Alcohol and autism

Same as MArt. I'm 31 years sober. I did AA religiously for the first four years of those.

I hate the taste and smell of alcohol and I hate dealing with drank NTs, but these very few times in my whole life I can say, it was a short moment when I felt “normal” and I came to conclusion that I prefer being myself anyway. The outside world often sucks but the inside world compensates the pain for me. 

I've read that alcohol can steady your nerves and get you through difficult times, though it's not really advisable I know, but it never worked for me anyway as I dislike the taste of alcohol completely.

 Alcohol worked in getting me through things like big social gatherings and scientific conferences, I doubt that I would have coped without it. Normally, I drink the equivalent of a bottle of wine in a week, which I believe to be not excessive. I have never been dependant on it outside predictably stressful situations.

Yeh autistic people do tend to find alcohol a to be an issue. It may have something to do with autistic people tend to be deficient in vitamin B6 which is the primary nutrient responsible for creating GABA which is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. GABA is the chemical that alcohol uses to make us feel drunk or tipsy. So it’s easy to see that autistic people are simply self medicating by drinking and so to some extent it probably does make us feel normal but with a cost. Drinking only provides temporary relief at the cost of a hangover where you get rebound anxiety and panic attacks etc. It’s probably best to get to the root of your problems rather than self medicating with alcohol. I’ve been there too and it isn’t the right move. I take vitamin B6 everyday and it sure helps my craving for alcohol. I feel that kind of ‘normal’ way alcohol makes me feel without actually feeling drunk. Interestingly vitamin b6 deficiency also causes epilepsy which many autistic people also struggle with. It’s usually the more profound cases of autism that have epilepsy as a co occurring feature. But milder cases of autism still can have more subtle symptoms.

Up until quite recently (maybe 2 years) I was drinking FAR too much, FAR too regularly.
I know what you mean about feeling "Normal" - it suppresses inhibitions and can help people like us in social situations.
However, I found that I was suppressing my inhibitions TOO MUCH and took things TOO FAR.

Fortunately I recognised that my relationship with alcohol was in a terrible state and although I have not stopped drinking, I now have it under control where I am not drinking every night and I am not drinking to excess.

I found making a promise to myself that I would live a bit healthier (drink more water, go to the gym regularly, massively cut down on snacking on crisps and the like) has really helped in terms of cutting down on alcohol. 

18 years clean and sober.

I tried very hard to make alcohol work but in truth, it never did.

I look back today and now realise it only made everything worse, it took me a long time to realise that.

My life today is so much better without alcohol.