AS/HFA is like being high?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm a person diagnosed with HFA however I also believe I could also be categorized as an Aspey as well. After years and years of identify and analyzing the nature of AS/HFA I finally came to what I feel is an accurate portrayal of what it's like to have AS/HFA compared to an NT. In an effort in describing the comparison of what it's like to be an NT and being AS/HFA, i believe it's a lot like comparing what it's like being sober vs being high on pot.

The reason why I think having AS/HFA is like being high on pot is because when NT describe their experiences while high, it sounds a lot like what it's like having AS/HFA. NT's often describe being high on pot as: having more intense focus, admiring random things i.e. the way certain things look, admiring textures, feelings, and wanting to experience certain things over again almost to the point of obsession, shorter short term memory, poorer communication skill and often poorer socialization skills, and enhanced mental abilities in some areas while other areas are compromised. Of course this description only cracks the surface in regards to what it's like to be high, however in a nutshell I feel the description is quit fitting in terms of the AS/HFA description. Further more, I've gotten high quite a few times in the past. Recalling from these experiences seem to confirm the NTs experiences but probably just at more of intense level. Many NTs have also commented on the fact that when they are high, they seem to understand me better and appreciate how I reason/relate to the world more.

Do you think having AS/HFA is like being high on pot? I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this.

not much alike

Not at all.Pot makes everything interesting and every sound beautiful and clear.light is brighter and you can feel every piece of fiber on the couch and taste every flavor deeply.The europhic feeling overpowers everyrhing and the world is interesting and new.
Aspergers on the other hand makes your senses invasive and annoying .everything is just too much.

O-God!! That brings back memories. That reminds me of my "Honk!-A-Wha!-Wha!" Choir prank. When I was 14. My mom brought me to one of her friends pot parties. By the time everybody was fu*king stoned off there rocker. I would come into the room with 2 lighted fairy wands and a bed sheet rapped around me and wearing a mime's(white) mask. I was pretending to be a choir directing angel from heaven. You would be amazed at all the funny noises you could get from a bunch of pot heads. I wish I could ha've recorded it but this was back in the 1980s and video cameras where a little hard to come by.

I don't think this comparison is at all accurate. I smoke pot and have AS so my opinion carries at least a small amount of weight on the matter. About the only similarity I can see is when people get too high and get really anxious and socially paranoid; some people also get this reaction from smoking even just a little, like any drug pot just isn't for some people. If anything I think it suppresses some of my autistic characteristics. Also, pot is usually fun whereas aside from a few high points being autistic is generally a pain in the ass.

I think autism is like autism and even then it's clear many of us are having vastly different experiences. I suspect trying to compare it to anything is probably a pointless endeavour. By all means try to articulate your experience but I don't think these kind of comparisons are accurate or helpful.

Being high on weed just cannot be compared with having AS/HFA. It can only be compared with other drug-induced states (transitory in nature), whereas ASDs are different, permanent neurological make-ups.

Weed is one of my special interests. I love it because it makes me feel different than I normally do. To me, it's another space of mind, in which I have a new and deep appreciation for the world. If anything, it makes me more NT-like, as I get more empathetic and I understand better metaphors and symbolic stuff. On the other hand, it also increases some of my Aspie traits, as I get to be more quiet and withdrawn after I smoke, even when in a group of friends.

I think it's normal for NTs to understand you better when stoned, after all weed heightens their empathy too...

However, there is a similarity. Weed does impair executive function, so stoned NTs get to have the same attention span as ADHD or AS people. That is true. But neither ADHD, nor AS are reductible to executive function deficit only. Hence why I'm saying comparison is impossible...

_________________
Probably 75% Aspie, 25% NT... and 100% ADHD

Aspie-quiz results:
Aspie score: 138 of 200 / NT score: 78 of 200 => Very likely an Aspie.

If that is what I have, and it seems so, - no. Some minor incidents of curious sensory experience can occur, - but otherwise, no.

Pot affects everyone differently, the same way that ASD affects everyone differently.

So this may be true for you.

For me the answer is no.

I get where you're coming from. But being high is an optional, self-induced state that eventually goes away.

I've often thought that my experience of life is far more heightened than that of NTs for the very fact they seem so keen to take loads of drugs/alcohol etc to alter their reality. I find reality heightened enough already. Reality must be muted for NTs hence they need all these substances to liven it up.

I remember once sitting watching some clouds edged with sunlight and it looked fantastic so I kept looking at them and this stranger kept looking at me and looking at the sky as if they couldn't work out what I was looking at and I thought to myself "Yes, this person just doesn't experience those clouds like I do - they're nothing to him' and I felt sorry for him and appreciated what I have in seeing things more intensely than average.

You're right that they're similar..don't listen to what everyone else says. Usually Pot smokers aren't in any sort of pain while they smoke and people with aspergers are. This changes it quite a bit... The point of dopamine ultimately is to space out the mind from stress. This happens automatically in people with austim and you get the same sort of eyes growing up as weed smokers.

I don't smoke weed but someone once told me if you smoke while you're sad, you get more sad, if you smoke while happy you get more happy. So for someone with aspergers, you get more unhappy to a point. But get all the rest of the 'high' symptoms.

Aspergers is like someone recovering from an illness in a hospital. You need to relax, take pain killers (dopamine - released auto for aspergers), take adrenaline if it gets too much (auto for aspergers), be around puppies and kittens, laugh a lot, and get complete understanding and love from people around you, no sadist jokers.

I've heard that some autistic people get mistaken for being high, so at the very least it can cause similar outward behavior.

As absurd as that sounds - i actually dont completely disagree with it.

And Im an aspie, and a one time frequent pot smoker so I do know something about both mental states.

Never got high before 18, but then did use it alot in college.

When I was a child I would day dream alot and lived in my own dream world alot as a child. And would get distracted by things, or get sudden obsessions.

I didnt really have friends until I was 18- and my first group of friends were the pot heads. Pot smoking makes me more aspie than I normally am. Whether it makes NT's into quasi-aspies I couldnt say.