I watched a video recently on YouTube, an Adam Conover video about MDMA. How its supposedly going to get FDA clearance next year to help with Veterans PTSD. They discussed how MDMA brings the brain into a state of elasticity similar to children, which is what makes it easier to learn things like another language when your a kid. In a different source I read about how children with Autism can go through therapies that could significantly help, some pages specifically talked about age windows for those kinds of therapy. I believe this is due to the same Elasticity.

Would it be a stretch then for MDMA to have potential medicinal applications for helping struggling autistic adults? By restoring that elasticity and doing targeted therapy sessions?

Disclaimer, I am not a neuroscientist, just a struggling adult. Not telling anyone to go out an do anything, wanting thoughtful discussion.

  • guriinii@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I did loads of MDMA and mushrooms in my 20s and I don’t think it helped my brain.

    • Shartacus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You likely did shitty mdma and also partied instead of using it in a therapeutic setting.

      It’s all about set and setting with psychedelics.

      I personally fucked myself with mushrooms once not being prepared for it in that way after spending months growing them.

      Now after learning a better approach they are a benefit to my life when I need them.

    • SpaceAape@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Just doing MDMA isnt gonna help, especially if overdone. You gotta do the actual therapy work. The MDMA sets your brain in the right state, but the therapy and introspection are what helps.

      Ive had personal experiences with mdma and doing introspection, a long time ago. I managed to gain clarity in places i lacked it before. But that wasnt targeted at helping with my Autism struggles.

      For Vets with PTSD, they describe it like, the neural pathways in your brain are like water breaking down a path in a rock. The MDMA allows your brain to break those pathways and create new ones.

    • emenaman @lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I did shrooms and mdma in my early 20s as well and I think it helped me tremendously. I would go to small gatherings with ‘hippy’ musicians as I have always been one with playing music to fit in with people. After a few months and a bunch of doses, I slowly started to understand body language but still a hard time with speech/conversations. One of my shrooms trips, I made some kind of connection with micro entities living within me and my whole life changed after that. The mdma would just make me not be scared of being myself which a few people saw the beauty in my character. What I now know is called masking, I subconsciously become aware of and was no longer a visible wreck in social situations. I was still very focused and on edge with everything, but now I was being accepted by people and made a few good friends. I didn’t know I was on the spectrum until my 30s but if I had known the info I do now in my 40s, I think my life would of been a tad more successful. But I am just sharing my experiences, I know it’s not for everyone and I know I was extremely lucky with my experiments. Looking forward to more scientific studies and I hope it helps the future generations. Being lost, confused and overstimulated while being talked down to and made feel worthless by everyone is not something I wish on anyone. Be safe!

  • hitwright@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Due to plethora of research required, I doubt we will soon see it as possible therapy. It will be interesting to learn about the possible results in the meantime, tho.

    • Shartacus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The research is already done, this is an fda “breakthrough” drug with a fast track to approval. Clinical trials are already mostly complete and the rest is wrapping up the legal aspects.

      Australia has approved it this week or last.

      It’s literally around the corner.

      Ketamine is already legal for this very purpose and is more harmful than mdma.

  • turbodrooler@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have never done it, but I knew a lot of people in high school that did it (late 90s rave scene). It’s like an advance of all your happiness for the next week all at once, but then after it wears off, you are depressed for a week. I don’t think I would consider that based on what I saw it do to my friends.

    • SpaceAape@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      People who use recreationally are taking way too high a dose and way too often compared to what they are doing with the Vets in PTSD. Its a controlled session with a therapist. They aren’t taking so much that they feel the withdrawals from it. The Yt video i mentioned discusses and this, the rave scene, and the negative effects it had on abusers.

    • Shartacus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You’re assuming you received a pure pharmaceutical grade product when you likely received someone made in someone’s basement with the very least understanding of the process they could attain to make their drug.

      Half the time what was sold on streets was a research Chem that was similar enough to pass.

      Really good, pure mdma is not like that. You may feel a little drained the next day but typically people reporting that were also at a rave the night before, dehydrated, drunk and also smoking weed.

      The study that claimed it burns holes in your brain was also proven a lie. They were giving people methamphetmine in that study either accidentally or knowing full well what they were doing.

    • DopamineDaydreams@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Personally it just makes me emotional all around, not happy per-say. If anything I’d say it helps me to open up and feel sad, but in a good way. It’s like an emotional release. So I can totally see the use in therapy as I personally find it therapeutic already, even without a therapist.

      I’ve not experienced any of the aftereffects that others describe either, but I know some of my friends say they’re always very down for a few days after.

    • PM_me_your_vagina_thanks@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The trick to doing MDMA recreationally is to do it when you’re depressed as fuck! Can’t have a depression hangover if that’s how you feel all the time!

      :(