Are HF auties/Aspies non-drinkers?

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Blabby, I thought you served. If so, then please explain.

I made it through boot camp with no real problems other than my aspieness. There you didn't even have privacy on the toilet, as there were no walls around them, and the same with the showers. The first thing I did was go out on a drunk though on boot camp liberty. I was able to drink legally at age seventeen.

I drink a little alcohol almost every day. It might be beer, wine, a cocktail, or a tot of whiskey; I have it with dinner and then very slowly for the rest of the evening. There's a slight relaxing effect which is pleasant enough, but mostly I just like the taste.

Before we had the children I would sometimes drink to the point of mild tipsiness, but no more than that. I dislike being drunk and hate hangovers.

I served 4 years in the 1980s army, went through BASIC training [not boot training] and AIT. the reason I wondered about boot training is because my oldest brother was a marine and his tales of boot training sounded tougher than what I went through in basic. in my basic, at least they gave us some privacy, with stalls around showers and toilets.

I'm not sure about the difference between basic training and boot camp. Again, mine was pretty strict, but it wasn't nearly as bad as what the Marines went through. It turned out I had a front-row seat to Marine boot camp, as it was just across a barb wire fence from my barracks.

I could actually see over there from my rack if I sat up a little bit. I would hear recruits begging to quit, and the drill sergeants abusing them to get them back up. They would go jogging with backpacks filled with dead weight late at night.

I think that helped me get through boot camp--knowing it could have been a whole lot worse.

Used to drink quite heavily when I was more social around my late teens early 20's during college (happy hours mostly), and then for a while when I was working in a restaurant till about 3 years ago ,but these days its an occasional glass of single malt scotch, or some kind of liquor mixed with coke.

That happens about once a month if not less, usually only for those moments I feel down and need 40's jazz and a lot of smokes, and look trough the window late at night, while narrating my own life film noir style......well ok except for the narrating but I should try that sometime actually.

when my brother went through boot training during Vietnam, the drills were not allowed to raise a hand towards the recruits, nor allowed to use foul language, nor allowed to drop recruits for more than 10 punitive pushups at one time. wish it were like that in the army. but in the army, in exchange for abundant abuse [slapping/kicking/shoving, much abusive language and screaming face-to-face tirades] they didn't make us work that hard compared with the marines.

I went to Air Force basic, and I did horribly. They said my social skills and problems with attention contributed to me not being effective. Also, when I revealed the Asperger diagnosis (back in 2003), they said it was disqualifying and kicked me out.

I like drinking it makes me forget who I am.

Also I'm everyone's best friend.

I'm a teetotaler by practice, but only because I realize that drinking would greatly complicate my life. I've drunk sparingly from time to time, but I don't really like the taste or how it makes me feel.

I drank when I was younger but I haven't drank in a long time, probably over 10 years at least. I'm not interested in doing that any more.

Even when I did drink I always hated the taste and I always got really bad hangovers.

Blabby I wouldn't want to swear that the drill instructors did hit the recruits, but at times it sure sounded that way. They were absolutely merciless.

As far as being called obscene names, we were called plenty of those in boot camp; the favorite name for recruits was "swinging dicks". We would have to do up to twenty pushups for screwing up. More serious punishment, which I only did once, consisted of an M14 rifle (the rifle from the boot camp scene in Full Metal Jacket) with the barrel and received filled with lead. Then, we spent three hours exercising with it when five minutes was as much as I could take. That is one heavy rifle even without the extra weight; I have a civilian version.

But they couldn't, and didn't, hit us. The closest thing I ever saw was they let us lie down for two or three hours my first night in boot camp. Then they came in and threw the metal trash cans against the walls to get us up. They hit one fellow and put a pretty good gash on his head, but I don't think it was intentional.

Benficii, I went in in June 1980, long before anybody had ever heard of AS. Since I was completely on my own, and didn't care for that bitter feeling of failure, I struggled until I made it. I really didn't have any choice since I didn't have anywhere else to go. Doing my time was the hardest thing I ever did, but I completed it honorably and they tried to talk me into staying in. That I wasn't going to do.....

One thing I did was to go into naval intelligence. Though I didn't have a clue as to what AS is, I knew I did best alone, and in intelligence you spend much of your time working alone or in small groups. And since I tended to function well alone, and poorly with others, my superiors quickly learned to put me off by myself. Otherwise, I don't know if I would've made it either.

So far, I see it's a mix between formerly heavy and now light drinker or not at all, an occasional drinker or stone cold sober.

So I guess you'll never see an Aspie at a frat party?

I'm a social drinker. I find alcohol makes me more comfortable around large groups of people than I would be if I was sober.

I see this thread turned into two topics...

Regarding drinking, I used to drink like a fish. I was able to 'almost' act like a normal person when drunk. Alas, I make very bad decisions while drunk and decided that it was a bad idea for me to continue.

Regarding boot camp, I went through it in the mid 80's. Best time of my life. I didn't have to make a single decision, just hurry up and wait. Part of the reason you may have heard different levels of difficulty in boot camp is that there were different levels. Marine boot camp during the time my step father served up until the late 80's was a 13 week training session. Navy and Army were both 9 weeks. I was told that the Air Force was only 7 weeks, I don't know about that one though. The only reason I stop at the late 80's is that I haven't talked to anyone in the Marine Corps since I got out of the Navy.

Almost everybody drinks, including teens and some kids. I do not.