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Autism and alcohol

Billy87

So I have been wondering something. Recently I have had Covid and one of my side effects has been "brain fog" which slows down my processing and makes it harder to think clearly. As I am already autistic you can imagine how difficult this has been. Anyway, I read that avoiding alcohol helps with this as alcohol can increase the " brain fog"

So it got me wondering. If alcohol can make Covid "brain fog" worse, could it actually make processing and anxiety in my autistic brain worse and impact my ability to think clearly and process things with my autism?

To be clear I'm not talking about getting drunk, I know what effect that has and like many of us, I suspect, I used to use alcohol in social situations to mask and cope with my anxiety.

I am talking about ordinary drinking, like just a beer or two in the evening or a glass of wine. Long term could that affect our ability to cope with our autism, process things and deal with anxiety in an autistic brain? Any answers welcome as I would do anything to help make my autism and anxiety more manageable 

  • I know alcohol is poison for our health but i can't live without alcohol. If someone tells me to not drink alcohol at all until the day i die i wouldn't listen. I can't do it.

    I am not an alcoholic but i see that alcohol in social situations or even when i am alone helps me to focus better, to feel more freedom and i use it as stimulate as well.

    I become more talkable with alcohol and dulls my sensory issues and trust me sometimes it makes me think clearly because it relaxes me in the brain.

  • I have used alcohol as a social crutch for many years. I would have just enough to dull the anxiety, but not affect my ability to think, before stressful public occasions. These could be meetings of the university health and safety committee, that I had to address, or giving seminars to several hundred experts and students in my research field. As a short-term relaxant, it worked well for me. However, I very rarely drink in pubs and only have wine with weekend meals, otherwise. 

  • This is a strictly personal view based on a Lifetime of experience. Alcohol is a poison. No good can come of it unless it's used external to the body e.g. killing germs. 

  • Alcohol makes anything worse, including anxiety. It’s a given as far as I’m concerned.

    Not being a drinker, I can’t speculate whether it affects me personally.