I've worked in direct support for (mostly) autistic adults for the last little bit. I have no formal education in the field and only minimal certification, it's a calling i discovered a couple years ago when I was looking to add service to my recovery plan.
I have had diagnoses for mental health conditions, some of which i agree with, some of which i deny, and so do the majority of my customers and we share some other similarities as well. In fact, since doing this, I've recognized more similarities than differences between us. The percentage of the population with whom I fall into the same IQ range is the same as some of the more severely disabled ones- 5% on either end of the scale. I'm not in any way saying that i have similar cognitive challenges, just that there is some isolation in that.
For whatever reasons, there is a lot of overlap that i think allows me a unique perspective in working with them and an ability to empathize from my struggles with everything from addiction to mental health to blindness; the PTSD and feelings of marginalized powerlessness especially.
Anyway, I feel comfortable with with my performance to be open with my fellow staff more or less about the practice that I've developed for myself that along with a full time, holistic approach to recovery includes integrated intentional psychedelic experiences, microdosing for symptom management and regular cannabis use to replace all pharmaceuticals (except for a very low daily dose of methadone, but that's another thing) because of intolerance for the side effects of nearly every pharmaceutical psycholotropic I've ever taken.
Okay, SO, what I'm getting around to is that I've had exactly one conversation with a co-worker who is sympathetic and who shares a similar worldview who told me that she has heard of THC and CBD being used IN PLACE of certain psych meds, opiates, muscle relaxing type drugs, anxiolytics, anti-psychotics, etc (some of my people are on over a dozen hardcore meds). They didn't have any resources for further information and not much on the efficacy. I don't know if the person had never been introduced or went through a titration process, and if so what challenges presented during a change over period and how it was dealt with. These are some of the particulars I'd like to know about from other people's stories of their lived experience in work or with loved ones.
I have a personal grievance against the over use of these drugs and a dim view on the over reliance on white coats as authorities to decide, but despite my ideology I would never, ever suggest that any of the people I work with change their regimen whatsoever, that is not my job nor my prerogative.
I would just like to know if any of you have personal experience with using psychedelics or cannabis to address some of the symptoms that they deal with. I wish I could put forth some easy examples, but as I was told, if you"ve met one autistic person, you've met exactly one autistic person. The constellation of symptoms and range of severity makes it such an individual equation, i could only answer questions of any of you have specifics. There are other diagnoses among the people i work with but the vast majority are autistic rather than presenting other diagnoses like Down's, and are mostly male. These factors are due in turn to the funding streams in my county and genetics. So these are the people I'm most familiar with.
Forgive me if this sounds ridiculous, pompous or otherwise egregious- and I'm not even really sure what it is I'm thinking, only wondering if there's some novel ideas out there that have some anecdotal evidence of efficacy behind them. And pitfalls and dangers and failures are equally important.
I've had some remarkable breakthroughs recently with a couple really hard-to-handle folks, using techniques like guided meditation and earth-grounding. I have one particularly awesome individual who drinks Monster energy drinks because he is literally feeding the monster within him. You can maybe see how this could be difficult! I chased him into a park and led him through a grounding exercise, framing it in pseudo-wicca-shamanic language to appeal to his inner lycanthrope. Soon he was caressing the grass and smiling, and after running a lap around the park, laid down with a calm smile on his face. My co-worker that day told me that he told her that nobody had ever done anything remotely like that with him and that it worked! Yeah my ego is proud of that, but it shows me that something could work to deal with severe behaviours that isn't necessarily more meds.
I know I'm asking about using substances, but i know that in my case irregular symptom-based non-dependant use has not only been an (the only) effective medical approach and has mitigated or totally avoided all of the negative side effects that often require MORE meds to stabilize the patient, reduce quality of life, cause dependence and are essential often nefarious chemical restraints.
Oh man, and diet is such a huge, primary problem too, I'm forever worrying my customers about their bad diets, and feel really bad for the ones in homes with no say in it who are fed un-nutritious processed garbage by their caregivers....sorry, angry tangent...
For some reason, I'm wondering about the psychedelic amphetamines, MDMA, mescaline?
Any ideas, experiences, general thoughts?
I have had diagnoses for mental health conditions, some of which i agree with, some of which i deny, and so do the majority of my customers and we share some other similarities as well. In fact, since doing this, I've recognized more similarities than differences between us. The percentage of the population with whom I fall into the same IQ range is the same as some of the more severely disabled ones- 5% on either end of the scale. I'm not in any way saying that i have similar cognitive challenges, just that there is some isolation in that.
For whatever reasons, there is a lot of overlap that i think allows me a unique perspective in working with them and an ability to empathize from my struggles with everything from addiction to mental health to blindness; the PTSD and feelings of marginalized powerlessness especially.
Anyway, I feel comfortable with with my performance to be open with my fellow staff more or less about the practice that I've developed for myself that along with a full time, holistic approach to recovery includes integrated intentional psychedelic experiences, microdosing for symptom management and regular cannabis use to replace all pharmaceuticals (except for a very low daily dose of methadone, but that's another thing) because of intolerance for the side effects of nearly every pharmaceutical psycholotropic I've ever taken.
Okay, SO, what I'm getting around to is that I've had exactly one conversation with a co-worker who is sympathetic and who shares a similar worldview who told me that she has heard of THC and CBD being used IN PLACE of certain psych meds, opiates, muscle relaxing type drugs, anxiolytics, anti-psychotics, etc (some of my people are on over a dozen hardcore meds). They didn't have any resources for further information and not much on the efficacy. I don't know if the person had never been introduced or went through a titration process, and if so what challenges presented during a change over period and how it was dealt with. These are some of the particulars I'd like to know about from other people's stories of their lived experience in work or with loved ones.
I have a personal grievance against the over use of these drugs and a dim view on the over reliance on white coats as authorities to decide, but despite my ideology I would never, ever suggest that any of the people I work with change their regimen whatsoever, that is not my job nor my prerogative.
I would just like to know if any of you have personal experience with using psychedelics or cannabis to address some of the symptoms that they deal with. I wish I could put forth some easy examples, but as I was told, if you"ve met one autistic person, you've met exactly one autistic person. The constellation of symptoms and range of severity makes it such an individual equation, i could only answer questions of any of you have specifics. There are other diagnoses among the people i work with but the vast majority are autistic rather than presenting other diagnoses like Down's, and are mostly male. These factors are due in turn to the funding streams in my county and genetics. So these are the people I'm most familiar with.
Forgive me if this sounds ridiculous, pompous or otherwise egregious- and I'm not even really sure what it is I'm thinking, only wondering if there's some novel ideas out there that have some anecdotal evidence of efficacy behind them. And pitfalls and dangers and failures are equally important.
I've had some remarkable breakthroughs recently with a couple really hard-to-handle folks, using techniques like guided meditation and earth-grounding. I have one particularly awesome individual who drinks Monster energy drinks because he is literally feeding the monster within him. You can maybe see how this could be difficult! I chased him into a park and led him through a grounding exercise, framing it in pseudo-wicca-shamanic language to appeal to his inner lycanthrope. Soon he was caressing the grass and smiling, and after running a lap around the park, laid down with a calm smile on his face. My co-worker that day told me that he told her that nobody had ever done anything remotely like that with him and that it worked! Yeah my ego is proud of that, but it shows me that something could work to deal with severe behaviours that isn't necessarily more meds.
I know I'm asking about using substances, but i know that in my case irregular symptom-based non-dependant use has not only been an (the only) effective medical approach and has mitigated or totally avoided all of the negative side effects that often require MORE meds to stabilize the patient, reduce quality of life, cause dependence and are essential often nefarious chemical restraints.
Oh man, and diet is such a huge, primary problem too, I'm forever worrying my customers about their bad diets, and feel really bad for the ones in homes with no say in it who are fed un-nutritious processed garbage by their caregivers....sorry, angry tangent...
For some reason, I'm wondering about the psychedelic amphetamines, MDMA, mescaline?
Any ideas, experiences, general thoughts?