Drinking and Autism

I wouldn't beat yourself up about drinking once a week. If you are struggling with recovery maybe look at what you are drinking or how much or alternate with soft drinks/water/alcohol free? I have only recently learned that I am autistic but can now see how alcohol helped me to mask for all these years. I stopped drinking altogether last year but now I am struggling in social situations and crowds. I've just gone back on antidepressants to see if that helps. I'm also thinking of adapting my social life to avoid situations like gigs that I used to enjoy (with alcohol) but now find too much, with the crowds and the waiting around and the general awkwardness.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.  You've just been diagnosed so need plenty of time to research and process.  So much will come up for you and awareness of what you have used to date to suppress your anxiety and alienation pre-diagnosis is just one of them.  Now you are aware that all that tension and pressure, soothing traits, control issues and more are rooted in a brain that works harder than most to understand and assimilate the social norms in this world that have been created by neurotypical people, that enjoying a little alcohol once a week is low, IMO, in your list of priorities.  Focus on daily ways to bring comfort to yourself in life enhancing ways.  For me that has been a lot of rest, for you it might be patting yourself on the back with a 'good job Marnee, good job'.  Fill yourself with the good stuff so there is less and less room for the sub-optimal.

Me too now, a couple of xmas's ago I got drunk on a chocolate liquer!

My experience with alcohol is that I'm INCREDIBLY lightweight. Even a tiny bit of alcohol in a trifle can make it hard for me to walk straight. Very low alcohol tolerance 

I don’t drink every day or every week. It’s now and then occasionally on social occasions, usually at the weekends. I don’t drinks lots either, one or two drinks maximum, when I feel merry I stop. I never get to the point where I don’t know what I’m doing.  

I’m fully responsible, I stay at a hotel and don’t drink and drive. I work in the legal sector, so fully aware of the pressures on NHS, the police. I find those who do so selfish and disrespectful!

As I've got older I don't see the point in drinking alcohol and getting drunk. To me, I don't see it as a reward now, it's more of an extra financial purchase/burden, puts pressure on the local services and it doesn't help me when something negative happens during the week.

As driver who uses the roads a lot, I am scared of consuming any alcohol, as I don't want to lose my licence and have to deal with high insurance premiums. I absolutley have no respect to drink drivers, they are a regular occurance at the local magistrates court reported by the press.

If I was to drink alcohol, it would be on special times during the year. However, I prefer J20's, 0%, drafts or freshly squeezed fruit juices / cocktails (non-alcohol). With the warm weather that we are experiencing, I'm sticking to water with plenty of ice cubes.

I feel the same more extrovert than my day to day self.

After my second drink I just feel merry and my symptoms are gone of shyness, I love dancing. But I just don’t need it anymore, I think before it was also a coping mechanism too with being overwhelmed after a week at work and masking all week.

I need to do this, I will slowly cut it out. For me I like that it allows me to forget that I have ASD, I can be the fun extrovert for a few hours. But I want to overhaul my life and slowly cut it out completely. Thank you, it’s very useful to hear about experiences.

Im 68. A similar story to others through teens, then uni being sick in the London parks, then work where drinking was part of the culture. Fortunately I gradually developed horrendous hangovers on smaller and smaller quantities. I also overhauled my diet in 2020 to add years to my life expectancy and out went the alcohol. Im not T total but if I never tasted it again Id not miss it, its very occasionally with a special meal or family. 

Good points Martin, I take a few supplements for various conditions and see alternative practitioners too and will often suggest that others might benefit too, in no way does that mean I'm giving medical advice or suggesting that one stops taking prescribed medications and would always suggest that someone see's thier GP. But when, as it often does, the NHS can't offer anything, you either sit and suffer or look for alternatives and you only really know what alternatives are available by talking to others.

Alcohol is often seen as a socially acceptable thing, not a poison or addictive, but it is both, I wonder if alcohol would be legal if it had to go through the same hoops as other substances?

Martin said:

No known health downsides.

https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/food-standards-agency-and-food-standards-scotland-update-consumer-advice-for-cbd

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/medical-cannabis/

About 80+% of autistic people suffer from appreciable levels of anxiety. Alcohol has definite health risks. I was stating what helps me, I was not saying to anyone that they should do the same. A semantic qualification, but cogent. The gummies I described as helping me in stressful situations are classed and sold as a dietary supplement, not a medication.

I think that the lived experience of autistic people is highly relevant to other autistic people and health advice/coping with life advice is not the same as medical advice. If it were, then the many people on this site who have advocated for someone else getting an assessment for ASD would have given 'medical advice'.

Interesting, yeah that is different from my experience. I tend to feel more connected with others after a few glasses.

Reminder rule 6 do not offer medical advice

Reminder rule 6 please do not offer medial advice

My experience with alcohol seems to have been a bit different from that described in several of these posts. Yes, I get the initial loss of anxiety and increase in confidence. But this rapidly gives way (usually by a second glass of wine) to an increasing sense of alienation and a tendency to slip into a shutdown.

I’ve heard good things about [removed by mod] products, I will have to try, I’m all about healthy products for your wellbeing.

When I was a teenager I used to drink quite a bit and then went off it. In my thirties I was in a relationship and the whole social scene was very pub based and I found I was feeling pressured into drinking more than I wanted too. Whilst at times it made me feel more "normal" I started to find it brought my autism out more strongly, this was way before diagnosis or even any real awareness of autism in adults or women, I think I was holding it all in and when I drank and my inhibitions got lowered, all my autistic traits came out. I'd also torture myself about what I might and said or done that might be wrong in some way and hangovers started lasting longer and longer and I decided it was a waste of time, money and energy.

Then I started drinking alone, some wine or a glass of single malt whisky, I liked drinking alone, I was in control and had no social pressure to drink more than I wanted. Then menopause happened and alcohol stated giving me monsterous hot flushes and made me sick, I remember sitting in my parents backgarden one xmas afternoon stripped right down to my vest because I was so hot after 1 glass of champagne, that was when I knew I couldn't drink anymore.

I don't really drink at all now, I had a couple of sips of wine or whisky this xmas and it was OK, before this year I'd be drunk on a liquer chocolate and feeling to hot. But I don't feel any need or pull to drink. Although it's killed any social life I had, people my age are really bad about wanting people to drink alcohol and really insulting when you say no thanks, not only that drunk people are boring and there's not much choice of non alcoholic drinks.

I suppose my story is the cautionary tale, I started drinking at about 16 years old, I also found it made me more normal, anxiety was much less and I could be more like everyone else. I soon found that I couldn’t have one drink, I would normally drink until I passed out. This continued for about 40 years, I was easily drinking 100 units per week, normally much more.

For 54 years I never knew I am autistic and knew nothing about autism, It wasn’t until I realised I’m autistic that I stopped, I had a health scare and knew it had to stop.

The alcohol had stopped helping anxiety and social awareness, it was fuelling it. I’m more content finally knowing why I’m different, I use small alterations in life to make situations easier. I’m now just over 2 years alcoholic free and starting to enjoy life a bit more. I’ve stopped trying to cure my autism.