Marijuana and Autistic Spectrum Disorders

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If you're going to smoke, smoke out of glass. But a vaporizer is the best way. Pot does help with depression. I usually smoke pot, but if I go for two weeks or more without any, I start feeling depressed. Can forget to eat sometimes but its not so bad to save money. I like the analogy defrag the brain. All pot samples have different chemicals in them. There are over 200 psychoactive compounds in pot, each sample has different proportions. Pot can affect the same condition positively or negatively with different samples. Some stuff will put me to sleep or if I smoke in the morning it will leave me a zombie all day, so I don't like pot that has this effect. Most pot won't cause you to be sleepy but it can be a problem sometimes.

when those potheads say "oh marijuana isnt a drug man, its a plant" I sort of beleive them......cause, you have to be in a really good place mentally for marijuana to enhance your life, its no drug for the downtrodden, it aint gonna clear your head. It aint gonna make you euphoric if your in a deep black depression, in fact Ive found it can make it worse.....If you got obssesions, delusions, paranoia already, your gonna f**k yourself up..........it sure as hell aint harmless.

and plus..smoking is smoking..which is bad for your health..duh...my non-judgemental stance regarding folks who choose to smoke marijuanua received a little jolt when wee while ago, i dated (lived with) a guy who was a complete habitual pot smoker...This meant that a huge portion of his life was dedicated to smoking...scoring...etc...and if he ran out, he'd become really irritable....for him it is definitely a drug...even if his addiction was only psychological..He also smoked cigarettes, so our tiny apartment was always filled with smoke..I always felt cloudy-headed...we didn't make much money, so a big chunk of our income went to his habit...i was a tolerant and supportive enabler because he was doing that stuff before we lived together and i wasn't gonna make him change just for little ole' me, but enough got to be enough after a while.

For those who say that pot amplifies your AS, in fact for me it seems if anything to do the opposite.

I had an experience once where I had smoked some and then I was walking around outside where there were other people around. At one point it seemed that my "eye contact circuit" (it seems there must be a specific part of the brain) just switched on. It was like, when I looked at someone's face and stared at their eyes, something "clicked", and a little mental flag popped up whenever my gaze veered away, letting me know that I was somehow "off target", sort of like a laser guiding system for my eyes. I'm sure ordinary people have this mechanism "engaged" all the time, but for me it was totally something new.

I would have to say I haven't found the high terribly enjoyable--it's good for relaxing yet it doesn't tend to make me feel better since it tends to interrupt my natural hyper-ness, and I need to be at least a little hyper to be truly euphoric. I wouldn't be surprised if bipolar people whose mania is too strong (i.e. beyond nice and euphoric) would benefit from it.

I smoke weed occasionally but I only have the desire to when I feel pretty good already. I've had some great nights high but I've also had some bad ones. When I was getting diagnosed with AS, the psychologist asked if I smoked pot and when I said I did, he didn't discourage me from doing it and added that some people with AS report that it helps their symptoms. I keep my use mild.

I'm 16 and have smoked since 13 and i think weed is the best cure for social problems aspergers because it calms you down but can make you unhealthy and depressed if you smoke alot of it. So I just smoke on week ends and workout alot and it works good. So if you got a problem with asperger symptoms just balance the 2 out. If your depressed stop smoking and workout more. and if your having trouble with social stuff smoke a little more weed.

yea, I used to be a smoker, I guess Im a self hating pothead(the worst kind!?)........haha....yea most of my freinds are potheads.....and ...Ill never discourage anyone else from using it explicitly,since it would be pretty hypocritical i guess, and especially since I like to turn other people on to my taste in music, and theres no better way to do that than have them be very much in their cups. But I think as far as asperger's goes....maybe it does help people, but i think maybe eventually it hurts..becuase I believe alot of us are pre-disposed to other nervous ailments as well...or nervous ailments that is........I guess I hate the culture,though..always have .....even in my smoking days........I usually hate any subculture.....not hate.,...I dont hate anyone....I just am bothered by it......I hate having to feign interest in some really "dense buds' , or some stupid pot leaf t shirt or whwtever it is....I always thought a plain old fashioned joint was the classiest form of smoking...and the most relaxing, no need to be relighting and choking and what have you.....and nice smooth hits...and while im ranting, .....dont pretend you're not a smoker,you potheads..... you're a f***ing smoker.....dont try to elevate yourself above those lowly tobacco smokers.....your getting just as much if not more tar than they are....and yes, alot of people occasionally and moderately use tobacco......Im sure the american lung association considers me a "heavy tobacco smoker,".3-5 cigs a day.......but thats less or equal to the number of bowls most potheads i know do in a day...........Ive never understood the ultra health consious pot smoker...unless you use one of those vaporiser's i guess.......cant we all just unite as smokers of dried plant substances? I m sorry for the occasional mean spiritedness, I just get worked up and I'm bored.....please smokers dont take offense, Im not tryin to 'flex nuts"(thank you urban dictionary) or nuthin......hey, I dont have to worry you're all supposed to be mellow right?.....Gee, I noticed the first thing when I discovered this board, is there sure are alot of marijuana related topics. But, alas, it seems to be ripe for discussion......

Moderation really makes the difference. AS types like me have a lot of sensitivity to mind-altering substances, we need to be careful with them. I think this goes for caffeine,alcohol, and nicotine too. It probably makes sense for an AS person to know what life is like without any drugs legal or otherwise. Then if they want to have a drink or a toke or even a cup of coffee they should be mindful of its impact on them. And if ever in doubt about any drug, the best answer is "no".

OP: Every drug I've taken has been prescription (so "weed" cannot make my autism any worse if I've never taken any): Valium is the best I’ve taken, the good ol’ minor tranquilizer (“downer”); it really helps remove anxiety due to society.

Too bad I've run out of them.... O well, I'll survive (I think).

I use weed as an anti-depressant. My story was much the same as the poster of this thread's.

ill share this with you guys.

I guess i am just one of those weed=psychosis people..I wonder what exactly the percentage is....is it rare?

Once upon a time when I was a regular pot smoker..'cause i was in a band and it was hard not to...even were I to say no to the joint, the room would be smogged...i was having serious creepy delusions..Also my OCD tendancies became really pronounced.

I will occasionally partake and then go though the nightmare which usually lasts longer than a day and then declare I will never do it again. I ate a little piece of brownie for 420 and yep...major paranoia...the bigness and scariness of the world becomes very obvious..everything seems out of control..thought people were casing our place and planning to rob us...was pacing and stimming like crazy..eventually had to go and hide because all the people were really freaking me out..

I wish there was something i could use to just defragment my brain a little bit..

Even the legal smokable (non-pot/non-nicotine substances I will use from time to time...

really they just make my head cloudy

When I tried maryjuana, it made my heart race and my thoughts race like it was like a stimulant in me.
I wonder if maryjuana does have stimulant properties.. because it makes some people anxious and paranoid.

This also reminds me of how stimulants affect people different if they have ADHD. But stimulants will always have the potential to become addicting to people... And I still don't have much of an explaination to things in these terms of how maryjuana affects certain people because of their neurological traits but anyway.

There are no targets for stimulant related receptors in the brain that I know of for maryjuana and stuff thats like a stimulant is something that I only know as something that mainly works with re-inforcing effects.

I do know that there is a drowsy feeling that is associated with maryjuana and I have always felt it when I was experiamenting with it. There is a generalized impairment and poor coordination of movement. I wouldn't subtract this attribute of the drug.

But there is a strong buzz feeling that I get - its the stoned feeling.. it was distracting to me. The stoned feeling that I notice can be very intruding upon my conciousness(or it was at those times). Just like if an anti-depressant alters someones mood / perceptions: it could be an added energy in the mind but not unless it can take away internal stimulation and most likely cause sleepiness. I think that this ssri "high" thing is related to high dosages, though.

Maryjuana isn't like a benzodiazapene, anti-histamine, anti-depressant, or neuroleptic tranquilizer. But I think that I know of some things that can cause mixed internal states of agitation/paranioa such as LSD, high dosages of nicotine, anti-histamines, certain kinds of ssri's, and some other stuff that indirectly interacts with acetycholine and/or Norepinephrine. Even sometimes neuroleptic tranquilizers can cause akasia(or whatever its called).

I'd describe the stoned feeling like a heighthened arousal of an "intoxication feel to it" that there is something thats going on in my brain, being stimulated by the impairment. But, at least, maryjuana doesn't feed the propaganda to take an ssri so its not something that I am taking away as a preference: thats what ssri's seem to do.