Fear of intimacy

Hi everyone

I have just joined the NAS.  I am 61 years old and I am on the waiting list to be screened for autism.  My great-nephew was diagnosed a few years ago, then my niece (his mother), my nephew and my brother, all scored highly on the test. The tests that I did showed that I may be borderline autistic or one test suggested high-functioning autism.

I had never thought about autism before but I am an alcoholic.  I've been sober for 20 years now.  It took  me a long time to get to know the real me.  In hindsight, I realise that I masked the whole time I was in high school.  I have traits that I believe to be autistic.  I have been single the whole time I've been sober.  Now someone has come into my life but I have a true fear of intimacy (which would normally take place with alcohol).  I wondered if anyone else had experience of this, and what they did to try and overcome it.