Cire

j4rio said:

many drugs were simply randomly discovered

How does that happen exactly? Just trying random stuff on rats?

Pure random chance, either on rats or later humans. Viagra was discovered the exact same way, it was originally for some pulmonal disease, but first clinical trials on humans showed unexpected results. Same thing with for example benzos, people with anxiety who were alco convulsant simply noticed lack of convulsions, or phenytoin which was originally supposed to help with heart problems and ended up as anticonvulsant with heart problems as side effects. Central anaesthetics were discovered by people falling into coma after working with diethylether for too long or just snuffing it too much. We still don't know how the hell paracetamol works in our body and it's the most commonly used pill in the whole world, we only know about the final result after taking it.

Wovenloaf said:

However valid AS may be as a diagnosis, I'm almost bugged that it even exists, because there's no getting rid of the syndrome

I allegedly grew out of mine. I guess it's been debatable whether or not I had it in the first place. To make matters more bizarre, my gf is the one with social anxiety and I'm an extrovert. Yet I was that textbook autist kid in elementary school (minus the head smacking). So I am pretty sure I did have it at one point, but it sure as hell doesn't feel like it anymore.