Oxytocin — Any Positive Experiences? (also Allopregnanolone and Clonidine)

[birdwhacker]

The title covers it. Over on Reddit I've come across a handful of encouraging reports, and 1 of them was actually kind of alarming, yet it seems like most people either react badly or feel nothing whatsoever.

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/18ana26/ive_used_oxytocin_nasal_spray_for_almost_a_year/

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticAdults/comments/1prlu99/i_can_not_live_without_injecting_oxytocin_to_feel/

Other posts exist too.

From what I gather, it's also unstable and a pain to reconstitute.

Maybe this is too much information, and maybe it makes me sound like a sissy, but certain things I've been through leave me thinking extra oxytocin might do me some good.

My mother and I weren't close while I was growing up, and she couldn't breastfeed. My dad and I were extremely close until, when I was 13, he had a psychotic break following the divorce. I chose to stay with him and cut off my mother completely for 6 years, and for a long stretch I felt a crushing loneliness that eventually morphed into serious drug abuse from age 16 until last year.

Breakups hit me the way death hits other people. Dreams, nightmares, and sharp memories that stick around for years. I sob and cry while asleep.

On the rare occasions I get to spend time with close friends, I go in for a LOT of physical touch – and honestly, as a man, I wish sharing a bed with friends carried less stigma.

I show plenty of autistic traits as well. Whether I always had them, or whether my particular mix of environmental stress and strange upbringing produced some kind of functional equivalent, I can't say. It's a bit contradictory, because 1 minute I can be highly outgoing and the next I'm fighting hard just to make eye contact.

So basically, I'm a bit of an odd bird, and my reactions to substances often diverge sharply from what my peers experience. Take benzodiazepines: they make me euphoric and hook me incredibly easily, whereas opiates do nothing for me. That's exactly why I took kratom for a few years, and when I decided it wasn't helping anymore, I dropped it almost instantly.

Separately, for anyone still reading, allopregnanolone and Clonidine were suggested to me and they intrigue me too.

As I understand it, Clonidine acts in a way that's sort of the reverse of caffeine, and caffeine gives me serious anxiety plus sleep problems even 16+ hours after I take it.

Sorry for a crappy and strange post. I didn't start looking into peptides because I was some happy, healthy person lol.

 

[cheaperseeker]

Oxytocin is something I still need to test — it's sitting on my to-try list.

That said, I hate that you're dealing with all this crap, and I really hope relief comes your way before long.

 

[sheilarae74]

Clonidine has kept my son asleep for more than 20 years. He was never able to move beyond the sleep patterns of a baby. He is non-verbal and his autism is severe. Perhaps oxytocin deserves some investigation. It might even be something for me, given my own strange behaviors.

 

[birdwhacker]

cheaperseeker said:

Oxytocin is something I still need to test — it's sitting on my to-try list.

That said, I hate that you're dealing with all this crap, and I really hope relief comes your way before long.

Thanks! Honestly, I feel like things are turning around — reta has made a huge difference so far, and a recent brush with the law knocked the fight out of me. Maybe I'll enter my thirties with a clearer mind.

sheilarae74 said:

Clonidine has kept my son asleep for more than 20 years. He was never able to move beyond the sleep patterns of a baby. He is non-verbal and his autism is severe. Perhaps oxytocin deserves some investigation. It might even be something for me, given my own strange behaviors.

Happy to hear it helps your son. I brought it up with my mom, and according to her, it was a common pick for SLO kids too.

And who knows! If it doesn't work, that's the worst that happens, right?

 

[Neurogroot]

I tried oxytocin on 1 occasion. My dosing information for subcutaneous use was extremely sparse. To start with, its half life is absurdly brief — 6 minutes, as far as I recall. Also, most dosage guidance came from nasal spray ROA, though a handful of subcutaneous suggestions existed.

For a few minutes I felt fine, after which my skin turned warm and then hot. It resembled a CJC/IPA flush multiplied by a huge amount. After that I simply felt... sleepy. Somewhat let down.

The following day brought nausea, a fairly moderate headache, and a general low mood that lasted all day, even with stimulants. I tried to get reasonably good rest that night, and by the next day I was improved. Definitely not something for me, though perhaps the spray works better.

 

[birdwhacker]

Neurogroot said:

I tried oxytocin on 1 occasion. My dosing information for subcutaneous use was extremely sparse. To start with, its half life is absurdly brief — 6 minutes, as far as I recall. Also, most dosage guidance came from nasal spray ROA, though a handful of subcutaneous suggestions existed.

For a few minutes I felt fine, after which my skin turned warm and then hot. It resembled a CJC/IPA flush multiplied by a huge amount. After that I simply felt... sleepy. Somewhat let down.

The following day brought nausea, a fairly moderate headache, and a general low mood that lasted all day, even with stimulants. I tried to get reasonably good rest that night, and by the next day I was improved. Definitely not something for me, though perhaps the spray works better.

Forgive me for being so direct, but do you struggle with eye contact, have an unusual attitude toward physical affection, or an excessive fondness for any type of military hardware or civil machinery?

 

[Neurogroot]

Eye contact is definitely something I struggle with. Whether my physical contact is off, I can't say. It's just somewhat uncomfortable, and I'm drawn strongly to numbers and patterns… Fits perfectly for my DevOps role.

 

[birdwhacker]

Neurogroot said:

Eye contact is definitely something I struggle with. Whether my physical contact is off, I can't say. It's just somewhat uncomfortable, and I'm drawn strongly to numbers and patterns… Fits perfectly for my DevOps role.

I took you at your word, and once DevOps came up, that confirmed it for me! Not what I wanted to hear — I'd been holding out hope that some peptide might be able to sort out my head. Looks like I'll have to settle for the body and count myself lucky for that.

 

[Neurogroot]

birdwhacker said:

Neurogroot said:

Eye contact is definitely something I struggle with. Whether my physical contact is off, I can't say. It's just somewhat uncomfortable, and I'm drawn strongly to numbers and patterns… Fits perfectly for my DevOps role.

I took you at your word, and once DevOps came up, that confirmed it for me! Not what I wanted to hear — I'd been holding out hope that some peptide might be able to sort out my head. Looks like I'll have to settle for the body and count myself lucky for that.

The callout about what I was actually feeling got a small chuckle out of me. A coworker had to see it too, since he enjoys calling out whenever I notice odd numeric patterns.

I don't know whether you've given this a shot, but… N-Acetyl Selank Amidate. For the longest time I wrote it off — it came across as bogus, or pointless. Over these last 3 weeks, I've been using it. It's nowhere near overpowering, but once it kicks in and your mind drifts back to it around 40-some minutes later, the thought lands as “Wow, this is pretty nice.”

Its counterpart, N-Acetyl Semax Amidate, is quite excellent in the morning for powering my strange strange brain. Some folks could end up anxious on it — it's unexpectedly stimulating in a manner distinct from amphetamine or methylphenidate based medications. It works for me, though if you're prone to getting wired easily, maybe not.

Worth mentioning, the plain Semax and Selank are fine, yet they fade quickly and left me feeling like a piece was absent. Conversely, Adamax? Not impressive. In my case, anyway.

Note: I administered all of these — the standard, the N-Acetyl Amidate and Ada versions — subcutaneously, not as a spray.