Thinking for far from the first time about my experience when I first tried marijuana.
Specifically, it made it a lot easier to mask - the slowing of time made it easier to read microexpressions, I was less anxious about getting things wrong, less hypersensitive to sound so I didn't need to stim as much, etc. Some (annoying) people have argued that things like this are justification for "treating" autistic behavior chemically.
I think the thing that that argument misses is that I still experience those changes as a cognitive loss. Marijuana affects the parts of your brain you normally use to perceive and solve short-term problems. It doesn't make me neurotypical - it makes me stoned and autistic. I still feel less aware and in control on it because I need to be looking arounc onstantly because I tend to miss major context clues when people move or change group activities, I'm used to navigating hyperacusis and rely on it for some environmental context, etc.
Anywya, no idea if this is coherent and might delete it later - have thought about talking about this a few times, but I can never seem to think of a way to phrase it that doesn't make it sound weird or that doesn't seem to be flattening a variety of experiences and symptoms into my thing. I'm mostly talking about the people who think drugs should be used for "behavioral" or social differences specifically.
