Ecstasy and Autism

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I'm currently watching 'Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trials' (Show Homepage) which is a live discussion about a study where a group of volunteers were given pure MDMA to monitor what happened to them.

All the volunteers appear to be NT's - which is a shame, it'd have been interesting to see how it effects ASD, ADHD and bipolar brains. They've discussed the possibility of MDMA helping with depression and anxiety so it'd be interesting to see how it would effect ASD and bipolar people, also talk about it's effect on social bonding and trust. Two volunteers discussed how much stronger they experiences sensory data, such as colours being all the more strong - I wonder how this could effect people on the spectrum. I've joked about taking ecstasy while sitting in a room of a certain type of flower the grows nearby - the shade of purple of this flower positively hums at me, it'd be interesting to have the feeling increased with MDMA.

Has anyone here tried ecstasy?
What happened while on the drug? Do you think being on the spectrum effected your experience?

Any thoughts about ecstasy being studied more to help with depression or anxiety?

I was hoping the show would focus at least partly on ASD and Autism, but no. Tomorrow is more about PTSD and hopefully Autism. From all the research I've seen, I'd say it's as good as a cure.

i've seen the results of use in someone close to me with aspergers and the results were not beneficial.

In the mid-nineties, I tried ecstasy once along with a friend (we were both responsible adults).

I cannot say for certain what the tabs contained but neither of us noted any effect. So either my friend's depression, my Asperger's or the tab containing nothing more than vitamins may have been the cause. I have never been in a situation to try again and doubt if I would because you never know what you are taking.

mdma is great in moderation. do too much and comedown is pure hell.

Considering that the effects of Ecstasy mimic mania to begin with, combined with the fact that it works by creating vastly increased serotonin release, it should come of little surprise that Ecstasy can precipitate psychotic manic episodes in bipolar individuals and in those with a genetic predisposition to developing bipolar disorder. As for using Ecstasy/MDMA to help with depression, this is counterintuitive. Many studies have found that regular Ecstasy users have depleted serotonin reserves, as a result of all the excess release from the drug. And decreased serotonin equals depression.

The street drug is basically an overdose of MDMA though. A real "theraputic" dose could be a fraction of that, and might not be enough to cause mania or seratonin burnout with occassional or longer term use. If it weren't a street drug control could be gained over things like that. That kind of control would probably be a long ways off though, with the current state of things. Back before it was illegal, I've read therapists used to use it to help patients gain emotional connections, but that was often a session based dosing and not given like daily medication. They weren't using street drug MDMA to do that either, so it was pure.

I know I've never had straight MDMA, but I may have had a blend of it nearly 20 yrs ago. It's hard to say if that's really what it was (dishonest people, sigh). He did say I was mildly dosed and MDMA was half of it. It did make all the colors stand out brightly, and it also made me matrix patterns where I knew there were not actually patterns, but random marks or texture. And that seems to be all it did. Really, vibrant colors are annoying enough without pharmacutical assistance, lol.

Hello,

Back in the day (the 90s), I was a bit "wilder" than I am now and took my fair share of it. I was properly diagnosed as having Asperger's this year.

I'll just answer the questions you're pointing to, one by one:

1. I got the impression it didn't really help much with ADHD, as that's a different "wiring" of the brain. It just helps you "deal" with things and get closer to people in a blanket of trust, so it won't change the wiring. It doesn't work that way.

2. I met a few people who were bipolar, and it seemed to be a pretty horrible experience for them, all around. But, that's also related to the effect. People who are bipolar are like on a ship in really, really rough waters, up and down, back and forth, their lives being seasick all the time, who needs stuff like lithium to stabilize it. Ecstacy makes things go extremely high and then down low, effectively "shaking" the ship even more.

3. In terms of depression and anxiety, I believe standard doctor administered prescription drugs are far more "refined" in their results. It will, for a window of time, utterly crush, both depression and anxiety, which is why they often suggest it for PTSD and Couples' Therapy (if it's ever legalized), but when that time is over, it comes back and you're down for a while, like a few days. So, it doesn't treat the overall "level" you are at, all that well even though it could work to deal with issues incredibly hard to deal with, otherwise, for a brief period of time.

4. I'm a bit confused on what you mean by how a shade of purple of a flower hums at you. That makes me think of Synthenasia. Do you have that? You need to explain more. There are "visual" effects neurotypical people get, which I had none of.

5. What happened on the drug? I had the same "waves" of the experience most neurotypical people did, where it has a big rise in feeling good, then a minor drop, then back to the top, then back a minor bit, which then fizzles out over the course of four hours or so. If you like loud music, especially the feeling of it, and being close to people (which some aspies do - for me, it's a bit similar to Temple Grandin being in confined things or around cattle), it's very nice! Also, you get a very pleasant experience, especially if you are like me, where your brain is always going 100mph, that it'll still be going, but fairly blank, which makes it a bit zen-like.

But, the "hangover" one gets isn't all that good and lasts a few days, putting you in a state more depressed than you started, since you've depleted all of your serotonin. But, you get better and are back to normal, soon enough. Also, you do tend to lose focus and interest in getting things done until you're back to normal.

6. How has it affected me, being AS? None of the visual elements were present. I didn't like being touched (unlike most neurotypicals who did) and it didn't remove the anxiety, 100%. Also, it didn't bring me as close to others as it did for neurotypicals. It did a little, but it wasn't remotely as close.

I should also point out to a comment made, that it is absolutely NOT a cure. It's only good with dealing with people's individual issues, maybe caused by war, or rape, or to get neurotypical couples to deal with their issues and get closer to each other. For people with different "wiring" as we have it, it's not going to change the "wiring", it's just going to run through it, and get slightly augmented results. There is no "cure" for Autism. Our minds are biologically and genetically different, and in that we need to learn to train our advanced minds to communicate better with neurotypical ones.