Published on 12, July, 2020
Had an interesting revelation today.
As an adult with Aspergers who is also determined to actually earn some money and be successful in business, I find myself constantly tinkering with and re-calibrating my diet for maximum energy and resources to use during the day. Generally speaking, like so many other autistic people, I find myself the most centred, peaceful, stable and consistent on a very low-carb diet, usually some variation on phase 1 Atkins. However, while living on a low-carb diet, I find my energy levels - already naturally pretty low and easily depleted - drop quite low by the end of the work day, and I begin to be very grumpy, anti-social and unpleasant etc as I approach aspergers burnout for that day.
A few years ago while reading up on Atkins, I discovered that black coffee was permissible, and so gave it a try. At first the taste was not what I was used to - but it grew on me, and now I love it. And more than that, I found that every time I drank it, I got this huge energy boost, I was able to tap resources I previously had not had access to (although, as always with Aspergers, they presented their bill later and I had to rest rest rest and recover). I soon discovered that, while the effects of the coffee lasted, I was able to act much closer to neurotypical, which in my line of work was very very helpful indeed. And coffee is addictive.
At the beginning of the past school year (Sept 2017) I began having a huge black coffee twice every day, and the effects were fascinating. It was as if the coffee was allowing me to stretch my limited resources like elastic, to stretch them and stretch them to the point that I could function for the whole work day as a neurotypical person. Of course, I would practically curl into the foetal position by the end of the day under the covers in a dark, silent, tidy room. But in all brutal honesty, it was so nice to experience what it is like to work a normal day without battling against the constant social awkwardness brought on by the low-energy slump that running out of resources as an Aspie causes.
The past 2-3 weeks I have been experiencing stabbing stomach pains, and after experimenting around with multiple different things, have discovered today that the coffee and constant amping-up of my body and mind with it to be the cause of the pain. I have used black coffee to stretch my inner resources and am now experiencing what it feels like to teeter on the very edge of that breaking point where my body starts waving a little while flag and saying 'no more or Im going to start to break'.
So today I didn't have my morning coffee, and I can feel the healing starting already, I am feeling much happier and relaxed, and am going to lay off it probably for the rest of the week.
However, I'm not going to lay off it completely. My experience has taught me that coffee, if treated like a mood-managing medication, can be incredibly helpful. If treated like a pleasurable indulgence it can be a little dangerous because it is so addictive, and the body can only take being driven into hyper-mode for so long. I expect going forward I will use black coffee as an on-the-spot treatment if I feel myself falling backwards into a low-energy slump at an inconvenient time. The rest of the time I'm going to lay off it to allow my body and mind to actually recover from the excursion into hyper-mode (something I have been neglecting to do recently).
Has anyone else had similar experiences with coffee?
I can't tolerate caffeine sadly but this does make me wonder again whether some people with Aspergers might benefit from similar meds to those prescribed for people with ADHD. When I used to be able to drink coffee, everything seemed better.
A paper published in 2022 by Hours, Recasens et al. states "... according to the scientific literature, 50 to 70% of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) also present with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). From a clinical perspective, this high rate of comorbidity is intriguing...." I suspect that many autistic adults (previously Aspergers or "high functioning" ASD) fall in that category. Until a few years ago, a dual diagnosis of ADHD and ASD was quite rare, then the " diagnostic rules" changed, and there is even talk of having Autism with ADHD (sometimes referred to as AuDHD) as a new diagnostic entity in the next DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by clinicians.)
Caffeine increases the production of dopamine, which acts on the same receptors as many of the stimulant drugs used to treat ADHD. There is a paper [Ágoston C, Urbán R, Horváth Z, van den Brink W, Demetrovics Z. Self-Medication of ADHD Symptoms: Does Caffeine Have a Role? Front Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 3;13:813545. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.813545. PMID: 35185656; PMCID: PMC8850715.] which reviews the research in this area, and which may be worth reading if you are interested.
I stress that I am a social worker, not a clinician; I have studied some psychology including some very basic psychopharmacology. As a result, I am probably still confused, but at a higher level!
Disclaimer: This is for information only - you are advised to contact a health professional before changing your medication, including self-medication.