effects of stimulants on aspergers or hfa?

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Been diagnosed with add since a kid- which i've never really agreed with..
Diagnosed with depression in 10th or 11th grade which I did agree with and am no longer.
Diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder which I agreed with.

Been researching Aspergers for a couple of months now and i've come to see I have 85-90% of the typical symptoms. However the ADD diagnosis throws things off, and makes me wonder how many of the symptoms are from ADD or are my ADD symptoms a result of aspergers? =/ I've always felt it was more of a social inability rather than a focus issue, and when I'm alone is when i am able to focus my best- getting into "the zone" if you will. My social anxiety has been building and building since elementary and by 9th grade I was spending summers locked in my room.

Anyways..my question, how do stimulants effect aspergers or HFA? Though I know nobody is effected by chemicals the same way regardless of diagnosis...so not looking for anything clear cut. But just want to see if their effects on you diagnosed aspies are effected in a similar way at all.

When I take stimulants sometimes I am able to get alot done. However I know alot of people who have taken stimulants before none of which get the plethora of side effects I get from them such as making my skin very sensitive, paranoia, twitching, (I twitch without, just not as regularly or in as many places), body aches all over, make me less social (usually), the veins in the side of my head hurt, my hair starts to feel thin and my body is just "off" for 1 or 2 days later. (Coffee, Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine...)

Been taking stimulants off and on the past couple of years.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this?

Energy drinks are stimulants, and they send me over the top, and I get really high, after drinking one. I haven't had one, in quite a few days, which is also good for my bank account, as well.

Sounds like you and I wonder the same thing.

I also have ADD well I have ADHD I agreed with it until I read about aspergers and then I started to disagree with the adhd diagnosis and have continued to wonder if its so much more than just add like you. I have most of the Aspergers symptoms as well but I have not been officially diagnosed but every test I have taken online clearly points that I do indeed have it.

I have been on ritalin for a year. The way ritalin effects me personally is that it helps me focus sometimes a little too well but I still do have times where I am really hyper and unfocused so I wonder as well if stimulants affect aspergers and make it worse?

That probably wasnt much help but I just wanted you to know that you are not the only one here questions stimulants and the effects they have.

Energy drinks mixed with ritalin I have found make me insane its good when working cause Im fast just annoying. Thats just what I have found tho.

Ya i was reading your other post on here, hopefull we'll both find some answers in time =).

If I mix coffee or any other kind of stimulant with adderall or dexedrine my heart feels like its going to cave in..and I twitch a whole lot which turns into a very unpleasant experience..

however with ritalin I could because it was more mild...ritalin seemed to go good with alot of things but seemed to cause alot of chest pain for me....dunno why...so i stopped taking.

I've never had good experiences with stimulants, they only increase my already-too-high anxiety level. That 'wired' feeling only makes me incredibly irritable and paranoid, and those feelings are usually lurking just beneath the surface of a misleadingly calm appearance to begin with.

I can handle the caffeine of a couple cups of coffee okay, but that's about it. Used some orange-flavored workout booster drink a few years ago that was loaded with ephedra - WOW! - that sh*t made me twitchy.

Last edited by Willard on 29 Jun 2010, 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I hope so too.
I wish I could stop taking ritalin but the few times I forgot it I was a mess was wicked hyper even without caffeine it was bad.

I am diagnosed AS. I have a prescription for ritalin because I have severe fatigue due to medical problems (not related to AS). ADD has never been suggested with me. When I take ritalin, I just want to do a lot. Usually I do a lot of homework and clean a lot. And it makes me have a hard time going to sleep (usually stay up until at least 2am). Stimulants such as coffee or nicotine have little to no effect on me.

I have a hard time sleeping too and then I get the feeling of Im being forced awake the next day even tho my body is so tired.

I have a counter indicative reaction to stimulants. In my experimental days I tried speed twice, crystal once and coke several times. The speed and the crystal made me very sleepy and the coke made me feel alert but very relaxed.

never done crystal for obvious reasons...but quite interesting that you felt sleepy on that

coke can vary a lot in purity so I wouldn't base any conclusions on it =/

dexedrine (closer to meth) actually makes me feel kind of sleepy as well...but not very sleepy as you put it..

but adderall (closer to speed) makes me feel semi normal a bit as far as keeping up but my reactions to things and inability to socialize remains pretty much the same.

also....i will add to this topic...

opiates and other such downers such as barbiturates or benzo's often make me alert? and opiates i'd say would be my perfect medication but are addictive and have withdrawal problems so will not work- plus i'm probably just trying to justify a want for those which isn't good.

but either way little off topic- street drugs or illegally acquired substances are not what I intended to question, just want to know strictly pharmaceutical or even just coffee effects on aspergers or hfa.

I don't think the crystal was the same stuff that's out now. It was probably close to 30 years ago. I know that doesn't make it any less stupid. I think a lot of us middle aged people are surprised we survived.

ya, well there wasn't the information that there is now so who can blame kids back then.

i live in the once supposed "meth capital" of the world..but I doubt it still is...so I see what it does to people regularly, and I remember we had 3 assemblies in high school completely dedicated to get people not to do meth. I still have one of the rubber bracelets they gave us that says "Don't meth around!" lol.

I think I am allergic to caffeine. It gives me heart palpitations and makes my body shake and I also have to pee a lot. Energy drinks will put me in the hospital.

I've never done any hard drugs and I never will. The thought of what THOSE might do to me scare me.

I was diagnosed with aspurgers and ADHD, though I am a very social person and I can empathize for people so I guess that's a bit different.

- I have taken 7 energy drinks and didn't feel woken up... coffee doesn't effect me.
- I smoke cigarettes but sometimes I quit... I'm not addicted I just like waking up to a cig.
- I've taken 180mg of adderall my first time and didn't act or feel any differently though it helped me stay awake (I think... )
- I've taken 150mg of dexedrine and found no effects either.
- I smoked crystal meth once with some friends after crashing from 6 pills of MDMA, my serotonin receptors were obviously running on low but it should have stimulated my dopemine receptors still... but there was no effect I went to sleep a couple hours later.
- I tried cocaine twice, over half a gram both times and I felt a bit more social and talkative but not high... I expect this is what most people would feel after drinking 10 cups of coffee.
- I tried trazidone and risperidol which gave me really bad dreams of having lockjaw or biting on my fingers.
- disociatives effect me normally (i think...)
- psychedelics (mushrooms and LSD) make me feel like I can't talk or do anything for a few hours, then after that wave I feel like I can do anything, perfectly and to the best of my ability. I feel invinsible, physically and mentally. LSD and mushrooms are a proven temporary cure to OCD in many cases, and OCD comes with aspurgers so perhaps there is a link here.

Basically it seems anything that stimulates my dopemine receptors doesn't work properly. I have yet to test out opiates but I hope they help me... I doubt it though.

Anyone know a medication that might work for me, I'm gonna talk to a doc pretty soon and I don't know what ideas to bring to the table since my recreational use of dextroamphetamine salts did not bring an effect.

ADHD is supposed to relax when taking stimulants (and at the same time, some meds like an antihistamine that usually makes people sleepy can also make someone with ADHD more hyper). I don't think it holds true for all ADHD because of 2 reasons, IMO, 1. You got a lot whose misdiagnosed and 2. You got alot who are ADHD like in symptoms since dx is based on symptoms alone, but they don't have the same neurological issues afoot that these meds are designed to treat. So basically, I think the psychostimulants only are effective on people who are flipped like they relax to speed and get hyper to the calming agents.

Now if you take these psychostimulants when you don't need to, then I'm not sure of the effects besides being a little more hyper or energetic while the drug is in effect. I've read studies on negative side effects like they increase aggression and make some people more prone to violence, but that was on a small percentage of people in the clinical trials, and small enough for the FDA to still approve the drug (Ritalin is what I'm talking about here). I don't think there are any studies yet on long term use and side effects, but I haven't really researched it in the last 5 years.

The only thing I've noticed special for Aspergers taking drugs is they decide early on whether or not they like it or not, and whatever they decide, there's no arguing with them about it.

And BTW, me, when I drink an energy drink, sometimes it makes me hyper and gives me energy, and sometimes it doesn't. I notice it helps to switch em up on occasion for the energy, like do the 5 hour energy shots and when it doesn't work anymore, switch up to red bull for a little bit, and then go back to the 5 hour energy shots.... (in like a few days time, I dont usually do more than one or two a day, and sometimes just one every week if I can get away with it). I used to do Hoodia for the energy, but it didn't get approved by the FDA not just because it's an herbal supplement, but their clinical trials showed some negative side effects with the liver, and it wasn't from the hoodia as much as some other substance naturally found in hoodia that they can't seem to extract out. I did that on and off for a while cause I figure any poison is tolerated in small samples, but I wore out the welcome with that, so I'm done with Hoodia for a while. Anyway, I do notice if I am truly tired like I haven't slept in days, no energy supplement will help me. Even way back when the ephedrine was legal, after so many days of no sleep, it didn't work well either. And I noticed, most energy drinks/pills work best on an empty stomach, and eating will shorten it's duration, but WARNING, abusing stimulants will do some serious damage to you. I've noticed with my friends that they often take a serious toll on your metabolism after long term, regular abuse (meaning they all ended up fat and they can't lose the weight, and now some are diabetic, all because they had to go and abuse diet pills early in their life).

I agree those are huge problems also there could be so many factors involved but those are definitely two major ones. Drugs make me lose my appetite and I'm already skinny enough as it is (only 140lbs at 6'1")... but lately i've been eating alot cause all I do is smoke weed and occasionally use mushrooms.