Published on 12, July, 2020
I have been running a small group of academics for suicide prevention in autism for a few months now and I feel we may get something useful. Included in the group are Prof Simon Baron Cohen and Sara Cassidy. We share ideas , but I seem to be coming up with the major ones.
there’s a group of autistic people which has met to discuss this and concluded we are never taken seriously, drugs are pretty useless, psychiatrists response is poor and inappropriate.
I have been trying for funding and help to have an autistic arm to the Stay Alive app. The app seems well researched and well supported
We could include a Database studying online suicidal ideation in Autism as well as specific routes of advice.
my big idea is to have an Alexa type artificial intelligence system to offer an online reply consultation with the computer. No humans involved as I have found Samaritans etc, kind but always avoid advice.
This system could give research based advice as my experience of mental health services are thats they are terrible with suicidal ideation in autism
what do you think?
"Drugs are pretty useless". I'd have to disagree.
I (accidentally) found a mix of methylone and mephedrone a few years ago that obliterated my suicidal ideation instantly.
Seems to have been a "one shot deal" too...
I googled methylone and mephedrone because I'd never heard of them:
https://www.drugwise.org.uk/mephedrone-methedrone-methadrone-and-methylone/
IN your experience do you think they're addictive? What feelings did you feel? I know of speed and Ecstasy which I tried and stopped because of the negative side effects for me..... Most drugs have negative side effects for me unfortunately.... I can tolerate and find St Johns Wort helpful but the street drugs I've tried along with cigarettes, alcohol and caffeine mess me up. :-(. I think I've given a lot up but feel in a better position mentally. I am intrigued by magic mushrooms and the positive press they are receiving in terms of helping mental illness but I am equally fearful to not add to my struggles.......
It took me years to get off tobacco. It is the only thing I've been addicted to. The hold was strong on my final attempt but I broke it and took ownership of my body again. It is a delight and I recommend it. Any drug I've tried except nicotine I'm able to choose it or not. I use opiates and self administer as needed, rather than use the often prescribed 6 per day I use one when I know I'll exert myself on a stroll. No built resilience, no addiction, no increase in dose, safe. Cannabis too, I can take or leave it and often do both. Cannabis has been the generic all rounder human medicine for tens of millennia and our Sapien form is because of it.
By definition anything that makes me feel better is "addictive" for me. So I never take a drug past the first bag, or whatever. Or to be exact, if I fancy giving it another go I wait a long time before I do..
My amphetamine addiction, for example, seems to be running at about a gram per 2 decades.
I took a gram of mephedrone in about a month and found it interesting but "harsh". On my next foray into such things, I decided to try methylone, but was not getting the expected effect (or very much at all) when a chap appeared with a bottle of water with 400mg of mephedrone in it, which we shared.
Then I got an effect alright.. It was stronger and nicer than ecstasy, and I felt an "afterglow" for days,
It was a little over ten years ago, but the effect was so useful to me, that I've reviewed and refreshed the memory as much as possible over the years, just in case I ever got a chance to tell someone who could take it further.
Magic mushrooms I did when I was younger, and I found them to be strong and wldly unpredicatable, but I was young and stupid, doing it entirely for amusement, and did tend to take overly large doses... I achieved some classical and thankfully very short episodes of psychotic delusions and acute paranoia, which were educational and even entertaining, but ultimately I decided (fairly quickly) potentially dangerous, And as a wiser man than me once said, once you've opened the door to perception, there's no need to keep doing it.
I would most likely have explored MDMA more than I did, but on my first go, I was in an environment where I really did not like the music, I judged it "repetitive and sinister" until my "half a decent quality E kicked in" then I found it most agreeable indeed. That the drug changed my basic values and perceptions I found quite scary, although they seemed to come back afterwards. A good indicator of the effects of a drug is to look at the people who take it as a lifestyle choice, and decide if you want to be like them. People who regularly self adjust their serotonin levels on a temporary basis seemed to be on a roller coaster, and not particularly good people as a group. Cocaine appears a lot with E of course. Now that is a wonder drug for those of us with self image issues, it will make you feel on top of the world (for a short, too short, while). However if you spend a bit of time with coked up people you soon realise it just turn you into an ego-centric, selfish, ***.
I would always be the first to say that drugs are not a good long term answer. They can at best give temporary relief or distraction, or even allow a psychiatrist to actaully experience a state his patient may be stuck in, or give you the random user an educational experience. But then one day during a long and what seemed to be a terminal depressive state, I fiddled around with a couple of drugs just trying to get a short few hours of "holiday from myself" and I obtained a solution that STUCK.
I hope that helps answer your questions a bit. And I should mention that I do not drink, or do any drug regularly, except a relatively small daily amount of that modern, overly strong pot, and the tobacco I've been intermittently hooked on since I was a kid.