Autism & Marijuana: Yes, It Actually Does Help

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It might work positively in OP. But in my experience the use of weed is always a random thing.

First up I always get some anxiety, but sometimes I end up getting so much anxiety that it becomes really bad (I get scared from just about every little sound, in my experience it's because my brain looses it's ability to recognize normal sounds).

The laughing effect that people normally get on weed has happened to me only once (and I've been smoking weed regularly for 7 years), I was watching Southpark's "imagination land" episode and when Cartman said "Dragonfly to fa***t, come in fa***t" and the picture changed to show Butters I was litterly rolling on the floor laughing. It lasted for about 40 mins. So I get the appeal it has in NT's ...

But most of the time I just get the ability to find creative solutions to eg. programming problems, which is fun but requires a lot of concentration. And when I do find them trying to hold on to the thought and writing it down is just about the hardest thing ever, because I lose just about every verbal/literal skill I have when I smoke weed.

Combined with the fact that I normally tend to forget things easily, even during conversations. This gets even worse on weed and I have to use a huge amount of concentration on just trying to focus. Fact of the matter is probably that around 80% of the solutions I end up having will be gone before I even have a chance to verify the result.

Weed also makes me lose all feeling of time. I can literally look at a clock and record the time on paper and return to look at it again 5 min later, but be completely out of my mind because it feels like 3 hours have passed and I should be going to bed. This feeling persist despite the fact that logic calculations will show that I'm way of the mark.

Last but not least, my body's ability to regulate it's own temperature goes straight out the window. I'll get tense in all my muscles because I'm either freezing or overheating, but my body can't even tell me which.

OP might think it's a solution to his AS traits, but in my opinion I find that it actually aggravates just about all of my AS traits. Now I'm all for legalizing weed, but not because it's a cure because frankly it just isn't for me. To me weed is a problem solving enhancer, but it does come at a steep price.

Personally, weed mad my autism a lot worse, I got extremely paranoid. Like, crazy paranoid, and that mixed with all my ticks and habits just led to me acting like a crazy person. I felt s**t all the time, I couldn't relax, I would make a tit of myself in public, it really messed me up. Glad I'm off the stuff.

Glad it worked for OP, but I wouldn't make the generalisation that it could help everyone.

I'm another one who found it didn't help. I used to like smoking when I knew I would be alone, because I felt like I was in a dream and could freely enjoy the dream, but in a social situation it just increased my sense of being in a fog, not knowing what other people were thinking or how I appeared to them, and made it very difficult for me to speak at all. I would just get trapped in my own little world of paranoia and anxiety. I quit a long time ago.

But yes, I do think it should be legal, and if it helps others that's great - it's just not for me.

I have my medicinal marijuana card specifically for autism, but I reached the point where I was smoking around 5 grams per day, so I didn't really feel the effects anymore, and just felt like I was wasting my time. Right now I'm on Day 1 of not smoking in order to decrease my tolerance; I am drinking coffee instead, which is kinda weird since I've always dissed ppl who drink coffee a lot.

I've never used marijuana and I'm kind of scared to.

One, because of the legal reasons. In Tennessee possession of half an ounce is a felony, if I remember correctly.

Second, I hear it is often laced with something like LSD, PCP, etc.

But I do think marijuana and other drugs should be legal, as that would solve many problems.

Well, if you want to talk about decriminalization, then I'm all for that. You and me and your Aunt Sally should be free to choose what we put in our bodies.

However, the neurological damage from long term use is more than enough for me to stay away from it. I did it too when I was younger because it's what you did to be rebellious and cool, and some people even built their entire identity around the use of it. Not my bag, baby.

Well I guess I've been doing it wrong for the start then .....because my reasons were first curiosity, and then liking the effects, and then finding it seemed to help with my psychological symptoms so that is when the regular use started for the most part. But yeah here in Colorado someone would probably be laughed at if they claimed 'doing marijuana makes them rebellious or cool.' Its so common it seems most people don't really give a damn. I mean around Denver we have multiple head shops on just about every street and then of course the dispensaries though those have diminished somewhat thanks to the feds.......though at the same time new ones are opening to.

I smoke some home-grown dispensery strains every night. Like just about everything, there is good and bad to it.

Good:
- It actually serves as a good motivator. I work really hard to get everything done before I smoke that night.
- It forces me to work out to stay in shape/work-out due to the negative side-effects if I don't.
- It's fun!

Bad:
- It does increase my social anxiety. Helps if I have someone to smoke with though.
- If I don't follow through with working out, I'll bloat up pretty quick and my mind tends to wander a lot more if don't stay active.
- The cost. I go through about 1.25 ounces a month, which is about $500. Quite an expense there.

Overall, it's something I"m taking the time to enjoy while I'm young, but it's expendable if I have to quit.

Autism & Marijuana: Yes, It Actually Does Help

its a short term solution only



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vKMDryqt4[/youtube]

My last experience with smoking marijuana was horrible - I got extremely paranoid, locked myself inside a friend's house thinking "they" were after me, whoever "they" were. I spent a whole night going around repeatedly checking the locks. My friend was amused but I was very scared, it seemed so real to me that something bad would happen. So I never smoked again after that, too afraid to.

I don't know what it is that makes some people relaxed and others paranoid when smoking pot but someone once told me that the paranoia means that one is susceptible to mental illness.

Paranoia is common in newbies...
Euphoric bliss is common in those used to the effects of cannabis....

At some cannabis clubs around here, I've never seen anyone react badly except for newbies, and they are rare at these clubs, normally attended by regular users

Orientating you mind to the effects of cannabis, normally involves some paranoia at least

Its like being time machine shifted to another time and place, and a normal reaction to a strange reality:

would be paranoia!

I can't imagine people prone to paranoia would go to cannabis clubs at all. In any case, I gave it a chance, so to speak, for about five years. I have other, cheaper, less legally risky ways to experience euphoria, so it really wouldn't worth enduring more paranoia for, to me. We're not all the same, after all. I don't really understand why there's so much evangelism about this.

EDIT: Not to mention that I kind of always feel as if I'm in a strange reality, relative to the people around me.

Not if you keep smoking it...

Well, I certainly think one thing has been shown by the posts here: Legalization would not turn everybody into pot heads just because we were allowed to do it. Even people who've had access and tried it don't all like it or feel it helps. Many people have reasons not to do it, even when they can. And most who would be pot heads probably already are, in spite of the laws. So, I think legalization would not be problematic or change things much, except to stop persecuting people for what they already do or have done. And lots of people who don't want to use it themselves (though not all, of course) seem to agree that legalization is okay, even if they think actual use of it is not or that people should be very cautious of overuse and bad effects.

Cannabis helps me. It's not just a coping mechanism. People tell me they can tell when I smoke, not because I look stoned, but because I greet people and introduce myself. I can carry on "small talk" like about sports and other things I don't like. I don't normally do that. Normally, I obsess over politics and economics and history and other things that nobody else wants to hear about.

I actually use cannabis daily, although I don't consider myself a chronic user. I never have more than 2 or 3 puffs unless I can't sleep. That's another thing! I can sleep! I dont watch documentaries until 5AM!

It never causes me paranoia except for the legal side. I don't buy the stuff that reeks, and I don't flaunt my use. I like it like that. It's not a lifestyle for me; it's just a supplement.

However, not all long-term, even heavy users are losers. I know plenty of business owners, a journalist, and a dentist who smoke ridiculous amounts of cannabis, way too much in my opinion.

I know what people mean though. I have seen some people who looked like pot was there only interest. I just doubt they had too many intellectual interests before pot...

In conclusion, small amounts seem to decrease my social anxiety, make me feel a need to act normal and fit in, help my insomnia, help me stay in a good routine, among other things. I dont get the "giggles", or even get red eyes. I just find it much easier to act like the rest of the humans. ha

And food is a short term solution to hunger.