assuming some familiarity with the opioid excess theory of autism on behalf of the readers, i shall articulate my own circumstances and speculation upon accounting for these circumstances, before posing my query:
i'm 36 years old and have received innumerable diagnosis throughout life, but the following three seem most apt: rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, complex partial seizure disorder, and asperger's syndrome. the respective ages at which i received these diagnosis are as follows: 16, 25, 25 (autism 4-5, upgraded at 25). over the past twenty years i've been prescribed well over 20 different psychotropic drugs and did not respond positively to any except depakote, which worked ok for a few years and then stopped working. from about age 17 to age 20 i had a narcotics habit, as well. in later years, i found myself returning to narcotics again and again, and finally, for about the past five years, resumed a narcotic regimen - albeit a very conservative and strictly regulated one.
the opioid excess theory of autism suggests that many of the attributes of autism are accounted for by an excess of the body's own opiates (endorphins, beta-enkephalin, etc.), which in turn are produced excessively because of an inability to digest certain proteins, amino acids, and such. this in turn, has led to the use of natrexone (and opioid antagonist) in experimental studies on autistic children. many of the children, when administered naltrexone, sharply abated or discontinued stimming behaviors and subsequently adopted a more sociable demeanor. given that, one might think it altogether illogical to treat one's autism with opiates;
but, if one's autism was not addressed (via counselling or medicine) throughout one's childhood and adolescence, the autistic individual learns to adapt himself to the world while essentially remaining autistic. in my own case, i always found (and continue to find) my ability to turn extremely inward and shut off the exterior world extremely comforting and therapeutic. however, as i progressed through adolescence and into adulthood, i found that i could no longer 'retreat' as much or for as long as i would have preferred and the stresses of getting along in the nt world were overwhelming. all of this was compounded by my seizure disorder, which made me exceptionally sensitive to all external stimuli. the more frustrated i grew with prescribed pharmaceuticals and the more i learned about narcotics (in particular, their relative harmlessness as regards long term usage), the clearer it became to me that narcotics had worked far better for me in the past. and so, i resumed a regimen of narcotics once again five years ago and have found that i've been far more productive, creative, stable, and functional in the past five years than i ever have been in my life. narcotics essentially act as a buffer between my fragile self and the exterior world; without this buffer, i am virtually incapable of funtioning in the nt world, as i am extremely sensitive (as regards lowering of seizure threshold as well as neurotic breakdowns) to not only interaction with other human but also to pretty much every product of humankind (lights, machinery, 'bad' angles, etc.).
what i am getting at is that i believe that for many autistics, especially those who went untreated and/or undiagnosed througout the better part of their lives, perhaps the most appropriate course of pharmaceutical treatment are drugs of a depressant nature (opiates, benzodiazepines), as they effectively desensitize the hyper-aroused and hyper-sensitive. i've encountered this notion before in the works of other autistics (ie. temple grandin acknowledges that she is very much drawn to depressant type meds), but i am curious to hear more from others. does anyone here have much experience in these matters or have any thoughts pertaining to such notions?
21 Aug 2006, 6:35 pm
