In some sickly sense of this subject, we're all autistic to some extent or another; ASD is an umbrella term large enough to tackle all of us weirdos underneath one gigantic stigmatized tarp; hell, even those whackos at the NIMH don't know what in the hell to do with us & them; it's just one of those unprofitable brain bug continents which can't be
rehabilitated into good normal socially-acceptable sheeple via super-profitable life-long pharmaceutical consumption or top-notch CBT, ECT plaecebo or whatever in the hell else works to mold aspies into neurotypical straight-thinking citizens, put in little boxes, sent out to the university, educated, rehabilitated and put back into those filthy monochromatic little boxes, where they all come out just the same.
Also, it is rather easy (IMO) to tell if someone is neuroatypical (read: weird/aspergial) just by reading through their posting/writing style accross anonymous forum mediums such as this site where the blessing of apparent anonymity and lack of having to be blindly mind-raped and misunderstood by the oh-so-common inability to understand, cope with and adequately go along with the 93% of interpersonal communication which consists entirely of nonverbal communication (i.e. "body language"); thus, I find it easier to interpret personality (as well as possible defects) via writing/posting styles accross anonymous/faceless forums & blogs as the blessing of the illusion of anonymity strips us of the masks we wear in public, allowing me to see the actual inner-workings of the mind without having to cut through jungles of uninterpretable psychosomatic/kinesic mumbo jumbo.
A very common neurobiological feature among autistics is an abnormally large/dense/overactive neural connection/network between the fusiform gyrus (a region of the brain which is responsible for the recognition/memory/perception of faces, as well as [to some extent] the ability to communicate with one another on a nonverbal level via facial expression) and the amygdala (AKA fear-producing center of brain when activated); when an autistic sees faces, this circuit goes haywire, producing a fear/panic response whenever one communicates face-to-face with another person, especially so when looking them in the eyes (the windows to the soul). It has been hypothesized that this neurobiologically-based abnormal fear response to faces in autistics may be one reason why they're so notorious for avoiding direct eye contact and appear to be emotionally 'out-of-tune' with others whilst communicating with them face-to-face due to this nearly uncontrollable knee-jerk fear reaction to facial recognition & perception, thus impairing their ability to effectively communicate directly and effectively with others. Through the magic of the internet, one can easily bypass this brain bug, and thus more effectively & accurately articulate their true selves to others via faceless, text-based communication networks such as these.
This over-activation of the amygdala-induced fear response can, of course, be mitigated through the magic of neuroplasticity as well as psychedelic drug use. Multiple fMRI studies investigating the neuropharmacological properties of psychedelic/empathogenic drugs in humans have revealed that these agents decrease CBF to the amygdala, thus tuning down this fear response and allowing for more effective communication/connectivity with others in person as well as freeing oneself from fear of the unknown; however, the only way to permanently tune-down this connection is simply to face one's innate fears over and over and over again and again and again such that this over-active circuit will degrade like LSD in a cloud of hydrogen chloride gas, thus making it easier for autistics to better cope with dealing with IRL social interaction. One cannot have pleasure without the price of pain, nor can one reach heaven without going through hell.
One major detail regarding psychedelics is that, by reducing amygdala activity, could in fact catalyze this therapeutic process of neural rearrangement. It has been hypothesized that psychedelics may induce neurogenesis as well as acting as neuroplasticity-inducing catalysts. Consider this as an example: the exothermic combustion reaction of hydrocarbons into CO2 and H2O is constantly occuring, albeit at an extremely slow and practically unnoticeable rate. However, if one were to spark a match in such a solution, the free energy from such a small spark would catalyze an exponentially higher reaction rate as, once a certain 'activiation energy' is reached, the reaction rate would blow up like the world trade center, thus resulting in a fire/explosion. This same concept can also be applied to the use of psychedelics to degrade this fear response. Such a psychedelic spark may provide the activation energy needed to catalyze a much faster rate of neuronal rearrangement and reduction of the fear-inducing functional connectivity common amongst autistics as, by blowing the doors of perception right off their hinges, psychedelic drugs may provide an explosive means of inducing a drastic reduction of neurobiologically based fear-conditioned antisocial behavior in the autistic brain, thus catalyzing (& possibly inducing) the process of neuropsychosomatic re-conditioning necessary to promote better social & face-to-face empathetic/communication skills which autistics all-too-commonly lack and may otherwise never be able to achieve otherwise.
Again, this is just another one of my all-too-long-winded hypotheses regarding the treatment of ASD; others are also on the table but time is running short and the real world beckons my presence forth to face the beautiful struggles of this new day. If one would be interested in gaining a better grasp concerning the inner workings of the autistic mind & brain, I would highly suggest checking out wrongplanet.net --a bastion of information encompassing all aspects of the autistic spectrum, from the subjective to the objective and just about everything else in-between.
Selah,
-God
"One cannot have genius without a dash of autism." --Hans Asperger.
