advice I could on negative side effects.

The only way to never have a negative consequence from drugs is to not use them.

Goldfish:
Your experience is yours, and I can't refute it.
All I know is that my brain is my brain. It either works well with god nutrition, or poorly with bad nutrition.
But it's always an Aspie brain, for me.

By the way, why is your name Goldfish? I had a goldfish once and he died after 3 days. I named him Happy. I was 6. I cried when he died. On the other hand, last night I ate some really awesome tuna.

No. I don't feel high, although I have been accused of being on drugs, when I haven't been.

Can we avoid letting another thread be high-jacked (sorry!) by goldfish's special interest?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's called "being high" because you feel euphoric, am I right? Autistic people do not constantly feel euphoric.

No, it's not, otherwise it would be called being euphoric. Pretty well every drug has a different type of "high." Mental states, moods, physical effects, sensory effects, alertness/energy levels, physical strength and a myriad of other variables are all strikingly different between different drugs. Some make you happy, confident, and alert while others make you careless, & drowsy. Some make you hallucinate and see/hear/think things. Some "expand your mind," and allow you to think things in bigger ways than you'd ever imagined humanly possible. Others make people extremely fidgety and hyperactive. Some are pain killers. Some are aphrodisiacs. Some make people feel emotionally numb. Some make your mind feel high, others have more of a physical effect - and this can change with the same drug depending on the method of consumption, ie vaporizing marijuana vs. smoking it vs. eating it. Some enhance vision while others make it blurry. Some may change your hearing and make it very acute. Some make you extremely sensitive to touch. Any of them that alter your senses don't typically do so with consistency throughout the trip, it fluctuates. Some drugs effects are known to fluctuate or come in waves, others just hit full on and then taper off. The effects of pharmaceutical and recreational drugs are as varied as the symptoms of Autism, and therefore there is a valid comparison between the two.

PS How's your IBS treating you?