MDMA Can Help Decrease Social Anxiety In Autistic Adults

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/28/m ... d-out-how/

What do you think?

It makes sense, though I am quite certain that is a general effect it has for most people(just not noticable for someone who already is very comfortable in social situations)...but yeah it does have that effect. Even so not sure using it long term would be a good idea, because it can wear out your brains ability to create chemicals that help your mood.

I think artificial lab-concocted chemistry is never as healthy for your brain as the ones Ma Nature made for us.

Psilocybin is natural and helps relieve anxiety and chronic depression for up to 2 years after ingestion and mushrooms have no side effects (unless you eat the wrong kind). Why dose yourself with Acid or X, when there is a natural substance that has the same effect?

I've heard it's good. But I've never tried it and wouldn't know where to find it.

I find psilocybin to be rather different from acid or mdma...certainly simular in some ways but not quite the same effect in my experience.

I enjoy a little mdma occasionaly.
It's quite fun, and it certainly helps you feel more relaxed around others.
Except when they're cops in riot gear chasing you through the parking lot of the Forum with billy clubs.

So can meth. But the long term affects of it sure aren't worth it.

It wasn't made for us. The psychoactive chemicals in plants for the most part evolved to stop the plant from being eaten. Lab created chemicals on the other hand are specifically designed to be useful for humans, and there is at least some pressure for them to be safer - you can sue a corporation that peddles a dodgy drug, but you can't sue a plant.

I think people think MDMA could help us on the spectrum is because for a brief period of time while we are under the influence it appears to "normalise" us. We do become more relaxed, more open, more empathetic etc, but does it really have long term benefits to us once the drug has wore off? It my personal experience (though it is a long, long time since i have had experience with MDMA) is no.

The only mind altering chemical that has had long term beneficial effects on me has been psilocybin and amazingly it was legal here in the UK until as recently as 2005 as long as you purchased it in fresh mushroom form. Though this is not the only substance to have helped me, LSD and (*NOPE*) i have tried have. Another long lasting novel psychedelic called Alpha-Methyltryptamine has similar beneficial after effects. I think it is because these drugs allow the user to go inside oneself, become more familiar with yourself, accepting of yourself and your place in the greater scheme of things. It helps you analyse your past and see past experiences in a different light thus giving you a different emotional response to memories long after the effects of the drug has wore off. If i was a scientist looking for a drug that could help us on the spectrum i would look into psychedelics and psychedelic based therapy first.

Its a shame laws make it very hard for studies and experimentation to happen with regards to drugs with a possible recreation uses and abuse potentials. I don't want to see people messing around with drugs and breaking the law, i want to see this happen in a professional setting. What i choose to put in my body and do with my life it totally up to me.

Last edited by DukeJanTheGrey on 03 Apr 2014, 7:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I'm NOT socially anxious! It's just that I don't always get the unwritten rules of being social. Also I believe being social is highly overrated and whenever anyone says "human beings are naturally social and if they aren't it's because they're bla bla bla terrible bla bla bla need medication", it just turns my stomach. I don't need any more drugs than what they already make me take to act "normal", thank you.

I used to love MDMA when I was younger man. Drop a tablet (recreationally) and within half an hour I'd become a completely different person. At the time I did suffer terribly with social anxiety, and I honestly believe that positive MDMA-enabled experiences profoundly changed my very negative outlook, and maybe even saved me from becoming another suicide statistic.

That said, MDMA can also amplify social anxieties in the wrong conditions, and there are numerous reports of recreational users that have died for various reasons while using the drug. The come-downs (hangovers) can be absolutely brutal also, and can last for days. I'm very grateful (and lucky) for my experiences, but I'm also pretty f'in glad that I haven't touched the stuff in over a decade.

Using it (and other substances) as a therapy might be very valuable to some people regardless of their neurotype, but people should not go out and do it recreationally just because I had a boner for hugs and dance music once upon a time. (and didn't die)

Thinking about it makes me want to pee. Cheers, OP.

The thing is, everyone's body is different, we metabolise drugs in different ways due to the different levels of enzymes we have in our bodies and then come the most important thing, how your brain is wired and how many receptors of say noradrenalin, serotonin and dopamine you have. And everyone has had a different life, has different emotions and memories etc. Where the above poster used to take MDMA and listen to electronic dance music i would drop a novel psychedelic like (*NOPE*) and listen to Penderecki's threnody for the victims of Hiroshima by choice and we would both be happy in our own different ways.. Lets face facts, we are never going to see a chemical solution that fits us all. We have to deal with who we are and just get on with it, if you find that putting alien chemicals into your body helps you then that's fine, but don't expect it to help other people in the same way. If we do use chemicals on a recreation basis can we please talk about that on forums designed for that sort of thing, lets keep this place family friendly. I am kinda wishing i never brought my personal drug use up now.

Even so many of those naturally occuring chemicals can be quite useful...and well in some instances plants/herbs can treat certain conditions with less side effects than many lab created chemicals.

It's great for the first few hours, but it lasts too long and the come down causes severe anxiety unless you have Xanax or Klonipin.

I think mdma has a lot of potential to provide a beneficial experience for those on the spectrum, depending on the set/setting and amount taken. Of course it's not something that should be taken often, and that's not what these current studies with it are implying, but rather having the experience mdma provides can catalyze a lasting positive impression long after. What's important is mostly the insights, and different perspectives, that one can pull from the experience and apply to their daily life, more so than the short window of time that one is under the influence of drug.

I've had perhaps 15 to 20 experiences with mdma over the past 9 years or so, it's something I like to take once or twice a year. I'm not going to begin to go into the details of what it's done for me (because if I did it will likely be a long incoherent mess at the moment, maybe some other day I will)....but I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for my experiences with this drug (my experiences with mushrooms & LSD are equally important)


For those of you that haven't heard of or haven't been following Alicia Danforth's work with mdma and autism...here's a podcast from her & Charlie Grob, she starts talking a few minutes into it, after the intro.....


http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=802
Alicia Danforth tells about her work with the autistic community and their use of MDMA. Following that is a recording of a conversation with Alicia and Dr. Charlie Grob, who have just begun a new study to investigate the potential of using MDMA to help ease the social anxiety that is sometimes experienced by our friends and fellow saloners in the autistic community.
http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=802




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Because they don't have the same effect....Sure there might be very similar aspects and themes, but they all offer different experiences (in my opinion, and many experiences with them). All of the classic psychedelics have something different to offer, all of them can indeed provide the same benefits but it's not quite the same experience/effect.


And there's no difference between a chemical/drug being synthesized in a lab, or in a plant, when it comes down to it a chemical is a chemical. Methamphetamine is found "naturally" in a few species of Acacia trees, does that make the meth found in trees any more healthy or better for us than meth synthed in a lab?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for "natural" remedies and using what nature provides us with, I'm really into medicinal herbs & psychoactive plants....so I hear you about using what nature offers.