Sensory processing: a link between autism and LSD?

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Very interesting indeed, from my personal experience, the majority if not all of the people I have done drug's with in the past and present have been Aspies, I tend to have found many NT's are put off with the idea of drug's in general and aspies tend to be more drawn to them for some reason or another. I have also found NT's to not mix well with drug's when under the influence of them whereas Aspies tend to take a great affinity to the drug used, from my own personal experience anyway.

The two people with Asperger's that I know who have tripped on LSD a lot have taken amounts that have been on record to cause psychosis in normal people. They're still around and quite happy and sane. If a little... odd. But that's like getting four pieces of cheese on a grilled cheese.

Only did it once at 16 and will never make that mistake again. It kept me awake all night with a creepy sarcastic looking face on my bedroom wall laughing at me. At school the next day the digits in my math problems kept changing position so I gave up trying.

I am now 54 and an Aspie. Back in 1984, I did do LSD a few (20+/-) times. It did clarify a few things and make me feel much better. Of course, the perceptions of some things reminded me of "Alice Thru the Looking Glass". Had to stop using it tho, it was just too good.

I think ASD folks are more likely to be more curious to explore their own minds. We are more aware of sensations, so we want to explore those sensations, and their relationship to our minds. Also, it's harder for us to find peace in the social world, so I think we're more likely to search for it in our own minds - and one way of doing that is through mind altering substances.

Plus, intelligent people are statistically more likely to use mind altering substances anyway.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201010/why-intelligent-people-use-more-drugs

I do not think they're similar at all. I have HFA and I've done LSD, mushrooms, and many other similar things. The state of having autism is nothing like the state of being on psychedelics, at all. I've also spent time around others on these substances, and none of them act autistic at all - they just act like they're tripping - I act like an autistic person tripping.

YES. This topic is exactly what I was looking for.

I remember the first time I took LSD, I thought immediately - this is a drug that is perfectly suited to my mind. I felt perfectly at home on acid. It did not feel weird to me. I basically feel as if I have been mildly on acid since I was born.

Well, granted, it's not precisely the same. To me, it felt like an augmentation - something familiar, something easy to process... not really like my daily experience, but akin to it... well, it's hard to say, you know? I only have my own perception to gauge my experiences against... but NT's I have talked to about psychedelic experiences have never agreed with me on that - that acid seemed familiar, friendly.

I don't take acid anymore. Like every other drug, it affects me intensely. There is such thing as too much - I think it can inflate your ego to dangerous levels after a while. I felt wonderful on mushrooms, but not at home, like I did on acid. Ecstasy is extremely difficult for me, perhaps because I have a major touch sensitivity to begin with, and when I take ecstasy, it's like it's an aching, burning, all-consuming need to touch things and people and everything and it can never be satisfied. Suffice it to say, I will never touch that stuff again.

Anyway, yay, thank you for posting this topic. This is something I've wondered about myself, and I've always felt too shy to post anything about it.

I took magic mushroom's three times in '87 and it proved to be a big mistake on each occasion.

Bad trip's, very bad trip's. Horrific.

After the third time I vowed never to take them again.

I'm an experienced psychonaut. I've tried LSD, Mescaline, DMT, Salvia and a whole bunch of other psychedelics. I see psychedelics as an extention of my Autistic self and consider a single average dosage LSD experience a perfect way to find inner piece during periods of great anxiety and/or stress. They also gave me insights into myself and the world around me that would have otherwise taken decades to obtain while sober.

In her book Autism and the Edges of the Known World, Olga Bogdashina also explained how she saw similarity between Aldous Huxley's experiences with mescaline and the heightened sensory perceptions of people with autism.

And then there's this :

That book looks really interesting. I recently saw the video, also pretty cool.

Since I posted this topic, I have now done LSD. When I did LSD I was bracing myself for something really far out, forgetting who I was, weirdness all around...but to me the experience was comforting and familiar. It was like being a kid again, like I was remembering what that was like - the intensity of experience, the sense of curiosity, like everything is new and miraculous. Any sensory distortions were interesting but fleeting - mostly things seemed more crisp and clear. I'm sure this is a common experience regardless of neurotype. But I can say that it definitely worked with my own mind very well. I've just scratched the surface, so I'd like to do more psychedelics in the near future, but don't know where to get them at the moment.