Aspies and addiction.

Post Reply New Topic

alot of people aren't entirely aware of how addicted they are to a substance unless it is taken away so on that basis i currently can't say wether or not i would be able to stop using my current substances.

As a 16 year old, I am shocked to see my peers smoke and drink all the time. Some of them even do illegal drugs.

I've never given into the peer pressure, and will never do so, either. This seems to be more of an Aspie thing to do than become an addict from what I've seen.

so i take it you have never given into curiosity either? that was where it all started for me

I've been a alcoholic for 4-5 years. i just cant ever seem to stop, for some reason. most of my bad past here on Wp was due to alcohol. so now if i drink i try to do it offline, so as not to embarress myself anymore. Reguardless if i wanted a cure for anything it would be for that addiction.

I have also done oother drugs of course but for some reason alcohol has my number. i think its because its a legal drug. if it was illegal i wouldnt want to bother with it because i'd be afraid of getting caught, by the FBI.

I've dabbled in drinking and smoking. Never developed an addiction. I'm not curious about drugs; I have several relatives who struggle with substance abuse and I've seen drugs can do to people's lives. It doesn't seem appealing or fun to me. Most of my friends don't drink, smoke, or do drugs of any kind, and don't pressure me into doing so. I think even more than peer pressure, there's this general idea in our society that teenagers are supposed to get drunk, smoke weed, experiment with drugs, etc.

I'll give in to curiosity about drugs the same day I give into my curiosity about what it's like to get run over by a bus.

It started for me as curiosity and continued when I realized it numbed my depression and anxiety (for which I had been tried on various pharmaceuticals to no avail.)

From there, it continued because suddenly I had a circle of friends -- something I'd never had in my life before and have never had since quitting drugs. The drug culture I found myself in was very accepting of weirdness and quirks because, well, when someone's on acid, they're kind of weird and quirky. I think most people just assumed I was high all the time so all my strangeness was suddenly okay (if occassionally annoying) and there were people inviting me places, calling my name out when they saw me, behaving as if they were happy to know me.

For me, that was the most addictive part of smoking pot and dropping acid: feeling like a "normal" person with friends and a social life.

When I quit, I fell out of that entire life, friends and all. I kept one friend for years afterward but she went ballistic when I told her I have asperger's and completely rejected me and said a lot of really nasty things to me that I don't really know whether are true or just her trying to hurt me. So now I'm back to having no friends again. And the hard part is knowing that if I went back to smoking again, I'd have a circle of friends again and a social life but I'm not willing to sacrifice all my money and all my motivation in exchange for that.

Well they clearly weren't real friends in the first place then...

If this counts I'm addicted to the internet, kind of. I know when I'm not using it I'm thinking about when I will next use it, and when I am on it I spend hours and hours, and at college even if I only have a 5 minute break I'll log into the computer.
I don't think I'll ever be addicted to a substance because I'm put off by the possibility of illness, I've never been drunk because I'm scared of it making me sick.

I have been curious and thought about what it would be like to take legal highs, the affects of salvia look very strange indeed, I once saw a man on youtube high on salvia and he started to see a carnival with dwarfs everywhere, it was hilarious. As long as something does not have a side affect of nausea, I would actually experiment. But only once though, with none addictive stuff because I don't want to end up like those train wrecks on Jeremy Kyle.

I don't care. I really enjoyed that time of my life and really enjoyed being among friends, whether real or fake. I miss it a lot.

It's not always quite that clear cut. If you join a bowling league, you will probably make friends. You and those friends may very well do things other than bowling together, and have a great time together. But, if you drop out of the bowling league, you will probably drift apart. Does this mean they weren't your friends at all, or just that you weren't close friends?

The same holds for a computer club, a political group, a model train club . . . or drugs.

Let's see . . . back in high school and for several years after, I went through much the same as SparrowRose. Drank far, far more than I should have, got hooked on some downs for a while, smoked altogether more pot than was reasonable, dropped acid, etc, etc. And I had people who wanted to hang out with me, which was a huge change for me.

Now, I drink once in a while, smoke pot if someone happens to offer, and I'm back to having no friends. I do smoke cigarettes like they're going out of style. I keep saying I'm going to quit, but it never seems to happen.

I've never been very susceptible to addiction. I smoked cigarettes for five years and quit cold turkey with ease. It wasn't pleasant, sure, because I was addicted, but it wasn't difficult. I go through periodic phases lasting from a few weeks to a few months during which I abuse alcohol, drinking daily, but have never become addicted. Every time I get to the point where I think "Better watch it, don't want to become an alcoholic," I just stop drinking for a while (and only later take it back up on a healthy level). Simple as that. I've also been put on addictive pain medications for extended periods before and never become addicted to them.

I am addicted to the internet, however.

i had what i would consider to be a serious alcohol problem in college. i was a binge drinker. on campus i would drink heavily at parties a couple times a month. at home over break, i would drink alone, about once a week, to the point of not being able to stand up. a couple of times i even blacked out, and i'm pretty sure i had alcohol poisoning, although i never went to the hospital. then one day, about a year ago, i just decided that i would never drink again, and i haven't. so yeah, i guess it was pretty much like flipping a switch. i never experienced withdrawal symptoms, but my body was used to going weeks at a time without a drink, so it makes sense. i don't know if physical symptoms would have made it harder for me to stop. every once in a while, i will get the urge to drink, but i just ignore it.

for those out there who haven't started drinking, i would recommend that you exercise caution, and also promise yourself that you will not drink alone, because nothing good can come of it.

I started drinking at 15 and by 16 I was doing it all the time. It may be the only thing that kept me from killing myself at that point in my life, it kept me numb. As I got older my whole life revolved around drinking, everything I did. I got in fights, wrecked cars, got a DUI, cut off my family and missed growing up. I got sent to rehab when I was 23. It took me a while to realize how bad it was, even my health was bad. I did the AA thing, since it does work. I went to meetings and got a sponsor, and worked the steps. Then I got a life. I am still an alcoholic, given what I've heard about other peoples experience, if I start drinking again it will get bad again. I will take their word on that. I don't go to meeting anymore, but I still don't drink. I never got into drugs, because I knew I would get hooked.

how long have you been alcohol free?

everyone could call it genes, some people call it a disease. Maybe it has some peice to do with genes, but it is definitely not a disease. People use for a reason 90 percent of the time. Drug use is a symptom not an illness. Once you realize your doc is not helping, making things worse, or it stops to do the same thing it used to then you will be ready to give it up. You will be ready to give it up also if you hit a low point in your life, everyones low point is different. I still use on occasion when my anxiety runs through the roof. There is no cookie cutter answer to get off drugs, for anyone, u must find what works and use it. If that means smoking marajuana would help you then do it. I had to transfer my opiate addiction to a marijuana addiction and then work slowly of the weed. We all have different coping mechanisms, and drugs is a coping mechanism. And they are hard indeed to get off, but its totally different for me now. Yes i screw up, ill get 3 months clean, then screw up for a day or two then get back on track. And thats the trick, always get back on track and try again, eventually you will get it. I went from 1 week clean and screwing up to now 3 months intervals, eventually it will leave completely. I am at the point where drugs do absolutely nothing pleasurable for me, they do eliminate SOME of the anxiety, but that is it. My brain is still recovering i guess, so sometimes ill get a craving, ill go use, and my drug of choice will usually just get me sick and tired. Then the next day im like fffffffff.. why did i do that, i paid money to get sick lol. Thus is the nature of addiction, yes i believe u can get over it, but there has to be a reason to get over it, there has to also be something to take its place. Drug use runs very deep, much more deep then just recreational purposes. For me exercise took the place of opiates, it gave me endorphins and the high lasts longer anyway, weed also helped me. I fully believe marijuana can be a powerful tool in drug recovery, what? drug recovery using marajuana? but as i said, to transfer alchoholism or another bodily destructive drug for marijuana is OK to do. You just always have to push forward, never get bogged down and sit in a corner and cry or think. Just keep getting back up after being knocked down, and that is the only trick to life it seems. get beat up everyday, but keep on standing. To eliminate drugs from ones life, one has to completely change their life around. Lifestyle, eating habbits, exercise habbits, thinking habbits, all of that. To the poster of this post, i have alot of experience with drug use and getting clean and so forth, if u need someone to talk to, feel free to message me whenever.