Coca-Cola

coffee is too bitter for me. I'm intolerant to the flavour.

Personally, I agree.  Water is dull.  I prefer instant coffee (always) but when I am desirous of a 'water' drink, I drop an effervescent tablet of "vitamins" to sweeten the pill.  I don't do it for the vitamins (although I guess they don't hurt) - I do it for the flavour.  I find the super-cheap tablets that come in a tube are wholly satisfying - with each one costing 5p.....and it will flavour a pint of water to my taste.

tap water tastes dreadful. Bottled water tastes dull. You'd only ever drink bottled water if your dehydrated to the point you're mouth is dry etc or if you know you are de hydrating quickly.

I'm not keen on drinking plain water either. Would much rather drink something that's got a bit of flavour. The exception is when I have a migraine, as water is then the only thing I can really tolerate drinking.

I don’t like water. It’s tasteless and not nice to drink 

You can tolerate Coke, but not water?

Just to add to what you have said, cola often gets mentioned as a home remedy for cleaning toilet bowls.

I get what you’re saying and it’s easy enough to say don’t drink it. But It’s not that easy to actually stop drinking it when it’s the only form of liquid I can tolerate drinking. 

that’s why I’m asking the question why isn’t it treated like other addictions. 

Canoeists drink cola because it raises the acid level in the gut and kills off any nasty bugs in the water from the rats' pee, which cause Weil's disease. Cola kills any bugs you happen to swallow. That's what the Army Youth Team instructor said, anyway.

Talking of sewage, cola is also a good lavatory cleaner if left in the pan overnight.

Just to note, they reportedly use that as a low cost way of clearing old oil out of engines. Now imagine you intestinal bacteria and the soft tissue in you, and then consider that many of us on the spectrum also have IBD. I'm laying here in agony having not eaten food today due to pain and the additional things, I'm sure you can imagine.

In short, stop drinking that muck guys! You'll thank me later if you do. I'd do anything to go back to a healthier youth now

I am a ridiculously heavy coffee drinker.  I love the damn stuff....and like you I MUCH prefer the taste, temperature and texture of a simple instant coffee.  My preference often seems to really irritate people for some reason (especially people who have fancy-ass coffee machines.)

I'm exactly the same with coffee. I drink far too much of it (unless I have a migraine) and am a terrible grouch if I go for too long without my coffee fix. What I find interesting though is that most coffee drinkers seem to favour the taste of freshly ground coffee, whereas I tend to favour instant coffee.

I used to go through phases of drinking coca cola, although not to the extent that I felt like it was an addiction. It was something that I only tended to drink during the summer months when I felt in need of a cold drink. I started to go off it a few years ago, as I found I was getting an unpleasant aftertaste, so switched to lemonade. As much as I like carbonated drinks, I find I have to be careful now, otherwise I end up with horrible acid reflux.

Funny you should say that. Exactly a year ago today, I fell down the stairs and was only 5 or 6 stairs up, when I fell I landed standing up at the bottom of the stairs, breaking both ankles at the same time. The doctors were surprised I’d managed to do bath at the same time and we were looking into the reasons why my bones snapped so easily. I’ve broken both wrists in the past too, through not a lot of force so maybes that’s a cause of it. But I’m also accident prone so who knows. 

I don't drink much cola now I found it affected my stomach and digestion in a bad way, sometimes severely, that's how I was diagnosed with IBD after a massive trigger of a day of binge cola drinking. I still have it, it's a refreshing drink but I only have a small amount now as my stomach is swollen a lot and sore. 

For a while I was addicted but with my health problems I had to control that. It was hard work and you're right it should be treated as a serious addiction. 

For me, Coca-Cola is able to offer a regular, mood-pleasing flavour. This makes it a convenient treat in life.

Treevey134777 said:

My first question is, does anyone else know of someone else, or have themselves, a coca-cola addiction, and if this is something that people on the spectrum tend to get easily addicted to?

On the one hand I can be sure that I can enjoy a good flavour just by unscrewing the cap, without having to worry about the temperature and quality as I do with tea or milk. On the other hand, the carbon dioxide and refreshing taste would be a pleasant sensory stimulus.Seriously, I think I drank more Coca-Cola than I expected to.
I suspect that Coca-Cola's advertising also intends to make people think that the drink will bring enjoyment wherever they drink it, so it's well worth buying. You know, there were news reports of young people willing to trade their milk and vegetables for Coca-Cola when the city was on lockdown.

Treevey134777 said:

Secondly, I always wonder why coca-cola/any fizzy drink addiction, isn’t treated like an addiction or taken seriously? People say stop drinking it but I find it really difficult to stop. What’s people’s thoughts and do you think it should be taken seriously by health professionals and others? 

A current popular view on addiction is that when we are unable to control ourselves from repeated behaviour/substance use that we know will have a negative effect, we can consider saying that it is an addiction to something. In this way, the range of addiction targets can be very broad. However, mental health staff usually rate how harmful addictive behaviour is to a person based on daily functioning and thinking functions, which is one of the reasons why alcohol, drugs and gambling enter the medical assessment system.
Coca-Cola does have an effect, but in most cases it has a relatively small effect on people and takes some time to become visible enough to be observed. These are some of the sources I have kept which provide some explanation of addiction, professionally reviewed scientific content may be useful in understanding the views of health professionals and medical regulations. 

www.youtube.com/watch

www.psychiatry.org/.../what-is-a-substance-use-disorder

Same here, I’ve tried on a few occasions but my mood gets terrible. Always feel better if I’ve had a drink of coke. I’ve been to doctors to be tested for diabetes in case I had low sugar or something like that but all tests came back fine, so diabetes was ruled out. I’ve had blood work done more recently when I broke my ankles last year and nothing has flagged up for too much or too little sugar in my system so it must be balancing out within my system somehow. 

If you drink lots of coke the phosphoric acid in it can have adverse effects. I leaches calcium from bones and is particularly problematic for women. Women who drink a lot of coke have a statistically higher incidence of hip fractures and, some research shows, a lower bone density. If you are female and drink lots of coke and cannot reduce your intake, taking calcium supplements, and possibly vitamin D, may be something to consider. 

To add, as a kid I was addicted to fizzy juice and sweets. I ended up having to go to the dentist a lot, and that was the end of that because I hated the dentist appointments more than I loved sweets. Still, sometimes I can’t resist 

There’s a link between sugar/caffeine addictions and ADHD/ADD, many autistic people would qualify for this diagnosis as well