4 major neurotransmitters

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which are acetylcholine, dopamine, sertonin, and GABA.

Is it possible that autistic symptoms may be made worse by a deficiency in some or all of them? Has anyone done experimentation to see which one could be causing issues?

I took Zoloft and and 5-HTP (all prescribed) and quickly reached symptoms of mild Serotonin Syndrome, so I'm pretty sure serotonin isn't the issue. But Zoloft really did help with depression and sensory issues. I recently tried St. John's Wort at the recommendation of a doctor, and it really helped with depression and sensory integration as well; however, it causes headaches and irritability after about two weeks of taking it, which is basically mild Serotonin Syndrome.

When I take choline, it helps in small doses, but taking the recommended daily dose (on top of getting whatever I get from food) causes depression. So I'm pretty sure it's not choline.

Could it actually be dopamine and/or GABA? Trying to figure out why SSRI's help but serotonin isn't the issue. Wouldn't this seem to implicate dopamine as a problem? Some SSRI's increase dopamine levels as a side effect. Also, when I smoke pot, engage in intimate relations, whack off, etc -- it leads to feelings of depression and sensory issues. Have I, perhaps, hit on dopamine dysfunction as an issue, and if so, has anyone else with similar experiences figured out what to do about it?

You're on to something there. The answer is probably dopamine, and the opioid receptors.

Have any one here actually have their levels of these measured.

Me personally I have too much dopamine. I have near zero prolactin levels due to excessive dopamine.

I'm not an expert on neurotransmitters or SSRI's, but if you were taking SSRI's for depression, is it possible that a decline in depression symptoms simply made it easier for you to deal with autistic symptoms, hence making it seem as though they were helping with autistic symptoms? This is just a pure speculation on my part though, and like I said, I'm far from an expert on this stuff.

Some VERY scant web browsing seems to show several promising leads connecting dopaminergic and serotonergic systems to autism. And simply typing in "autism" and "dopamine" or "serotonin" yielded thousands of results each when using my university library's online database for scholarly articles. I found an (old, as in like 2000, title "Serotonin and autism" in the Journal "European Neuropharmacology") article claiming that serotonin has an affect on certain symptoms associated with autism, but not core features like communication and lack of social interaction. It also cited a link between hyperserotonemia (high levels of 5-HT in blood) in "over 25% of children and adolescents with autism." Then there was a study linking. A 2010 study in JAMA (I'm assuming that be Journal of American Medial Association?) Psychiatry links lower serotonin transporter binding throughout the brains of adults with high functioning autism relative to adults without autism. Dopamine transporter binding was found to be higher in the orbitofrontal cortex of adults with HFA relative to control group. The title of this second study was "Brain Serotonin and Dopamine Transporter Bindings in Adults with High-Functioning Autism".

Anyways, that's what I found in a few minutes of research that was far from thorough. I hope this can help give you a good starting place if you're interested in doing any more research yourself.

I feel like the trance music is just something non-distracting that you enjoy listening to. I can't listen to certain types of music when I'm doing something that requires significant concentration (i.e. metal, hip-hop).

By the way, for anyone who wanted to get on SSI and went to see a new doctor to get a letter, this knowledge could work in reverse: a combination of lots of 5HTP, too much acetylcholine, cannabis every day, soda, and lots of whacking off would have the effect of spiking autistic symptoms within two weeks or less, leading to horrible posture, low energy, major processing delays, and no eye contact. It would be very easy to then go to a doctor, claim to be unable to work, and then go to your SSI interview looking like this, which would enhance believability.

Heck, if my real career doesn't work out, I am going to try something like this right before I shape up and move overseas somewhere like the Philippines, Lijiang, or Saigon where $1000/month is upper middle class.

The excitation/inhibition imbalance hypothesis of autism says that autism is possibly caused by increased excitation and decreased inhibition in neural circuits, which is possibly caused by deletion and mutation of GABA receptor subunits, which respond to GABA, which is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, like glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter. Proponents of E/I imbalance point out the high co-occurrence of autism and epilepsy. GABA also has a very important role the early development of the brain, when it is an excitatory neurotransmitter.

I was definitely not low in dopamine before I got diagnosed with schizophrenia and put on antipsychotics. But I am autistic. Although my serotonin levels may have been low in parts of my brain as I take an SSRI for OCD.

I took Gabapentin for several weeks, and that was one of the weirdest experiences in my life. I did however seem to "get" people better. But also had freakish dreams... long ones... very long. It had an effect, but oddly I wasn't really inclined to analyze it while it was happening... which again, is strange.

I've taken MDMA before, and while it doesn't exactly fix autism... at low dosages it completely supresses any anxiety issues I have.