Autism's Most Important Chemical

I am a neurodivergent clinical psychologist. My growing theory is that neurodivergence is the brain’s evolution away from dopamine dominance to alternative brains less likely to destroy the environment they need to survive as a species. Dopamine drives much of our destructive behaviors like addictions, gambling, excessive consumption,competition, and greed. ADHD and ASD are dopamine deficient but seem to leverage oxytocin for motivation, which creates the opportunity for more pro-social and pro-survival motivation (relationships, care for animals, connection to nature, love, low-competition needs, etc.). High functioning ASD brains also seem to be able to utilize their neo-cortex for motivation (learning, researching, thinking, conceptualizing) rather than the more primitive limbic brain and it’s dopamine dominant system. Again, this seems to suggest evolution rather than disorder. I have reached out to oxytocin researchers to discuss my observations as a clinician. One affirmed my observations but the problem with the “research” is that it is almost entirely based on male subjects. He said even the rat lab rats are male! This has to change if the research is to be meaningful and if we are to truly understand the FULL spectrum of experiences and possibilities.

I can't hear your voice over the loud thumping noise. Not very well thought out format.

... When the question is "how do you perceive and provide affection?" and the immediate response is "I don't."

Now I wonder whether or not this relates to my perpetual obsession with dark chocolate.

100%. I know it is said that it is seratonin mediated, but MDMA saved my life through its conjoined oxytocin flood. Once i had that experience, i was able to allow it to happen in normal circumstances and it created a new ability for me to genuinely bond with others.

I nursed all my babies, for years. I am very attached to them, their smell. I miss them terribly now that they're grown and doing their own thing. My own mother used formula, didn't hug us very much although i know she loved us. I am only now figuring out that i am on the spectrum as was my mother and my siblings. But we each seem to form attachments differently. Whenever i would look for a mothers day card, the sentiment expressed in those greeting cards never described the type of relationship i had with my mother. I strived to have that kind of relationship with my own children.

I Have stronger attachments to people i see and interract with in person frequently than I do long distance or infrequently. But a close bond, once formed. doesn't seem to be diminished by time spent apart. We can reconnect after decades apart and pick right up where we left off. At least that's how it works for me

When I had my son, several years ago, there were papers showing a correlation between pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) use in labor and autism in the person born. Any thoughts?

The more connection and commitment we have an experiencing an orgasm, the more oxytocin we get. Masturbation is in my belief unhealthy, it does bad things to our neurochemicals in other parts of our body and nervous system! It's been proven that just as with tears, I'm committed sexual connections or masturbation don't provide oxytocin particularly well.

The analogy with tears is that the ones we get from crying and having emotion actually eliminate a lot of toxins in the tear fluid! Whereas eye watering and tears from cutting onions or being in the wind do not. It's just sort of an empty experience lol.

A good analogy imo. And I'm just sharing this because I was for a while a biology student but could not finish to get my degree to be a biochemist, and this might be useful information for someone 😊

I had a hard time listening, but I SO appreciate your CC! Thank you for paying attention to that detail and actually typing out the transcript for your video. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. I get auditory overload easily, so I sometimes watch YT on mute and rely on the CC, but the auto-generated CC aren’t really that useful…

ペプチド一つで自閉症の重度な社会性障害が説明できるものかね？

Hi, sorry this is unrelated, but can you tell me about the guitar on your wall? Thanks 😅😸

GOOD information.
ATROCIOUS "background" music almost drowned you out - - and wore out my eardrums.😮

Thank goodness for closed captions! I had to watch this on mute. I have no idea why you decided to add loud, annoying music over your speaking. Strange.

Diagnosed with ASD at 49. 3 out of 4 times giving birth I had to be givien oxytocin because my labor stalled out. Just found that interesting and thought I’d share.

The music was unnecessary. I'm just wondering why you included it in a video aimed at neurodivergent people?
Weird.

Good points. I do also wonder too, like the commonalities of our low chemicals, like vitamin D. I can take that pill, but why is it my system isn't allowing it. Why isn't my system putting out normal levels of oxytocin. why do we often have gut issues. I am not on board with the idea that is somehow a good thing and that we shouldn't find some kind of cure. yes, people are wonderful and cope very well, but a lot of us aren't. Us in this capatalistic society that only values production and adaptation to become more productive, of course that system is trying to find cures. Like your ADHD, I too have a flavor of it, and while it might have some benefits for some, I wouldn't wish either of these things to any others to have to suffer with. Most unkowing people just think we are faking it and just are laazy or don't want to. I understand that is a limit of thier understanding but it doesn't make family events any less cruel. I am really struggling at 46, and hope might not be found for me before I rest, but I hope we make some kind of breakthrough on what lead to this. This might take DNA work, or quite possibly environmental, but whatever it is, big hugs to all of you!

Wow, i really thought i was just literally broken. This makes me feel so much less alone.

Constructive feedback - background music too distracting. Couldn't focus on what was being said so gave up.

Please, publish a new edit of this video WITHOUT the “music” — or, use it only at the beginning and end! As it stands now, it’s like trying to hear someone talk in a nightclub, and you know we autists can’t filter that out.

this is a good video. please drop the soundtrack very distracting. Hugs work.

there’s scientific data that suggests otherwise now regarding general ideas toward oxytocin’s role.

is it published anywhere what are your credentials are, and also citation on these claims / ideologies of autism and oxytocin?

I’m a 66 year old adult who was diagnosed in 2021. Unfortunately my highly intelligent and strong willed wife doesn’t buy the ASD / Asperger Syndrome. She feels that as an adult I should be able to overcome the issues. That my behavior is deliberate and planned to make her feel bad. I have been labeled as a narcissist and evil person.

That intro music with its sour wobbly notes was so mentally disturbing. I couldn't hear any words. I'll watch it on mute with the subtitles on because this is a great topic 👍🏼

I never understood why people like having some other thing about them exist. It took me a long time to talk and I'd often have to repeat things over and over. Then I started to lose my sight so I'd try to memorize stuff by walking to get water and stuff. I couldn't even make out the big A. Anyways, eventually I got glasses which was super weird. I could finally see. I loved running around when I was young and I didn't make much sound. Being around people always kind of made me sad tho because they were mean and childish. I was too probably but not too much because I grew close to God and I realized most things are quite stupid in a sense. Even me in a way, for existing. It sucks when you can't even get a job and even the other income sources suddenly don't function right or take a lot longer than they should. Now my car keeps turning on all the warning lights and turning off. And light bulbs keep turning on when they shouldn't plus for some reason the light bulbs in the city are on in the daytime. I keep seeing the same birds too and google changes the weather to mess with me. God might just kill everyone for trying to make me go insane. Honestly, I can't remember why I'm here. Even Spotify has been messing with me giving me songs about killing myself and dying alone. Maybe it is a statically anamolly, but idk sometimes it seems like this world isn't real. Lately God has been controlling the weather in my area which is nice. He helps remind me I'm not alone, but maybe I should actually forget this world.

The music is too loud!

Background music comments are killing me 😂 because we're all autistic and we're all being attacked by the same sensory conditions right now! This is not how a neurotypical feed looks 😂😂😂😂 How many of us had to put it on mute to finish writing the comment? 😅😅😅 ..

Any moment now Autism Speaks will come out with some oxytocin pills to treat Autism.

I am a Class 3 ASD person. I have hypersonsory perception in all eight of my senses. I am not looking for any relief. I am OK and enough the way I am. Instead, with other Autistic members of my family I am preparing eight trillion dollar class action lawsuit against usa government and private abusers and discriminators enabled by usa government. It takes A LOT of money to rebuild the world.

That music though. Please stop. I would rather concentrate on what you're sayin'. You got an awesome voice don't go blocking it with music.

Shut off the stupid music.. please. Don’t have music videos. Just videos. Love it. Thx

oddly enough I didn't notice the background music until i read the comments. I was listening to it as 2x speed maybe that helps? but anyway I'm autistic and wrapping up my final semester in a Doctor of pharmacy program and from what I have researched the variations may also have to serotonin receptors and the stimulation of the oxytocin release. Additionally the critical period in the brain for social development plays a role. so lets say that the person was not releasing enough oxytocin but then we supplemented it then its effects would be largely impacted by the level of neuroplasticity in the brain. Also supplemental oxytocin can rapidly degrade and also be difficult to cross the blood brain barrier. Thus developing treatments that increase the brains ability to either release oxytocin or bind to oxytocin receptors agonistically with a stronger binding potential maybe helpful in cases where oxytocin receptors are under expressed. One thing that is interesting is that the critical period can be reopened through drugs like MDMA (which is going to be FDA approved in august for the treatment of PTSD) which also releases oxytocin through its effects on serotonin 1b and 1d receptors which happens to be the same receptors many migraine medications target (though they are immediate release and are significantly less potent). I think as genome testing becomes more popular and we learn more about the different variations how these receptors are functioning in those with autism and we learn more about how to maximize the benefit of reintroducing neuroplasticity and minimize it the risks in doing so, that we will start to see treatments that will help those with autism not suffer as much from masking all the time and hopefully find that Autistic burnout happens less.

Why would you put that annoying music in the background on an autism video? Surely you realize the video will have many autistics watching it? And then they wont be able to? Due to that music. That is so highly illogical!! Did you ever consider this?????

Dear Doctor, You could learn a lot by watching a few videos from Vejon Health. He puts music at the very beginning as an intro and then the music stops. He does his talking. Then the music comes back on again for the outro. Outro? Is that a word?? Anyway it works!

I have been a fan of chillhop music for the last small handful of years, even before my late dx, so I understood and appreciated the music: it was upbeat and consistent, I guess like oxytocin- though it would probably be better to be much more subtle, especially in the face of so many people noticing it and not being able to overcome it. Other than that, I love your videos and would like to see more current material. Your videos really helped motivate me to get my diagnosis. Still reeling from this new perspective of myself and new self acceptance 😊

I love your videos but please, the music is too overwhelming and I can't listen the full video without my brain complaining

I like that I recognized the molecular structure before hearing the name

was allergic, but I'm ok now, cats have changed my life. they give me oxytocin when i wake up and when I go to bed and many time during a day.

This would explain my dire need to bond deeply with people, sometimes people who aren't good for me, and why hate small talk and love deep conversations.

Well, interesting, but have you tried increasing the oxytocin levels of NOT the autist but the people who interact with the autist instead? Assuming the autist is not yet "totally gone" in the sense of being very disappointed in people and withdrawing, but still has some optimism. Maybe the autist would respond even more positively to higher oxytocin levels in other people without any modification to the autist? Autists can be good with animals, right? What if they don't see enough oxytocin in other people to justify a positive response?

Impossible for a post-childbearing-age woman to obtain the stuff, although I did try the L Reuterii yogurt method, which I bollixed. Do you prescribe it?

I am at a loss to understand why you think you need musical accompaniment.
Did you ever hear a head of state or college professor use musical accompaniment?
ALSO, it seems to me that you attempt to speak extemporaneously. As a consequence, I think, your videos are "long-winded" & verbose.
People's minds "get lost" in verbosity.
I think your videos would be more impactful and provide listeners with lasting takeaways IF you wrote out your scripts, "stuffed them in a drawer" for 3 days, THEN edited them for brevity.
After that, "stuff the edited script in a drawer" for 3 more days, THEN re-edit for pithiness.
I think you will find such twice-edited scripts will provide more deliverable "takeaways" for your subscribers.
Good luck, and keep making info & insights available to an audience which uses them to smooth out bumps & kinks in their paths through life.

That Music is yucky

How do I get the spray??

The 'on hold' style repetitive 'music' in the 'background' is doing my head in!!!... I will try to listen..

Yea to the info, nay to the music...

Your are full of crap and know nothing about REAL autism, people with autism and the enormous struggles of their families.

f that music

The music definitely is stellar in identifying the percentages of types in your audience…well at least those motivated enough to comment 🤣😵‍💫🥴

The content of oxytocin was excellent but your commentary about autism as a natural human condition is pure garbage and pharma propaganda to deflect from parents searching for the true cause of autism. Autism was never normal and is not normal...it is a a disease and please just stop. Much love.

Yes, please no music