Why Do So Many On The Spectrum Not Drink Alcohol?

Post Reply New Topic

Yeap, me too

I like the "resistance to peer pressure" theory. Of course a lot of Aspies try to fit in, so there will be Aspie social drinkers.

There may also be something in the notion that sensory issues make us more reluctant to drink alcohol. Physical discomfort is the bane of my life and I hate it. Alcohol might relax me for a while but eventually it'll make me feel like crap, it's not really worth my while to borrow comfort at such a high interest rate.

Like some others here, it can make it harder to compensate for my autistic tendencies. Under the influence of alcohol I'm more likely to be brutally honest or socially inept and insensitive. I know alcohol has that bad effect on most people, but I think I'm more in need of my wits and my sense of inhibition when I'm with others.

I think Aspies may be a little more likely to see through to the medical truth about alcohol and realise how unhealthy it is from a purely physical point of view. I always deeply resent being dragged into performing those harmful rituals that the human race gets itself so bogged down with.

I wonder how much of it is that alcohol is strongly associated with social events, and there are degrees of pressure at such events to consume it. Do aspies resist this social pressure better?

In my own case, I don't drink because, long before drinking age, I pondered it intellectually instead of emotionally. I didn't make a decision based on what other people were doing, or in order to fit in socially. Instead, I weighed up what I considered to be the pros and cons, and decided that, on the balance, it wasn't for me. And I simply didn't register peer pressure or social pressure to change my mind.

For me, it wasn't a social decision. It was a personal one, and no more important than, say, which cereal to have for breakfast, or the color of the internal components in my computer. I did my assessment, it wasn't for me, end of story.

I will add that, much later in life, I did make the decision to have one alcoholic drink purely so I could say I'd at least tried it. I didn't really like it, but from what I can tell alcohol is something of an acquired (metaphoric) taste.

Alcohol's a poison and opens a gateway for evil to enter into our world. If AS folk do avoid it, so much the better for us.

1. I can’t stand the smell or the taste.

2. I’m a type II diabetic.

3. My maternal grandfather was the town drunk. When he got drunk, he got vicious. He usually took out everything on mom. She was abused verbally, physically, and mentally. The only reason she got pregnant with me 62 years ago was to get away from him. Grandpa was of the opinion that would should be kept ignorant, pregnant and not allowed out of the kitchen. Needless to say, she was pretty much an unwanted child. While she was never diagnosed (her parents, and dad’s parents believed Louis B. Mayer’s dictum about psychiatrists (Anyone who sees a psychiatrist ought to have their head examined!), I think she may have been bipolar, especially since you had to walk on eggshells around her, as she had a hairpin trigger on her temper. It didn’t take much to set her off.

My dad is an alcoholic from a long line of alcoholics. My mum isn't but her dad was, too. The addiction is strong in my family and I'd rather have nothing to do with it.

I do like the occasional sweet champagne though. That usually happens once every couple of years, heh.

Just about everyone in my family outside of my parents and my grandmother is a heavy drinker to the point I refused an open bar at my wedding because I knew they would all get smashed. They did but it was on their $$$. I honestly would consider it a form of torture to force me to drink more than two beers at a time.

My father let me taste beer from a very young age (only a shotglass full) and I wonder if that didn't turn me away from alcohol: there was no mystery except why do adults drink so much of that gross stuff? I spent about a half our on my 19th birthday getting beer and going to the casino before I said "what a waste of time and money!" and never returned for many years.

I've often wondered that. I got very interested in the stuff when I was a schoolboy and for a few years afterwards, and I think mostly it was because it had been forbidden and it made me feel grown up and one of the successful rebels, then I made some friends who were into it so I did it to fit in as well, I suppose. I eventually stopped because it ceased to be much of a novelty and it wasn't making me happy, just ill, and nobody I knew and respected judged me for stopping. I've also noticed that it can be a social lubricant in moderation, and that it helped me not to shut down in public, but as time went by I realised that it was also making me act like a jerk, and although people tend to make allowances for drunken behaviour, it wasn't really who I wanted to be, and my jerkiness when on alcohol sometimes clearly annoyed people.

So I guess people drink for those reasons - the young ones feel they're being rebellious and cool, and drinkers like the social lubricant effect. Then there's its addictive properties once they've started, and the peer group pressure (some people really judge non-drinkers), and the other thing I've heard is that life is pretty horrible for a lot of people, and alcohol helps them to blot out anxiety and depression for a while - it usually makes things worse eventually but the human race has never been all that great at prioritising long-term benefits at the expense of short-term relief, so they drink too much, eat too much, spend too much, borrow too much, etc.

When my peers began drinking, I didn't want to break the law.
It is often out of my budget range.
It tastes bad.
It could get me in trouble.
I don't like being impaired - as Feynman noted, thinking is more fun.
I really don't like being with drunks.
I like to think I'm "smarter than the average bear."

alky is fire water. it burns like fire all the way down to the exit. i can taste trace amounts of alky based on that burning sensation. but i love to cook with it just the same, the burn cooks off, leaving something indescribably rich. i can handle swigs of a weak wine as long as it is ice-cold. no more than about a 1/4 cup, total. and always with food. on an empty stomach it is not pleasant.

I happily use alcohol.
If I'm out with people I'll have a couple of quick drinks to loosen up a bit. But I stop after two because my tolerance is low nowadays.
At home by myself I might still have a glass with dinner some nights (mainly Friday or at the weekend). Helps me wind down.

When I can't gracefully avoid it, my limit is two. My mother had two sets of glasses that looked the same, but one set was "seconds" - they had warped a little bit. If anyone asked for a third drink, they got their "refill" in a misshapen glass.

I hate the taste of alcohol. I drink very rarely but the few times I do drink a year, I drink expressly to get as drunk as possible. I was always more of a stoner. My therapist in high school supported me doing drugs and drinking because it got me socialising and making friends when I otherwise wouldn't

Alcohol makes me cranky and tense. I've never felt any good feelings after drinking so why bother to spend money on it? My husband (who isn't autistic) is the same. Drinking doesn't do anything for him, so we never buy any. Sometimes people would gift us a bottle or two, we do drink them as we don't want to waste them. Sometimes I wish it would have some good effect on me, like making me sleepy or something, but it just doesn't work.

1. It generally tastes terrible. I've tasted some of the more fruity drinks and a couple of those were 'okay'. Not enough to make me really want one though
2. It typically smells bad, especially beer
3. The price. Its pretty dumb for me to spend more on a beverage I don't like
4. When inebriated people can get (temporary) Nystagmus. I already have nystagmus, the prospect of it getting worse isn't something I wish to test.
5. I dislike the way it makes me feel. Its like all of sudden being able to feel your aeries and veins (or just like the blood moving through them). It's weird as hell and even the alcohol in things Nightquil can cause it
6. There's alcoholism in my family, so I always intended to avoid it a bit anyway
7. Technically you're not supposed to drink alcohol while taking the medication I am. I'm sure some people do though.
8. People act and say stupid things when drunk. Anything that would make someone that way is of no interest to me. 9 Even when people weren't exactly drunk, I always thought the adults drinking around me when I was a kid were ridiculous.
9. The idea that I might end up a bit less in control of my body is scary
10. It can make you vulnerable, I do not want to be such around other people. Nor is it particularity safe in some situations.
11. I was a Stay Safe/DARE kid. They succeeded in making me want to be a a good girl Lol

Honestly I could probably come up with more things that I dislike about it and thus why I keep away from it, but I think one can get the point already.

I do not like the taste of most alcoholic beverages including beer, wines, etc. However, I do like Seagrams flavored drinks and pina coladas. But I do not desire to drink them often. I may go a year or more without drinking an alcoholic beverage.