Aspergers and addictions???

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Personally, I don't have any addictions.

Although my father (undiagnosed aspie) is addicted to smoking and has in the past, had problems with substance abuse. It does seem his way to try and reduce his social anxiety. Even though I haven't seen him in a LONG time, I remember that when I used to visit him, if we were to go out to a mall, he would smoke a joint at home before we went there.

Well my parents and psychologist insist I was addicted to self harm but I've stopped for over two months now and if I did it now I could stop for another two months, its just a way of coping and I'm sure I'm not addicted.

Obsession and addiction is two different thing

Addiction is a compulsion to do thing over and over. However, most people feel that if an addiction doesn't hurt then it ok. Some people have opinion about the moral standard of addiction. One person mentioned to me that being a workaholic is bad however other that work lot of hour doing it to support family. It the matter about prioritize your family and other.

Obsession can be a high frequent focus that could distract you from normal typical routine. It doesn't mean that it 100% addiction since you didn't compulse to do it.

Jason Bourne in Bourne Identity didn't obsess to avoid death just because he doing it since birth. This is part of his survival.

Your obsession can be survival or a pitfall.

Therefore overall, as long as you have priority then it ok.

I thought I drank in a healthy way. I occasionally smoked weed (less and less past 30). I met my partner who is a recovering alcoholic...decided to quit drinking.

At that point I realized that I had a problem with drinking. Giving it up wasn't that easy. I had been controling my drinking for a while, but it was a control issue. I still wanted to drink.

A year and half after getting sober I discovered Asperger's...and I realized that it all fit FAR too well for me not to have it. I am almost classic in terms of symptoms...EXCEPT, I had learned to hide it VERY well. I am articulate, and have a job, and seem extremely normal. I doubted AS for a while...but the more I was on here, and the more I read....the more I realized it was true.

I've read that aspies have a tendency towards drinking and drugging for the social easement. However, with our desire for control, we often don't hit full bottom like many NTs.

I also suffer from Sensory Integration Disorder, so drinking also helped there at times.

How long have you been sober? How are you doing? One day at a time, my friend...

I have been sober over 18 months. I am not just an alcoholic, I also have issues around relationships and men. That was my main reason for going into recovery. That is what I find confusing. I only remember not liking hugs and stuff from my female friends. I don't recall being the same with my male friends or with bfs. I am always conscientious of my personal space though and can feel threatened very easily when people come near. I feel like I am a contradiction. Only certain people can touch me?? But I can get involved with total strangers??? Or is it possible to use sex to keep people away from you??

Ever since I started drinking in junior high school I have been a social drinker. I never was an alcoholic (maybe a functional one in college) but alcohol let me survive awkward social situations as a lot of people have said. I was also a major pothead in college - I used to say that smoking pot slowed my brain down to the speed of the rest of the world (ADHD also). I still like to drink in social situations and especially on dates.

My psychiatrist calls it self-medication.

And sadly, my ability to read women has not gotten much better at 33. I can have a 3 hour phone conversation with a woman and have a great connection, then the first date happens and splat (and it's not for physical reasons - I am reasonably good looking, tall and well built, so it is something about me...)

I mostly don't like being touched unless I know it is going to happen or I am in control. You might just need to be in control and it's easier with a no-long-term-expectations stranger.

Z

Food has been the only real problem.
Ever since we were young me and my brothers were encouraged to compete for who could eat the most by my grandparents.
Being survivors of ww2 they had known hunger so it was theyr main fear.
Unlike our generation wich has overweight as it's biggest fear.
As we got older we quit playing outside daily and got hooked on computer games etc.
So the kilos started packing on top of each other with my brothers.
Me being the only one with much discipline i fought it and managed to keep it at bay.

These days whenever i live by myself wich i do in the summer i easily manage to stay slim.
Getting tons of excersice does work wonders.
But in the winter when my parents live with me the house wil be packed with cookies and crisps.
They also cook enough to feed like 3 families.

When it comes to alcohol i can control myself pretty well.
I drink every friday/saterday night with my gf and/or friends.
Don't like going out as there are too many people.
When i do once every few months i get wasted within 20 minutes.
Because i just cannot stand being around hundreds of strangers whilst being sober.
It's absolutely nervewrecking to be like that.
People never really understand why i get wasted so fast.

During the weekdays i usually drink 0/1 beer after work.
It's kind of a habit seeing as i work at a bar to all drink a beer after work.
But it's not like i'm addicted and get drunk on weekdays.

Gaming has been my worst addiction ever since age 17.
It has been the only thing that thouroughly managed to mess up my life.
Not that i had a much better life before i got hooked on it.
But it's an addiction always lurking around, wich i'm starting to learn to fight.

So for me it's not the stereotype addictions but mostly different ones.
I doubt i could ever get addicted to weed/alcohol simply because it's end up on something like welfare.
Than i'd be dirt poor and would have to sell my car wich i wouldn't like much.

I have high-functioning autism and I have a really bad gambling habit. No matter how much people say that I should hold on to my money, the temptation is just too great. It has been five or more years now since I have been gambling. Scratch tickets are my worst offense. I've been trying to quit but it's easier said than done. I want to do better but I do not know how I'll go about doing better. I know now in my heart of hearts that my habit doesn't define me. I will try other ways to curb it, such as giving it to someone else to hold on to.

I haven't been much of a praying person, but I will learn how to pray now. I have sought counseling and will continue to do so. I feel like a piece of garbage right now, but with enough help and unconditional love, I will improve.

While I am not officially diagnosed, I'm pretty sure. But anyways.

Im a VERY addictive person. My life revolves around self-gratification. I need to always be doing something, yet have very very few interests to do. Im addicted to weed very heavily (really, seriously dont want to live without it) struggle with alcohol addiction (only reason it's not full blown is I'm not a huge fan) I am certainly a gambling addict waiting to happen (i think about it ALL the time, I just barely ever let myself do it. If I did I wouldn't stop. Even in games where there's a gambling part Ill stay on that part for days). I am probably a sex addict (my mind wants it even if my body dont care). Basically anything I get really into I will get addicted to. There is no moderation in my world. Only extremes.

I unfortunately have an addiction to Coca-Cola, and to a lesser extent fast food.

I can control the fast food I eat better, but with Coca-Cola it's a different story. I can go a couple to a few days without it, but if I'm shopping on my own then I can't resist buying it. And during my 3 years at university, there was only one day where I didn't drink one bottle of Coca-Cola

I think that Aspies love the routine of something. If that something is an addictive substance they've got to be very careful and it can get out of control. I love my tobacco, quit for 2 years but it didn't work out so I am smoking again. While I don't think my drinking was ever alcoholic, it would rotate over several months from a beer or two after work everyday to a six pack to six and a couple of glasses of wine until I would have an utter blinder and have a couple of days off and start again. I haven't had a drink for 7 months now - am not missing it at all - I found the hardest thing was to get out of the routine of my after work beer, but once I was over that (about a week or so) I'm fine without. I think my drinking was more about hiding my Aspie and trying to fit in socially, but since diagnosis I feel a sort of strength in who I am and so I don't really need it. I find social situations very difficult without the grog, but as I have gotten over my need to work out the mysteries of social interaction I just do my best and get out of there.

I also have the gambling bug, but as that involves a serious financial commitment, I know what I am like once I get the fever up, so I stay well away. All a matter of priorities, if I had $20 to spend in the pub, dropping $5 or $10 on some nag would mean no more money for beer!

Except for tobacco, I put rules on the addiction, eg. no grog before 6pm or after dinner, only gamble on Melbourne Cup Day or ANZAC Day (Australia's two biggest gambling holidays).

Believe me, addictions are common among lots of people. I wish people wouldn't associate everything with ASDS.

I have always feared addiction - never smoked or asked for anti-depressants for that reason. I don't want to be controlled by anything.

I think I have a slight dependency on alcohol. I can go without but miss it so I should drink less frequently.

I never get drunk - even on big night outs. I think that is my need for control kicking in.

Recovering alcoholic here.
I've been exposed to both drugs and alcohol at some point (though never did any of the hard stuff - heroin, cocaine, meth, etc) but even then, I aught to be dead just by the extent to which I mixed them together at the same time.
I don't know if it's autism-specific as I have heard similar sentiments from NT alcoholics, but I used it mostly to stop the spinning of my thoughts and get any sleep at all. Just to shut my brain off for a while. That may be due in part to autistic processing.

I have AS and I'm currently battling a drink problem. As Scurvy and others on the thread have pointed out, people on the spectrum find comfort in routine. We can therefore cause problems for ourselves if alcohol or drug use becomes an intractable part of that routine - so I wouldn't say that aspies are necessarily less prone to addiction than NTs per se. We might be less easily swayed by the kind of peer pressure that causes NTs to experiment with these things just to fit in, but what the hell - some of us actually ENJOY drinking for its own sake. And that's where the issues can start.

If you read Matthew Tinsley and Sarah Hendrickx's book "Asperger Syndrome and Alcohol - Drinking to Cope?", it illustrates quite scarily how easy it can become for an aspie to rely on booze in order to reduce social anxiety and/oir - as C2V points out above - to put the brakes on our over-active thought processes in order to relax and sleep.