Autism and alcohol

[Flown]

agreed. i am in the process of quitting. i realised i am not myself when i drink, i use it as a masking tool and a sensory damping tool also. i feel"fake" when i drink. and it becomes a habit. and i can and have become addicted in the past, and it makes me irritable, the next days following. i have an app now, on my phone, that tracks my progress to being sober.

That is awesome that you are giving it a shot! You definitely have my support in this endeavor!

The after effects of heavy drinking are crippling, I agree. Every day that we don't drink is a day we should be proud of! I still get cravings occasionally, but I often remind myself of the horrible hangovers and physical/mental health declines that followed binges.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Just curious here: Anyone else think almost everything with alcohol in it tastes like hand sanitizer? That is literally the first thing I typically taste if I try to take a shot or taste an alcoholic drink. It’s nasty!

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Yeah alkohol never tasted good. That why we have to mix it with other things to drink it. To conceal the awful flavor as best we can. Have you ever taken a swig of pure moonshine? It tastes like poison mixed with evil.

Even mixed drinks taste awful to me. I can handle a few things without gagging but the list is very short. It’s mostly the sweeter tasting wines, wine coolers, and champagne.

 

[Crossbreed]

1. I do not drink away from home because it would impair my driving.
   (I am the only driver in my family.)
2. I need to be sober during the day.
   
3. I always vomit when I drink American beer.
4. I do not vomit German beers, but I still do not enjoy them.
5. I do not like the taste of red wine nor champagne.
6. I like the taste of white wine, but not enough to add it to my shopping budget.
7. I use cut whiskey
   • to help with sleeping,
   • for suspected food poisoning and
   • as a cough suppressant.
   (I am mindful of limiting my use and spacing out my "doses" with my liver health in mind,
   as with other OTC meds.*)

None of my disciplines can override an addictive compulsion, if present.

*I purchase it with my OTC budget, not my grocery money (because that is what I use it for).

 

[maycontainthunder]

I am probably not alone in thinking beer tastes disgusting. I did try some cider once but it wasn't real cider... it tasted of chemicals.

 

[Magna]

I abused alcohol when I was younger but after a few sessions of vomiting bile and blood I thankfully stopped binge drinking. I don't like beer and think the popular trend of brewing the "hoppiest" most bitter beer imaginable is especially heinous because the only thing it reminds me of is the bitterness of vomited bile. How is that pleasant? I actually never really liked being drunk anyway. It was something that I did socially because the crowd I hung out with did the same.

Pot was hands down my preferred drug of choice and I self-medicated with that for a long time but after becoming heavily and chronically psychologically addicted to it, I finally quit which sucks because pot was literally the only thing I've ever known that fully allowed my brain to relax. My brain is like an extremely clenched fist nearly all the time from PTSD, CPTSD, Tinnitus, ADHD, Autism, and pot relaxed that "clenched fist" completely. I have a very addictive personality and because of my past history with pot even though medical marijuana is legal in my state for things like PTSD, ADHD and Autism...sadly were I to use it therapeutically, I would end up wanting to use it constantly again. I don't take ADHD meds, but if I did I would also not want to take stimulant based meds for the same reason (it's likely I would end up wanting to abuse them). My brain always wants more of things.

 

[Jordy]

I love alcohol, and regular beer or sugary wine tastes doesn't that bad in my opinion. I only have courage to reach out to people and be able to talk to them when i had it. It makes me very happy and affectionate, i will hug people and stuff when im drunk. Heavy beer is what makes me throw up tho, i can have a single can but 2 sends me puking to the bathroom.

I would drink alcohol everyday if i could, right now there is nothing i enjoy as much as drinking, which is very sad. But i have never been addicted to it and haven't had any in weeks.

 

[Fino]

Sour mixed drinks taste best in my opinion. I think the sourness conceals the awfulness.

 

[Owliet]

I don’t like alcohol, and never got the appeal. I also don’t like wine.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

It’s a bit crazy but I’m actually surprised that I didn’t do any underaged drinking as a kid. My family had the alcohol in places my sister and I could have access to and yet we had no interest in even tasting any of it. Which is even crazier considering I was an extremely curious kid that was prone to taking things apart and having no idea how to reassemble them. The only thing with alcohol I sampled were these little bottle shaped chocolate candies that had liqueurs in the center. One was broken and the foil was ripped and I just tasted the filling. I must not have liked it that much because I didn’t grab the chocolate and eat it like other kids would have. I think because I was exposed to wine being drunk by adult during celebrations and no one getting extremely drunk and verbally abusive that I became used to seeing people drinking alcohol.

 

[Sylas]

Alcohol just never held any appeal to me, most types are actively unpleasant when it comes to taste, so I suppose the appeal for most people is the loss inhibition and it acting like a sort of social lubricant.

But I'm not the type to want to lose inhibitions or even generally to socialize. And as a substance all that it ever did for me, even the few times I tried significant quantities, was make me dizzy and clumsy, it wasn't even relaxing or pleasurable in any way, at all.

Which I suppose is for the best, no chance of substance abuse that way.