Aspies drinking "alone": warning sign or no big de

Post Reply New Topic

so my parents freaked out one time a few years ago because I was drinking alone in my room. I'm doing so now, which reminded me of the incident, but I've gone 4 months without alcohol recently and largely not cared. by "alone" I mean no other people physically present but I've been in and out of low-key digital communication with half a dozen people over the last few hours, which is just about all I ever do. if anything drinking makes me post more on facebook and so on.

I understand that drinking alone is a warning sign of alcoholism in the general population, but my ideal hanging-out time is me playing a computer game or reading by myself alone in a dimly lit room and text-messaging or emailing friends every 5-30 minutes or so. I can't *handle* groups, and I'm perfectly happy with digitally-mediated communication on all but special occasions.

I eat alone. I go to movies alone. I prefer to work alone. aside from my dog I could be perfectly happy not seeing anyone else for a week or so, so long as I had intermittent internet access.

what's your opinion on this? my therapist sort of brushed it aside and said "well you do everything alone so why should drinking alcohol be any different?" but my parents (who had teetotaling tendencies to begin with, neither drink at all) have a completely different opinion, and on the rare occasions when I do drink I have to hide it from them.

thoughts?

NT's can drink alone too. It's very common to have a glass of something before bed. I like to have a beer when I come home from work in my room while I unwind. I know many many NT's like this too. But getting drunk by yourself is a little disturbing and perhaps unsafe.

You live in Little Rock? Interesting. I spent the summer there before I had to move back to Texas. Interesting, quaint little city there. .

I am at significantly greater risk drinking alcohol with other people. Alone, I don't really feel the need to get very drunk. Around people, I can get so drunk I gave up alcohol entirely because I felt I was abusing it.

I do think drinking alone can be dangerous for people, especially when depression or other emotional problems might be a factor. I can't say whether it's dangerous for you, but I think there's a big difference between a drink or two to wind down and trying to get as drunk as possible, and in the latter case that would be a problem in any context.

Also, I am not sure that hanging out and chatting with people online is drinking alone. I hang out in chat with my Rift/Secret World/former City of Heroes guild during a couple of radio shows every week, and I think several people present are technically alone and do drink, but they're in a social environment and interacting with each other via chat and teamspeak.

I go to bed alone, wake up alone, sit at my computer and write my stories alone, watch TV alone, go to movies alone, cook meals alone, go for walks alone and drink alone. Can't say whether or not that is good or bad. When I was younger I drank like a fish (had my first drink at seven). Eh. It is what it is. Lots of worse things in the world to worry about than me.

When it comes to drinking, the issue is not if you do it alone, but how much you drink.

As long as you don't drink too much (and too often), it shouldn't be a problem.

And yes, lots of people (NT or otherwise) drink alone - when they want to relax after a hard day or to mark some personal occasion.

If you aren't getting drunk a lot I see no problem with it.

I don't drink any more and almost never drank alone when I did but considering that I barely go out and don't have friends or socialize if I did drink it would most certainly be alone.

I have an alcoholic friend, who hides and drinks by herself, because if other people see her drink, they will try to stop her from drinking. So, drinking alone is a symptom of alcoholics.

But when non-alcoholic person drinks by himself/herself, it just happens that way, and it doesn't mean anything. It's just drinking alone. So I think your parents are over-worrying unnecessarily.

I actually drink by myself pretty much every day at home because drinking alone is most relaxing. Also, my face turns red easily with alcohol and I don't want people to see it. I only drink a glass of wine at a time. I'm no alcoholic though I drink alone all the time.

i think the problem is supposed to be when people are starting to hide their drinking or starting to drink a lot in isolation in addition to going out drinking in public. i think it's all about the patterns of behaviour. but the public kind of grabbed onto the idea that the problem is just "drinking by yourself=badbadNO"

Moderation is key they say.
How much do you drink per day/per week?

If you have a beer here or there i don't see a problem with that.
Its no different than someone coming home after a day at work and having a beer in front of the tv.

If you start drinking lots of beers and 6 packs and 24 packs and drink a lot and hard liqour you could risk becoming alcoholic.

My folks would have freaked out if they caught me drinking alone too, i'd guess. They never caught me (not a drinker) However their
concern seemed to be that we do have alcoholics in the family and they'd never want to see it happen to me.
So i think your parents just really care about you.
Also when we are adult and still live with our parents, they will always consider us their children. For adults who live at home with folks, there should be things talked about so that the adult child can be given their freedoms (sorry i can't think of the word) yet still respecting the parents home.

Drinking alone isn't a problem; getting drunk alone is! If you have a glass of wine at supper or something I don't think it's a big deal...if you're knocking out a case of beer nightly, then there's a problem.

Six to eight large cans of beer once every two weeks or so and yes sometimes I sit alone and do it.

I rarely drink alcohol, but I've drank it alone a few times. I've never had a problem with alcohol, and I don't think drinking alone says much about whether one has a drinking problem. I think it becomes a problem when you're drinking alone every day and stay home *because* you want to drink. If you have an active life on the internet, with Facebook friends and such, then you're still *sort of* drinking socially. If you live your life everyday with the only goal of getting intoxicated, then you'd have a drinking problem. But you seem to have a life other than just drinking, so I wouldn't say you have a drinking problem.