If you were honest with yourselves, how many of you hate having this condition?

[vergil96]

I don't seem to have a problem with my dopamine levels.

Me neither. ADHD perhaps yes but I don't have any addictive tendencies. I don't have the impulsive part of ADHD.

 

[Jonn]

Getting off topic, but, hey, that is what we Aspies do.

What parts of the brain are affected by drug use?​

Drugs can alter important brain areas that are necessary for life-sustaining functions and can drive the compulsive drug use that marks addiction. Brain areas affected by drug use include:

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• The basal ganglia, which play an important role in positive forms of motivation, including the pleasurable effects of healthy activities like eating, socializing, and sex, and are also involved in the formation of habits and routines. These areas form a key node of what is sometimes called the brain’s “reward circuit.” Drugs over-activate this circuit, producing the euphoria of the drug high. But with repeated exposure, the circuit adapts to the presence of the drug, diminishing its sensitivity and making it hard to feel pleasure from anything besides the drug.
• The extended amygdala plays a role in stressful feelings like anxiety, irritability, and unease, which characterize withdrawal after the drug high fades and thus motivates the person to seek the drug again. This circuit becomes increasingly sensitive with increased drug use. Over time, a person with substance use disorder uses drugs to get temporary relief from this discomfort rather than to get high.
• The prefrontal cortex powers the ability to think, plan, solve problems, make decisions, and exert self-control over impulses. This is also the last part of the brain to mature, making teens most vulnerable. Shifting balance between this circuit and the circuits of the basal ganglia and extended amygdala make a person with a substance use disorder seek the drug compulsively with reduced impulse control.

Drugs and the Brain | National Institute on Drug Abuse

 

[Jonn]

How does dopamine reinforce drug use?​

The feeling of pleasure is how a healthy brain identifies and reinforces beneficial behaviors, such as eating, socializing, and sex. Our brains are wired to increase the odds that we will repeat pleasurable activities. The neurotransmitter dopamine is central to this. Whenever the reward circuit is activated by a healthy,

pleasurable experience, a burst of dopamine signals that something important is happening that needs to be remembered. This dopamine signal causes changes in neural connectivity that make it easier to repeat the activity again and again without thinking about it, leading to the formation of habits.

Just as drugs produce intense euphoria, they also produce much larger surges of dopamine, powerfully reinforcing the connection between consumption of the drug, the resulting pleasure, and all the external cues linked to the experience. Large surges of dopamine “teach” the brain to seek drugs at the expense of other, healthier goals and activities.

Cues in a person’s daily routine or environment that have become linked with drug use because of changes to the reward circuit can trigger uncontrollable cravings whenever the person is exposed to these cues, even if the drug itself is not available. This learned “reflex” can last a long time, even in people who haven’t used drugs in many years. For example, people who have been drug free for a decade can experience cravings when returning to an old neighborhood or house where they used drugs. Like riding a bike, the brain remembers.

Drugs and the Brain | National Institute on Drug Abuse

 

[Jonn]

Why are drugs more addictive than natural rewards?​

For the brain, the difference between normal rewards and drug rewards can be likened to the difference between someone whispering into your ear and someone shouting into a microphone. Just as we turn down the volume on a radio that is too loud, the brain of someone who misuses drugs adjusts by producing fewer neurotransmitters in the reward circuit, or by reducing the number of receptors that can receive signals. As a result, the person's ability to experience pleasure from naturally rewarding (i.e., reinforcing) activities is also reduced.

This is why a person who misuses drugs eventually feels flat, without motivation, lifeless, and/or depressed, and is unable to enjoy things that were previously pleasurable. Now, the person needs to keep taking drugs to experience even a normal level of reward—which only makes the problem worse, like a vicious cycle. Also, the person will often need to take larger amounts of the drug to produce the familiar high—an effect known as tolerance.

Drugs and the Brain | National Institute on Drug Abuse

 

[velociraptor]

You can say no to excessive food...

Where's the fun in that???

 

[Crossbreed]

Where's the fun in that???

We have a set budget for food (that includes some snacks).
It helps us to strike a balance between overeating and not overspending on food.*

*If you spend too much money on food, you have less money for "stuff."
If you do not spend enough money on food, you have less energy for "stuff."

 

[Misty Avich]

I remember when I was a kid I used to hate my family support worker, and whenever she came I'd try and hide. I felt embarrassed that we had a social worker, and I didn't want any of the kids at school knowing. I wasn't nasty to her face or anything but I still hated her. I remember my brother putting on a horror movie when she came, thinking it might scare her off. But she and my mum just sat in another room.
And getting me to the appointments was challenging as well, as I hated going. I found it very degrading to sit in a room full of adults talking about my behaviour, and seeing my mum get emotional while I could almost hear my dad thinking "if my kid was normal we wouldn't be in here". I knew how he felt, because it was exactly what I was thinking too. I remember before going to one of the appointments when I was 9, I grabbed hold of the banister and wouldn't get into the car, and I clutched on to it for dear life screaming "please just make me go to school instead!" because I do badly wanted to be like all my classmates who were normal and didn't have to face any of this. When my dad finally forced me away and into the car, I spent the whole journey there kicking the back of the seat and screaming because I just hated the whole diagnosis process and having a label. I hate, hate, HATED it. It's not pleasant for a child to have to cope with. I wish I was spared all that crap and have just been either normal or at least diagnosed in adulthood like everyone else on the spectrum.

 

[thejuice]

It's a fact that people with autism and/or ADHD have low dopamine or more dopamine receptors than most people so they're forever feeling the effects of a dopamine deficit. Rather than an addiction to dopamine, I see it as a dopamine deficit/deficiency. It's far more debilitating than people without such deficits realize. There are natural non-drug ways to boost dopamine, some more effective than others, but I understand the key reason why so many autistics and people with ADHD seek out medication or self-medication.

Doing homework was physically painful, I hated it so much. Only a threat of death would make me do anything

 

[velociraptor]

We have a set budget for food (that includes some snacks).

Me as well. I buy what I want.

 

[Crossbreed]

I knew how he felt, because it was exactly what I was thinking too. I remember before going to one of the appointments when I was 9, I grabbed hold of the banister and wouldn't get into the car, and I clutched on to it for dear life screaming "please just make me go to school instead!" because I do badly wanted to be like all my classmates who were normal and didn't have to face any of this.

I liked being pulled out of class for "gifted" accommodations because we got to try interesting puzzles and do interesting projects. I was already an "outsider" anyway, so that did not make it worse. I was surprised at who was not included. I later figured that they were probably just hard workers.*

*I also observed that none of the valedictorians I knew were in the gifted class, either.

 

[Misty Avich]

I liked being pulled out of class for "gifted" accommodations because we got to try interesting puzzles and do interesting projects. I was already an "outsider" anyway, so that did not make it worse. I was surprised at who was not included. I later figured that they were probably just hard workers.*

*I also observed that none of the valedictorians I knew were in the gifted class, either.

I was in the extra support group at school that I would be taken out of class to go to with other kids with learning difficulties. I didn't mind going to those though.

 

[vergil96]

I liked being pulled out of class for "gifted" accommodations

I didn't have those, bruh. Or... for a short period of time.

 

[Crossbreed]

I didn't have those, bruh. Or... for a short period of time.

I only had it in junior high school, 7th & 8th grade.

 

[Outdated]

Never had anything like that when I went to school, but I used to wag school a lot, average 2 or 3 days a week I'd just stay home. I didn't see the point of going if they weren't teaching anything new, instead they'd repeat the same few lessons over and over ad nausium for a whole year.

As a kid that convinced me that most people were born with deficient brains and I was one of the few that was born complete. What's the point of repeating stuff I already know over and over? I always got straight As in exams.

 

[thejuice]

Never had anything like that when I went to school, but I used to wag school a lot, average 2 or 3 days a week I'd just stay home. I didn't see the point of going if they weren't teaching anything new, instead they'd repeat the same few lessons over and over ad nausium for a whole year.

As a kid that convinced me that most people were born with deficient brains and I was one of the few that was born complete. What's the point of repeating stuff I already know over and over? I always got straight As in exams.

Damn that sucks, but at least you had extra school holidays!

 

[Boogs]

I was a slave to watching inappropriate content, i was christian already, i got angry at myself but couldn't stop, i started praying a lot, then God broke the 'addiction', it has been like 3 or 4 years since i watched any of that.

Addiction relates to irregulated neurotransmitters. Doesn't matter if they are induced by a foreign substance, or by our internal processes (and the reality is it's mostly a mixture of both). Gambling is a classic example where the rush is quite real and chemical in basis despite the fact no foreign substance is ingested and the addiction as hard to break as one involving a physically addictive substance.

In my case, much of my cravings are satisfied through humour, and my pets.

We even make our own natural opiates to which we can become addicted. I once knew a guy addicted to his endorphins from cycling every day. If he didn't get a good 60 to 80 miles a day minimum he'd start to suffer physical withdrawal symptoms that night. Another friend found he'd become addicted to his own endorphins through consuming large amounts of chilli products, capsaicin essentially, which generates natural endorphins and he had to wean himself off.

I never did form an addiction to alcohol, I don't know why and I do know how rare that is.

From my limited experience talking to alcoholics and what I've read, it seems reactions to alcohol vary enormously in all sorts of ways, some definitely genetic/metabolic. Even withdrawal can be very varied with some people vulnerable to dangerous fits and other symptoms making sudden unmedicated withdrawal from alcohol potentially life threatening, while others can just stop with few major impacts. Getting physically addicted too is very variable, with some people getting hooked in a few years, others taking decades to get to that point (and I've not even considered the psychological side to it). It seems some people have much better metabolic regulation of alcohol and can avoid more negative impacts than some others.

 

[Boogs]

*I also observed that none of the valedictorians I knew were in the gifted class, either.

The 'honour' of valedictorian and similar awards in other cultures are as much, or even more to do with social conformance than outstanding ability.

 

[Misty Avich]

I only have internet addictions, where I get a compulsive urge to post what's on my mind and feel better afterwards. Then I melt down at
the consequences, if it warrants negative consequences. Then I do it again. And again. And again. It's not that I "don't learn", it's just addictive behaviour. Not all addictive behaviour necessarily means alcohol or drugs. In the ADHD criteria it mentioned that adults with ADHD can commonly have addictions with things like gambling, shopping and other internet addictions. It can be unhealthy. My posting addiction is unhealthy.

And no, I have no interest in porn at all. It's boring and gross.

 

[vergil96]

I only had it in junior high school, 7th & 8th grade.

Me in 6th grade for a competition. I attended academic extracurriculars too, but didn't have any accomodations during class. I really wanted extra tasks, I rarely had them, most of the time not. In junior high there were groups with differdnt levels in mathematics and I went to the best group. In senior high school I just went to a very good school.

 

[Misty Avich]

But for some of us, autism does suck. Just like anxiety sucks, and depression sucks, and emetophobia sucks. Some people with dyslexia might even feel having dyslexia sucks. Say if you were a dyslexic who really liked reading and writing and entered a writing or book competition but failed miserably and felt disappointed because your dyslexia makes your passion very hard to accomplish, while seeing other people around you just taking reading and writing for granted and achieving their goals if they're passionate enough. It can make you become resentful of your condition, thinking "why me? Why did I have to get this condition? It's not fair. I hate it "

Yes, before you say that some famous writers had dyslexia, I'm just using it as an example. Dyslexic people can achieve such goals, just like Aspies can. Think of all the famous diagnosed Aspies out there who are on the TV looking like they don't have AS at all, although it's masking it's still doing. But for a person who has such passions but their condition or disability makes it hard to compete against people without the conditions, it can make the individual hate themselves or their condition.

But it can depend on one's personality and even cultural background, like if they're born into a rich sort of family who have confidence. Someone like me wouldn't stand a chance of accomplishing anything like that. All I'm good for is cleaning jobs, which aren't really right for me because I'm too creative and my brain works too fast. I need something more challenging that involves more problem solving and group work.

I often find myself being told off at work for my problem solving skills, as the cleaning job I do is based on precise rules rather than creativity, and my creative mind can't handle that. It's looking for challenges all the time. I don't mean complicated challenges like math, but challenges that involve creativity. But my boss doesn't like my creative skills, even if they're getting the job done efficiently. He just expects no creativity and no imagination. So it proves I'm in the wrong job really.