alcohol and aspergers

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I don't know... Maybe alcohol is the Great Equalizer.

When I drink I feel like I fit in easier but I don't like the way it makes me feel. I normally throw up too so it's never fun in the end.

Perhaps most importantly, when I drink, this is true of me. Not when sober. This is why I think drinking does make me more NT, rather than just make me think I am.

Honestly, I can say that I don't drink and I really don't give a s**t but I still have social problems. When a person drinks to the point where they don't give a s**t it doesn't prevent other people from thinking they're an as*hole.

I think NTs focus on detail as much as anyone, they just focus on social details. Next time you're at the grocery store look at the rack of tabloids at the check out. Is there anyone on this forum that actually gives a crap about what kind of hat some rich spoiled quasi-celebrity girl wore to the beach? Or some other actresses cellulite? There are even TV channels devoted to this crap. People with ASDs miss the social details whether they are drunk or not, that's really one of the fundamental traits of ASD.

I would agree though if you said alcohol might help with social phobia for that reason.

Not really... That would require alcohol to rewire your brain. All it is doing is causing you to not care how you appear socially. So when drinking you're merely an Aspie who is less self-conscious. That's not the same as being neurotypical.

But I appear more normal, others have told me so. Socialising becomes easier, more natural, and I behave more like an NT. Alcohol is a depressant, and so is inhibiting some of the brain activity that would otherwise make me more aspie. Not actual rewiring, but changing the way the brain behaves. Making it behave how an NT brain behaves when they are sober. It stops this detail-orientated mentality I have.

This is ringing true with me at the moment, hence I have worded it all personally, not generally. I currently genuinely feel that for me at least, alcohol inhibits the activity of my brain that make me more aspie-like. I would not be diagnosable as having Aspergers if I was my drunk self all the time. So what would I be, if I couldn't be diagnosed as aspie? NT...

I believe you would be diagnosed as alcoholic

Seriously though, I'm not saying it doesn't help you personally. I'm just saying that it's probably not the best option for most aspies. The problem with medicating with alcohol is there's a fine line between too little and too much. On top of that your tolerance builds and it becomes even harder to find that sweet spot. I have seen people who can handle medicating with alcohol, just not many. I'm not going to knock anyone for doing something that helps them. I use cannabis to 'normalize' myself.

I can count the times I've been drinking on 2,hands and not once has it done anything even if I'm drunk I don't wanna talk or be near people infact it makes it worse. Beer tastes like goat urin. Not a big fan.

Oh, wow, yeah, I should have clarified that I am not recommending using alcohol for this reason! Just that whatever it is doing inside my brain, SOME of that is how I would like my brain to behave all the time (if I wanted to be NT). I like to have it impair my tendancy to focus on the details, but I don't like how it impairs my motor co-ordination and other things unrelated to NT/aspieness.

hmm i can't be normal without alcohol i sure as hell aint with, honestly i get all the nt things, but do them wrong or to excess ala drunk Facebook,saying all the things you wanna say but wish you hadn't...
i like to think of life as a rpg so just pretend your in 3rd person when saying difficult things

"...the autistic brain needs to be calmed down, learning needs to be slowed, and cognitive functions need to be diminished in order to re-instate proper functionality." (Markram, Rinaldi & Markram, 2007)

That's part of what alcohol does, right?

alchohol kills logic and reasoning, but it makes life pleasant.
its not gonna be a treatment for anyone.

Yes part. It's the other parts that are a problem. Also what cannabis does, for some people, without the nasty side effects of alcohol.

Alcohol is the glue that binds us all. It lower's everyone's inhibitions, AS, NT and otherwise. I've found cannabis to have a more dissociative effect personally. It makes me go really quiet but at the same time it does reduce the number of things going on in my head (as a programmer I'd call these threads) so I can concentrate really intently on one thing. It's no good for being open and social, for me at least.

I spent so long trying to behave.like the.norm.and.masking.so.alcohol removes the.mask i created so im more aspie. Also as im adhd I tend to go completely hyper and im literally pinballing lol! I rarely drink now as the effects are too adverse even with just one or two

I believe that drinking just makes us less self-conscious. Apparently I say surprising and hilarious things when I'm drunk and in company. But really I'm just saying exactly what I'm thinking, and not censoring or second-guessing myself to the extent my sober self does.