Alcohol: a confession

Aspies are known for their honesty.  So I'm going to be honest.

I drink too much.  And if I carry on as I am, it'll catch up with me very soon.

I think of myself as having a drink problem.  I think that it's something I can manage.  But being honest again - I'm actually a functioning alcoholic.

It's been hard for me to accept this.  I've been in denial for a long time.  The main reason is that, throughout my teens and 20s, I hardly drank at all.  An occasional can of beer - or a few more at a special celebration.  I was too committed to personal fitness - distance running, cycling, swimming - and alcohol didn't fit into that.  When I was in training for a marathon, say, I'd even regard an occasional pint of shandy as detrimental to my regime.

Things began to change when I got married at 40, in 2000.  It was the first time I'd cohabited, and I found it difficult.  Alcohol took the anxiety away and made it bearable.  Even so, I wasn't drinking abnormally.  But more than I'd drunk before.

After my divorce, when I got back to living alone again, it settled down.  I got back to just drinking occasionally.  I didn't really need it.

Then I started a new and stressful job, in my mid-40s, and started to drink a little more again.  Then a little more.  I went through a period of counselling to help me with my mental health problems at the time, and was referred to an alcohol unit.  There, I started mixing with hardened alcoholics.  People who'd drunk litres of hard booze a day for years.  People way, way out of my league.  It made me realise that I didn't have a problem at all... and that perhaps I could allow myself to loosen up a bit.

In 2013, I started my last cohabiting relationship, during which - because of the difficulties I had once again with living with another person - my drinking escalated.  Two bottles of wine a day, sometimes - even though I was continuing to keep fit with healthy eating, running, cycling and swimming.  Then, after that relationship was over, I had the next issue of my mother's rapidly deteriorating health.  In October 2016, I gave up work to care for her full-time.  It was hugely stressful for me in emotional and psychological terms - knowing I was losing the only person on earth who really meant anything to me, and having to be on the ball 24/7.  During that time, I was a highly-functioning drinker.  I needed it to take the edge off of what I was going through, and what was happening.  My daily intake, during those 7 months, averaged 12 units of alcohol.

Fast-forward to now.  Since my mother passed away, I've continued to function well.  I hold down a job.  I still do lots of physical exercise, and am - as my GP has told me - fitter than many men half my age.  At almost 60, I can cycle 10 miles in 35 minutes.  I regularly swim.  I can run up four flights of stairs without getting out of breath.

But my drinking is getting the better of me.  It's self-medication.  It kills my anxiety - at the same time as exacerbating my day-after depression.  I wake in the mornings thinking 'Never again'... only to end up going out for a bottle of wine.  Then, later, maybe another.

I've been on annual leave from work for the last 2 weeks.  I drank quite a bit during most of the first week, because I was under stress over issues at work and with an new job offer I was undecided about.  Then, I stopped... and I didn't drink at all for a week.  And now, since my relapse last Wednesday, I've averaged 15 units a day.  Yesterday, I drank 27 units of alcohol - and woke up this morning feeling none the worse (if ever a warning sign was needed).  Today I decided not to touch a drop.  But I've just finished my first bottle of red wine (9.8 units) and am off out for more.

I'm worried about it, of course.  At the same time... it's one of the few things I do that makes life seem bearable.

I'm sure there are others of you out there with the same struggles.

I'm trying hard to stop.  But there's a part of me that says 'What the f**k?  Does it matter that much?  Carry on.  When it kills you, your pain will be over - and at least you'll die happy.'

I've just watched this, because I'm trying to watch things that will make me sit up sharply and take notice, and do something about my drinking.

I don't like the emphasis on how much problem drinking is costing the taxpayer, because I think that's entirely the wrong way to approach it.  But it's worth watching if you're going through what I'm going through at the moment.

Thanks for reading.

  • Thank you so much for the story. It is very brave of you to share it with us. If you still need help, I can recommend this rehab center https://addictionresource.com/drug-rehab/free-rehabs/ They help people with different kinds of addictions/ You can call the helpline and get some help or recommendations. 

  • Ground control to Martian Tom... well actually, you're already back down on Earth.

    Some quick thoughts, about the short-term again and your week off, if it's OK. AA says to avoid being hungry, angry, lonely and tired. Well, you have reasons to be angry and lonely.

    Possible confrontation seems to feature strongly in what you've been writing about drink. Someone here posted something about mindfulness and I'm going to try to apply it to my own anger so that I'm more in control, even if I don't cause anyone else to suffer:

    Hunger: there's a US psychology writer called Kathleen desMaisons who has some ideas about best diet for alcoholics and depressives: have lots of protein particularly for breakfast, not in the evening, and cut our sugar. (I suppose protein for me is mostly beans and soya.) Not sure her research has been replicated, but it seems like a good discipline anyway.

    Also, are you keeping up the exercise? Anger gives me a lot of energy, and I suspect running helps burn some of it off, so I may be relatively relaxed and in control at the end of it. Are you doing the parkrun on Saturday?  I'm spending a bit of time training for it, and also find it a way to be with people without having to interact.and get annoyed.

    As I say, just thoughts. Take them or leave them. Confession is supposed to be good for you too...

    Edit: article on the neurology of running:

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2018/jun/21/what-does-running-do-to-your-brain

  • Thanks.  But I have to disagree with you on one point.  Alcoholics are alcoholics.  They don't 'develop' it.  It's either there, or it isn't.

  • OK, then. It'll take me a while to make my notes into something readable, but I'll see what I can knock together.

  • Thanks, Trainspotter.  In my last encounter with local 'drug and alcohol' services, all I was offered were 'mindfulness' sessions or 'work-oriented' workshops.  It was all about performance.  So, the more desperately sick alcoholics they could push into unsuitable jobs, the better it looked in the official statistics.

  • Hi Trogluddite,

    I'm extremely grateful for what you've said here, and am happy for you to spill the beans if you so wish.

  • Hi Tom,

    You've taken a big step forward already by writing down and posting what you have, and you haven't shied away from the dilemmas that you face every day; anxiety relief now vs. depression tomorrow, wanting to help yourself vs. what's the point?

    My experience of alcohol problems is very different to yours, almost the inverse; I had my worst period in my late teens and early twenties, and there was no "epiphany" which quickly took me back to sobriety, it's been a slow, uphill battle over many years (I was always too stubborn and proud to ask for the help which I could and should have done.)

    I will say only for now, that when I was at a point similar to where you are now, I carried on spiralling downwards, into some behaviour which I still profoundly regret to this day. I don't mean this as any kind of "pity olympics", and I don't know whether anything that worked for me would work for you; just to prompt you to at least arrest your fall so that the work of recovery does not become any harder.

    I made a whole bunch of notes about my memories, such as they are, of my alcohol experiences since first reading this thread; I had never tried to piece together the whole story before, let alone look at how my then unknown autism may have played into it. So even with this thread, you have helped someone, because you spurred me to do that. I do not want to spam your thread with endless paragraphs all about me if you don't feel that it would be helpful. I'm not even sure how much of it I can even make coherent. But I am happy to share my story with you if you think it appropriate.

    In the mean-time, the other posters on the thread have given good advice for what to do in the short-term. I wish that drug and alcohol services such as we have now had been available to me when I was at my most messed up. Do make use of them.

    Best wishes.

  • Contact your local Drug and Alcohol service as soon as you can.  They may have an 'out of hours' person to talk to.  If not either ring them up in the morning or present yourself to them.  There will be one which serves your area.

    Unfortunately they are in all probability not run by the NHS, as they are commissioned by the local public health department, but they should have the time to speak to you and arrange for you to have proper counselling.  Many people do not realise that alcohol causes more problems to a greater number of people than illicit drugs.

    And once you have contacted your local drug and alcohol service, stick with it, attend the appointments however much you think they are a bunch of wazzocks.  It will be a long journey but I have seen many people in a position such as yours pull themselves round.  There may be setbacks, but no one will judge you.

    You make very valuable contributions to this forum and I am sure your work with other autistic people is also well respected.  Just try to see that there is something that can be done to help you.

    By the way, I work in a drug and alcohol service and despite my issues with the management I know that all the workers are very dedicated.  The emphasis of the service is different these days than in the past so your local service may surprise you at how much it may have changed, and in all likelihood is run by another provider than it was a few years ago, which will hopefully suit you better.  There is far more emphasis on problems drinkers face than there has been in the past.

  • Hey! Don't let a FB group get you down. Apparently both the group AND the comment are stupid.

    Personally I think life is overrated, but ending it would be weak. 

    Personally I only trust a handful of people and try to stay as much away from others as possible.

    Hopefully you haven't drunk yourself to death yet, because it's not worth it. You'll feel like **** tomorrow. Liver cirrhosis sucks too by the way.

    Both my parents were alcoholics at some point in their lives, and I wouldn't advise it...

  • Diazepam is very different from Tramadol. But painkillers like Diclofenac (muscle relaxant) helps too. It differs from person to person. Anti-depressants get me dangerously agitated and aggressive. 

  • I joined a group on Facebook - Adults with Asperger's - and posted the above with (as I saw it) a prudent trigger warning about alcohol abuse.  Pretty much the first comment I got was from someone calling me a 'moron' for posting a trigger warning.  A troll?  Or are even NDs insensitive, stupid a**eholes?

    I really wonder, right now, if life is worth living any more if even Aspies can be so c******h.  (sorry, mods, I meant c*****h).

    edited by Mod 17:48 (16/09/18)

  • My GP has put me on Diazepam (Valium).  Honestly... they might as well be Sweetex for all the effect they have. I have a friend on Tramadol for his chronic back pain.  He still finds half a bottle of scotch a day to be more effective.

  • Have you tried (light) medication to take the edge off your anxiety? So you can quit drinking excessively as it seems to bother you.

    You could choose to take them only when needed and not every day in heavy doses.

    It works for me although it is a painkiller officially (Tramadol). I only take one when I cannot handle my stress levels. And yes, alcohol works and works well but is tricky...