A question for the self diagnosed

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How does it change my interactions with others and the world, or others interactions with me, if some doctor writes a diagnosis on a piece of paper in a medical record in a filing cabinet somewhere?

Like I said earlier, I don’t need government supports. 6 years ago I couldn’t function to work at all. Doc told me there’s nothing he could do for AS as there are no drugs for it. I figured out how to treat my symptoms myself and now function highly enough that I’ve been back to full time work for 5 years and am currently working 3 jobs. (Sorta, one is unofficial - but I do earn money at it so I’m counting it.) I’m 6’2” tall and 200lbs of muscle at around 12%bf and fully capable of working Every Day to earn my way in the world just as good, or better, than the average NT.

Last edited by goldfish21 on 30 Jul 2018, 7:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Goldfish, are you aware of the concept that correlation does not imply causation?

Even if 70 percent of cases of autism have gut dysbiosis, that's not proof that the latter causes the former. It could be the case that treating gut symptoms reduces gut symptoms, leading to one feeling better generally, without having any relationship to the presence or absence of autism traits.

Last edited by BeaArthur on 30 Jul 2018, 6:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Best point raised in the whole thread.

I’m very well aware.

It could be. But it’s not.

The DSM, Tony Attwood, and others describe ASD symptoms very accurately & I am capable of discerning the difference in my ASD functioning level after doing what I do, or reversing it via antibiotics.

As I’ve shared here before, 6 years ago my ASD symptoms were off the charts and I was incapable of working at all. Now I’ve been back to work full time+ for 5 years and have more of a social life than ever.

I am Not the only autistic person in the world that this applies to. Very far from it. In time, someone else will tell you so and then perhaps you’ll begin to believe it.

Read this one year old ASD study if you haven’t yet:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5408485/

It explains all of the science I’ve learned and shared here - but it ends at hypothesizing that a simple cost effective treatment my be possible. Meanwhile I’ve been doing for 5 years what they hypothesized 1 year ago might be possible to do in the future. And that’s why I’ve reached out to contact the doctors involved in this study so I can share what I’ve learned and done.

Which ASD symptoms in particular worsened after taking antibiotics?

Speaking for myself, I don't seem to have any relationship at all, so I'm curious what you have been seeing.

Virtually all.

Lack of eye contact, nervousness/social anxiety, lack of fine motor skills/coordination, decreased executive functioning, increased irritability, audio sensitivity, missing social cues & general social obliviousness etc etc. Clear across the board: If I take a course of doxycycline, I nuke all my little gut buddies & my ASD functioning level plummets into the basement and then I socially isolate myself to avoid making mistakes I don’t want to make while I repopulate my gut. In a matter of a couple short weeks or so I can make a dramatic & noticeable improvement - not just to myself, but to others around me - hence the feedback on my improvement in the workplace each time this occurs.

Unfortunately I still have the symptom of not being aware of my own symptoms and so when this happens I don’t tend to notice the behavioural symptoms until I get negative feedback from someone else. I DO tend to notice physical symptoms, so it’s when I notice I’m tripping on my own shadow or can’t use my fingers for fine things that I realize I’m slipping and then do a mental check of a list of behavioural symptoms and realize I’ve somehow managed to imbalance my gut again, whether via antibiotics or poor diet or w/e and then I know what I need to do about it to rebalance it asap. In a perfect world I could maintain a perfect balance and my highest functioning level all the time - but life isn’t like that and I still have some fluctuations to deal with. At least I’ve learned how and can, though.

Edit: Also, my hands get shakey. And others have described exaggerated facial expressions. My sense of time is warped. And on and on. Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I can revert symptoms/functioning level back and forth with antibiotics/probiotics.

You didn't mention restricted range of interests and repetitive actions. Nor did you mention any sort of meltdown.

I think what you are seeing might be not a return of autism symptoms, but a side effect of the medication. It could also be a simple alteration in a neurotransmitter system, although I couldn't say which one.

What was your history of autism symptoms in childhood, meeting milestones, and so on?

I still have special interests, even functioning at my highest. I haven’t really had the repetitive actions thing for years now. And I can’t remember the last time I had an actual meltdown - the worst is getting frustrated/angry and arguing with someone over something trivial, and then I think “Why am I feeling so agitated over this?” And realize my symptoms are creeping up and I need to rectify that.

No. They are textbook ASD symptoms.

I spoke early, around 1 year old. I had social difficulties with other kids throughout grade school, but I have a twin brother so always be had someone to play with & thus social issues weren’t glaring problem. I/we still had school/neighbourhood friends, though. I definitely had a high functioning game childhood, Aspie, not Classic Autism. My lifetime of memories compared to ASD diagnostic criteria = match. Some milestones I hit early, was tested to see if I was “gifted,” and all that. Took challenge (higher level/pace) math classes. Physically, though, I was quite uncoordinated - so much so that I was 15-16 years old before I could run properly. I was very rigid & was literally jokingly referred to as “forest gump.”

I can read, and comprehend, Bea. I know what my experience of life has been and what it matches to a T.

FYI my twin brother eats a horrendously bad diet and now his symptoms, while still far better than my worst, are in general worse than mine & I make mental note of it at family gatherings. I haven’t talked to him, or anyone, in my mother’s extended family about any ASD traits for years because they are all in denial that there’s anything “wrong,” with them. Most of them can work their careers and live their lives just fine so they don’t care to know or do anything about it. A couple are on disability and equally don’t care to do anything about their situation. So, I do my thing, live my life, work save invest, go to the beach, and do all of the things that will set me up to be able to return to University studies and work towards my own goals.

Nice little life story, but I don't care about all that.

I'm not convinced of your assertion that gut dysbiosis "causes" your autism. I need to see some independent, objective insight into the question. Humans can too easily convince themselves of any position.

If you were a scientist, you'd realize that it's consensus among a scientific community endorsing a new theory that creates progress in knowledge. You'd be EAGER to get a "professional" diagnosis, to further corroborate your assertions. So why not just go that extra step? Your story would be so much more convincing if you did.

Richard made an excellent point. There is a consensus amongst scientists that there are MANY causes of autism---perhaps gut dysbiosis is one of them. There is enough evidence for gut dysbiosis for "further study" of it to be advocated in many of the studies which I've read.

What works for the goose might not work for the duck.

And....I would bet that most, if not all, of these studies do not address autism as a "spectrum." There is the tendency to think of it as "one condition." This is a wrong approach, and should be dispensed with within autism studies.

The symptom list I posted above is not complete or exhaustive. It’s simply what came to mind in the moment.

I’m tired right now. I’ve been working 8-10h/day outside in record breaking heat every day for the last two weeks straight and sleeping about 4h or so per night. I’ll probably pass out earlier tonight since I’m pretty beat & I have to be up at ~4:15am so I can be on site working by 6am - earlier starts, but at least I’m back inside now logging hours towards my apprenticeship.

This week to go before a long weekend off & one hell of a late night Pride party & after party(its) on Sunday, then sleeping it off on the sand at the beach. On a related note of special interests & repetitive behaviours.. I spend an awful lot of time chatting with gay boys on Grindr, surely that qualifies lol. Often spend more time chatting there than reading or posting here - which is yet another example of my interests and behaviours, btw, my very use of this forum.

This is why I suspect this is an act on your part and you're just stringing people along. It's either that or you have something like dementia or whatever. Because I have always spoken plainly on this matter. Foolishly hoping I'd get through to you.

First, none of it seems to relate to being autistic, because I've hardly ever seen anyone else here exhibit it.

Second, spamming in the same incessant manic annoying manner in one locked thread after another, should be enough said right there.

I just had I funny thought. I should give you the contact info for the beautiful creature I had several dates with over the last couple of months of 2016. His brother is autistic and he recognized me as autistic right away. (We had this conversation after going to see “The Accountant,” on the big screen.) He can also attest to he fact that I’m more autistic afternoon antibiotics. Hell, he’d probably appreciate the extra views on his youtube channel.

My parents have known about this since I was 5 years old. There's nothing all that new about it.

There's also just as many or more links you can post where something else is linked to autism. The age of the parents. Something one or both parents were exposed to. Medications taken by the mother. The list goes on and on. The most well known one being, vaccines cause autism.

Likewise there's virtually endless lists of autism treatments and cures.

Because once you’ve met one autistic you’ve met them all, right? You speak as if you’re a seasoned psychiatrist with decades of experience assessing AS people, when in fact, you are not.

It’s not spam. Discussing the cause of & treatment for the syndrome this entire website is for is one of the few topics of value that can possibly be discussed here. You don’t even have Asperger’s Syndrome, so it’s understandable why it’s of little interest or benefit to you.