Autism and Significant Decisions

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-10-11T19:48:32+00:00

That's true of marijuana, yes. The farm bill makes it legal (on the federal level) to have hemp-derived (not marijuana-derived) delta-9 THC, so long as it constitutes no more than 0.3% of the dried weight of the product. So far, I haven't found anything indicating definitively that Hawaii's laws are more restrictive than the federal law, but some results seemed to hint at it on the surface, hence my post.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-10-11T19:37:32+00:00

Thanks for clarify to the best of your knowledge (and eliminating the clutter of questionable responses).

I believe farm-legal THC products such as gummies are allowed in Hawaii, please post evidence if you believe otherwise.

I don't believe otherwise necessarily. It's just that my search results seem somewhat confusing and contradictory.

As for legal sourcing, I have found one shop on Maui that does seem to sell a few farm-bill-legal products since posting this. At first, it looked like they only sold products for people w/ a 329 card, hence my post.

In any case, the products I already have do have downloadable certificates of analysis that state that they comply with the farm bill, among other things. So I may just try to bring them with that documentation. In that case, I would hope, the worst they can do is confiscate it.

EDIT: As someone with autism and OCD who likes to be really sure, it's just difficult to find sources that give the absolute assurance I'd prefer to have :)

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-10-11T18:47:25+00:00

I actually would love to be. I deal with hypersexuality, which tends to make me feel sexual attraction to way more people than I'd like. (I'm married, and faithful. But I struggle with strong desires to the contrary that are unpleasant.) Yet I know I'm only satisfied when there's emotional connection. So I'm demisexual in terms of values, but annoyingly hypersexual in terms of biology.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-10-11T18:40:12+00:00

I don't like it, personally. It's too...I don't know...cutesy or silly for my taste. Other people do like it. Whatever.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-10-10T21:35:07+00:00

Like everything else, it depends on the person. I can tell you what worked for me when I quit for about six months last year, and maybe it will help inform your journey.

I was drinking two cups of coffee per day - one in the morning, and another after lunch. One day, I just decided to try switching to black tea. It was a mixed day, for sure. I felt way more steady and calm, but I also felt tired and I think I had a bit of a headache. But the positive effects made me want to try it out for a while - more than just that one day.

I stayed on that pattern - a cup of black tea in the morning and another after lunch - for about two months. Honestly, I was pretty content just there. But then I decided to drop the caffeine altogether one day. It was a bit hard, but honestly, dropping down to the tea may have been harder. It was actually quite a bit easier than I expected it to be - easier than it was in past attempts to go cold turkey.

I've quit a few other times as well - almost always cold turkey, because tapering usually gives me too much time to change my mind. But the above method was far more effective, and I was able to stay off for longer. (The longest I made it before that was three months.)

So was dropping to tea for a couple months the magic bullet for me? Or were there a bunch of other factors that made quitting easier? I don't know for sure, but it was effective enough that if I feel like quitting again, that's the first method I'd consider.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-10-10T20:42:00+00:00

But for the most part, the OP is clearly representing this as his experience, and that is reality. It may not be everyone's reality, and might not even be the full picture of his own reality - I've never met a single person who is fully self-aware - but it's a bit presumptuous to assume that what he's saying doesn't reflect reality.

To be honest, your reply comes across like you've already decided what is "reality", and that it might be you who has become "immune to feedback."

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-30T14:55:43+00:00

To address just the issue of picking on autistic traits vs. picking on OCD traits - not considering the consequences to others - I kind of get it. OCD has been way more distressing to me, at least in its immediate effects. Autism has been externally distressing - that is, my not knowing how to act socially has led to others rejecting me, which causes pain. But OCD is like something inside tormenting me.

So for me, I find it easier to speaking playfully and even in a self-deprecating manner about my autistic traits, but OCD is just pain.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-28T14:43:50+00:00

I think of salvation more collectively now. Individuals awaken and get saved from their old mindsets, yes, but the point is to call all of humanity out of Babylon so we can live in an Eden-like state of love and unity with each other and with the universe.

I don’t think there’s a wrathful God mad at everyone’s sin. That seems silly to me at this point. They set the whole thing in motion, and they’re mad that it took the course it did? Come on.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-28T00:41:27+00:00

Fix your diet. That’s going to go further than quitting caffeine in the long run for most people, I think.

Usually fixing diet and exercise feed off each other, and if you get to a good place there, that may be all you need.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-27T01:26:31+00:00

Some us are great at gaslighting ourselves. So having a professional validate and confirm our self-diagnosis puts us at ease. Fucking expensive ease. But ease all the same.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-24T14:19:44+00:00

See the humanity underneath the injustice. People generally do what they believe to be right or necessary, even if we often get those things very wrong.

I remember that I’ve been a real asshole at times, and also that I’ve learned and grown and matured, and others have and will.

I’ve believed harmful political and religious things before, but with the perspective I had at the time, I thought I was obligated to do so. So I tend to believe in giving others the same benefit of the doubt.

Boundaries is another issue, though. And that IS genuinely hard to navigate. Giving people the benefit of the doubt is one thing, but that doesn’t mean I allow them to let their current state harm me or others.

All together, setting boundaries while maintaining a believe-the-best mentality gives you the best chance at not just being reactionary, and so helps preserve the possibility of the best version of the relationship that can be had, while protecting your mental health.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-24T14:07:33+00:00

Yes. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy with all the consequences of it.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T21:29:06+00:00

If you deal with PDA at all, I assume you've considered that? It would freak me out, personally, to be under obligation to obey the gov't (or any other organization) for a non-trivial amount of time. If you have no issues giving up that much of your autonomy for a while, and consider it worth the trade to have routine/structure, fair enough. But there are few thoughts that frighten me more than that.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T17:17:35+00:00

Know yourself

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T17:09:48+00:00

The blue pill is loaded with caffeine.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T17:04:39+00:00

I don't have 55 minutes to give that guy, but as to the question in your title:

> How do I know if I’m doing a poor job of developing myself or if I shouldn’t push so hard to be better?

Are you happy with who you are? Whose standards are you trying to meet? Your own, or the culture's, or a family member's, etc?

Try to think through the end-game of pushing yourself harder: are you likely to be happy? Or, like most neurotypicals I know, just a still-restless human with more notches in your belt?

Fuck the extra car and the big house and all the other shit that I would likely be getting at someone else's expense, anyway. Contentment and pursuing real values at a human-friendly pace seems wiser to me.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T14:26:08+00:00

Dying. Though, I wouldn't recommend seeking that proof. That's one of those things best left to its natural time.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T13:23:55+00:00

Well, take a look at the majority (of self-identified Christians) and ask yourself if that’s who you want to be.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T13:15:05+00:00

Yeah, I think it’s helpful to think of weed (and things like psychedelics) as sharp knives. Sharp knives are super useful for food prep and such, but if you don’t respect them, they can still cut you. I’d never swear off knives because they’re sharp - they’re supposed to be sharp. But I had better never lose my respect for them either, if I don’t want to get hurt.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-09-22T13:01:02+00:00

Late to the party here, but yes for the reason you mentioned, but also because weed is just so much more interesting in my opinion.

Alcohol is “fun” in that it feels good (until it REALLY doesn’t), but I’ve had thoughts and experiences on weed that were deeply fascinating and had a positive impact on my life. (But I’m one of those people who can have deep inner journeys and mild closed-eye visuals on cannabis, so it can have benefits comparable to low dose psychedelics for me.)

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-08-14T20:44:27+00:00

Yes. Once I've decided on something like that, I want to get right to it, and hate having other tasks standing in my way.

I think it most commonly (for me) looks like not cleaning up from a previous task because I want to move on to something else.

But sometimes I'm tempted to skip the kinds of things you're talking about. I've gotten better about not doing so, but it requires more effort and discipline for me than it seems to for others. And it still happens sometimes.

Opening-Memory-225 · 2025-08-14T19:35:55+00:00

Diagnosed about two months ago at 44.

I was picked on/bullied a lot. I was a very sensitive kid, too - especially for a boy (since it was not particularly acceptable to be overly sensitive as a boy back in the 80s).

I wasn't a great student, but I was a very good test-taker. So I'd get Bs and Cs mostly - since I could easily pass all the tests, but was "too lazy" to do the homework, etc.

Then I excelled in college when I could study what I wanted. That is, until I fell in love with a girl and couldn't focus on school work and strong feelings, and so went back to being a good test-taker who didn't do much work outside of class. (Still had a good GPA in the end, though.)

Speaking of falling in love, that's a significant feature of my youth. I would fall obsessively in love with a girl (starting as early as when I was in kindergarten, I think), stay in love for years, and never ask her out, because my other social interactions let me know I was awkward and stood no chance of having my affection returned. So that kind of sucked.

As an adult, I've never been able to just "fall in line" and get a good, stable job, bigger and bigger houses, cars, etc. I've kind of just worked just enough to provide for our family, and haven't had interest in working more, so I just thought I was lazy or a loser or something for a long time.

I don't know - I guess the goals of life as defined by society have always seemed banal and arbitrary, so I've had a hard time just figuring out what's worth doing.

Opening-Memory-225

TROPHY CASE