how would drug use interact with autism?

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so i was thinking about one of my past special interests which was researching drugs of the illicit variety and i was wondering how recreational drug use would interact with peoples autism(my second last SI). i tried looking up stuff on the internet but as usual it was utterly useless and all that came up were sites about medicating your autistic kids to rid them of their autism. how would it work? i'd assume it'd be different for everybody and different with every drug. i think if i used a psychotropic substance or anything really, it'd go badly. my mind is a dark place, dont really need drugs to make it worse.

try and first get your mind to a light place and then find the synergie with tripping free on ladeedie

Like anything else, it will depend on the person. As for me, I tend to be very sensitive to drugs and it takes a much smaller dose to do anything to me. I can't tolerate SSRI drugs, for example, which are typically considered to be well tolerated in most people. The antidepressant drug Wellbutrin I can tolerate, but it makes me excessively talkative and makes me fell paridoxically happy and sad, energetic but tired. I also tend to have very negative effects from marijuana, the only illegal substance I have ever used. However, many people on here seem to be different than me in this regard. It may be something other than autism at work in me with regards to how I am with these substances. (Plus, I am self-diagnosed so I am not 100% certain of my AS.)

You are right that it would vary with the individual and the drug.

A few people on here have claimed that drugs like cannabis and speed have helped them, but they won't help everyone.

My experiences are pretty much in line with what is to be expected for NTs. The only atypical things I can think of are:

・ I tried a mild hallucinogen once. I only got terrible dysphoria. I haven't used any other hallucinogens, so I don't know how they'd work.
・ I don't enjoy opioids as much as others seem to.
・ Carisoprodol feels just like alcohol to me, except with the addition of the "Soma shuffle" and the great feeling in the morning in place of the hangover. Other people say it just makes them tired.

Alcohol reverses my personality. Normally I'm extremely introverted, sitting in the corner hardly talking…But after a few drinks I end up incessantly babbling everything that pops into my head. Then I spend the next day worrying about everything I said and wishing I didn't drink. The last time I drank around people I was tackled because of a misunderstanding!

I haven't had any notable problems as a result of drug use.

I've read that psychedelic hallucinogens can almost completely mitigate the symptoms of anxiety disorders for up to a few months. Anxiety disorders can come with asperger's as I'm sure you all know.

I'm not sure how other asperger's symptoms would be affected by these types of drugs. I've also read about people taking them and having profound changes in the personality and worldview.

I've never tried a psychedelic before; even though I have pretty easy access to mushrooms where I live. Too scared!!

Hmm well it really depends on the drug and the individual with autism, how it will effect them. I have had both good and band experiences with drugs, I'd say probably more positive experiances though.

I know drugs are a bad idea for me and my personal flavor of autism, because due to my reliance on routine, I have an exceptionally addictive personality (and I don't mean that other people can't get enough of my company!) I have a difficult enough time managing my alcohol and tobacco use, without throwing more dangerous stuff into the mix. I also have a history of being oversensitive to side effects from prescribed drugs, including psychotic symptoms, so I'd be too terrified of something like that being triggered. I feel that these problems are directly related to my asperger's, but whether they would hold true for others I obviously can't say.

Hallucinogens can also accentuate one's emotions; so if you had an anxiety disorder, you could end up with a very, very bad trip. Like, bad to the point of PTSD.

Drugs are illegal for a reason. Yes, a lot of those reasons are political, but some of them are health-related. First, most illegal drugs are physically dangerous to ingest--they're poisonous, for lack of a better term, and will cause damage to your mind and your body. Some are about as poisonous as cigarettes; others more so; a few less.

(Ecstasy and marijuana seem to be relatively safe, but deaths have been associated with both--marijuana only when combined with drinking, because it prevents nausea, so that the alcohol poisoning takes hold before you can throw up the extra alcohol).

Secondly, they're illegal. That means that experimenting with them risks your ending up in the prison system. Think about this: You're a socially clumsy autistic. You would be in the same environment where all the worst and least inhibited bullies end up when they finally fall afoul of the law. You could be in for two months and not survive. So it's a very real risk.

Third: They can make mental illnesses worse, or cause mental illnesses. Methamphetamines, for example, usually result in long-term depression even after recovery from addiction. They literally damage your brain so that you are less capable of feeling positive emotions. Hallucinogens seem to be associated with triggering schizophrenia in people who are vulnerable. If you become psychologically addicted (which can happen with any drug, not just physically addictive ones), you have gained a maladaptive coping mechanism that leads you to turn to a drug for relief rather than dealing with your problems. And it can cause social withdrawal, which is a huge risk factor for every mental illness out there.

Illegal drugs are very, very risky to experiment with. In the interest of full disclosure, I haven't done so myself; I've only talked to people who have. The most positive effects I've ever seen someone have from any illegal drug has been that they simply find it fun to change their own mental states.

Other than that--no. The legal drugs that a psychiatrist can prescribe are a much better bet. Don't self-medicate unless you absolutely know that these cannot help you; and even then, you might be better off without any sort of drug at all.

If you are going to try illegal drugs:
--Don't try anything physically addictive: Even if they help at first, the effects will wear off quickly, and then you'll need them just to feel normal.
--Get the substance only from someone you trust who has grown or made it himself. Ideally, produce your own.
--Know the law in your area. Never have in your possession more than the amount considered a felony, and never sell it to anyone else. You do NOT want to go to prison.
--Always have someone with you when you are high. Your judgment will be impaired. You do not want to find that you have taken your clothes off and gone walking down the road telling everyone you are the Queen of Egypt. Or, more commonly, you don't want to end up choking on your own puke, forgetting to eat or drink for two days, eating everything in the refrigerator including the three sticks of butter, or calling up your ex-girlfriend and explaining how very much you would like to have sex with her right now.
--Don't use a mind-altering substance to avoid real-life problems.
--If you find yourself "needing" more of the substance, withdrawing from the rest of your life, structuring your life around it, etc., get help, because you are getting either psychologically or physically addicted, and the sooner you get help, the less likely it is to shred your brain and ruin your life before you can do anything about it.

If I knew you'd listen, I'd say--don't do drugs at all. That's the best option. But if you simply must experiment, at least be smart about it.

Pot's an exception to a lot of rules where illegal drugs are concerned. It's safer than Valium, for example, and Valium is legal (but also more effective for anxiety).... Honestly, I'd prefer for it to be legal, considering it's less dangerous than both cigarettes and alcohol; I still think it's stupid to use it, because it just makes you silly in the head, but I don't think we need to be jailing people for that. We don't jail them for getting drunk (something which I think is also pretty stupid). It's just Prohibition all over again, really. We're creating criminals out of nothing, tying up the police and the prisons over it.

I also think we ought to be doing some proper research on whether it has useful medicinal effects. We already know it can help chemo patients with nausea. What I don't like is when people who like to smoke it go and insist it's a panacea for everything, without having anything but personal experience and testimonials to back it up. Okay, so they think it shouldn't be illegal--valid opinion; fine. But I'm pretty skeptical about any claim that a single substance is useful for umpteen different ailments. That's a claim you see quacks making all the time, and they can never back it up either. What I want is solid research, not random people saying, "Hey, I got stoned and it helped me with Condition X"--well, so? People have said that about everything from chamomile to bee pollen to chelation. We need the science on it before we go recommending it to anybody.

It might make you slower if you already have central auditory processing issues. It could also affect your fine motor skills.

There's a possibility that you'd be more sensitive or insensitive but the side effects [to your vitals; lungs if you smoke, liver if you drink] will be the same.

My brother, for instance, didn't get any sort of 'high' from drinking alcohol; just a migraine. To relieve the migraine he drank lots of water which removed most of the noticeable effects.