Autism and alcohol

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 

Parents
  • 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. 

Reply
  • 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. 

Children
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