Constantaly thirsty?

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I was ALWAYS thirsty as a kid and no matter how much I drank I could never get "un thirsty". I still am like that but I can get a drink whenever I want and not have to ask for permission for a most basic human right like I did as a kid because I would always finish my water bottles in school and was never allowed to fill them up. Even when there was a water fountain in the classroom, I had to ask for permission to use it. Everyone did but that was like dangling a steak in front of a dog for me. When I couldn't take it anymore, I simply got up and took a sip The teacher acted as if I had commited murder and tried to quilt trip me because no one else could have a drink. Yes they could, it's not like they were tied down or anything. They could have gotten up and had a drink any old time they wanted too. That teacher was a b***h and everyone knew it. She even got fired eventally for her nastiness.

I was told it was my own fault becuase I drank too fast. No matter what I did I could never feel "unthirsty". Even though I can get a drink whenever I want now, I panick whenever I can't get one fast enough. I also naturaly had to use the toilet all the time and often did not make it in time. I was the "pants wetter" in whatever class I was in mostly because I was never allowed to use the bathroom because the teachers thought I was just going there to play in the sink. Even when I legitmatly had to go, I wasn't allowed to because I went more than the normal kid had too. My parents had me tested for diabeates umpteen times but it always came back negetive. Anyway, does constant thirst have anything to do with autism? I wonder if I have a defective hypothalamus or something. I did have low muscle tone as a kid, just like those kids with prader willi syndrome. I wonder if I have somekinda cousin to it where people can't fell "unthiristy".

I feel like that when I start focusing on the 'thirst' concept all the time. I might often be focused on it and ask myself 'Did I drink enough?' all the time.

Same as you. Soon as I finish a cup of water it's off to the sink for a refill. And I ALWAYS have a cup of water nearby.

I remember in college we had to leave the room at night to get water cause there was no sink so instead I put 2-3 water bottles by the bed EVERY NIGHT and drank them all in the middle of the night and was often still thirsty.

A little tale about me being really thirsty.

I'm always drinking something. I keep three cups on my desk: one for water, one for coffee, one for soda. I probably piss more in one day than any given seven people combined. My drinking so much is partly so I have something to do with my hands (as I've said on many other topics, I'm very fidgety and almost never stop moving) but constant thirst is certainly a factor. I can't blame it on the heat, either. I'm very heat sensitive, but my thirst is no different in the winter than it is in the summer. Just getting into bed at night can be a chore because I'm never satisfied with enough gulps of ice water beforehand.

I am sorry you were abused in this ugly way! It is abusive not to let a person drink whenever they feel thirst. I raise animals and have a pet and it is a cardinal rule with animals that they ALWAYS have unlimited water available.

I also feel thirsty and drink a lot of water and always have. Don't let your old teacher's meanness keep you from drinking whenever you feel the need! Your body has its own wisdom and it is definitely right on this! But quench your thirst with water, not soda or other junk. Tea, coffee, juice ect. can add to dehydration and should not be consumed to quench thirst unless there is no water available.

Now, go have a big glass of water and enjoy!

Yeah, a few months ago someone asked me why I'm always in the bathroom between classes at school. At home I usually make a trip to the bathroom every 30 minutes to an hour. I drink a lot, and I still always feel my throat and lips getting dry.

There appears to be something to this autism/drinking a lot connection theory then. Well obviously the sample is biased cause "heavy drinkers" are more likely to post in this thread but still..

I read a really unscientific, medieval-sounding categorization of people's temperaments based on their eating/drinking habits once but I think it may have had a good deal of science in it after all.

You did get tested for diabetes, right? That's a common symptom. Or it can be a drug side-effect.

I've read about this, though; drinking a whole lot of water seems to be a rather rare trait sometimes found in psych patients of various sorts (including, apparently, developmentally disabled people, which may or may not include autism). So, who knows; maybe it does have to do with being autistic.

On the other hand, you might just like drinking water and be on the high end of normal when it comes to fluid consumption...

I agree with Callista- you might want to talk to your doctor about this. If it has been going on for such a long time without other symptoms, then I guess it's less likely that you have something like diabetes, but it is probably a good idea to at least bring it up with your doctor because excessive thirst is a common symptom of diabetes..

There is a pituitary dysfunction called "diabtetes insipidus" that can cause that, but I think it's a pretty rare condition. It's due to insufficient vasopressin (aka anti-diuretic hormone). And I doubt they'd treat it unless you were drinking so much water as to have a dangerous electrolyte imbalance (which I've had once (for different reasons) and was so horrible as make it really obvious that something was wrong).

It's probably nothing, but I think those mentioning seeing a doctor are right, because you never know.

I for one (a constant water-drinker) underwent a bunch of tests to get to the root of my general not-feeling-good awhile ago and I do not have diabetes. But this diabetes insipidus might not show up on such tests if I'm understanding correctly?

Okay, so they tested for the most common baseline things, and that's good. That's the way to do it, at least that's the first step to take.

In the excellent book EVERY PATIENT TELLS A STORY by Lisa Sanders, there was a young woman who had an auto accident, seemingly okay, but she damaged some specific area of the brain like the hypothalamus, and she drank a tremendous amount of water.

At this point it sure helps to have a doctor you can halfway talk worth. Now, most doctors can't talk worth s**t. I mean, just to lay it on the table as directly as I can. Most doctors are impatient, and most doctors are mediocre to lousy listeners. So expecting a great conversation with a doctor is probably expecting too much. A doctor a person can halfway talk with might be the most a person can reasonably expect. So, for your situation, a doctor certainly should understand that this has been an issue for a while, that the more common causes have been looked into, and that maybe it's now time to start thinking about some of the funky, less common causes.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 08 Aug 2011, 6:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not sure -- I think it would depend on what the other tests were done. The specific test for DI lasts all day and requires medical supervision, so if they didn't do that then they didn't specifically test for it, I guess. This is out of my depth, though -- you should ask your doctor for a solid/reliable answer about that.

There is actually a relation with neuroligical disorders and polyuria but I can't find the study. I have this too.

Just curious, did you count the amount of water you drink everyday and see how much? It might seem like a lot but if you're a big or active person, that 2 to 3L water you drink might be totally normal or not even enough.

I feel like I'm drinking water all the time. Then I tracked it and realize I drink about 2L a day, that's not excessive at all.

I'd say track it for a few days and figure out how much you drink. If it's way out of ordinary talk to a doctor about some testing. http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwa ... ulator.htm That calculator says I should drink 1.8L a day, which is not far from the 2L I do.

"Cerebral salt wasting"?

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On a person note: when I was younger, up to about my 30's, I had constant thirst, though I think not quite as badly as other posters in this thread. What puzzled me was how I'd be thirsty, but 10 minutes after drinking something would have it all pass out of my system. (It seemed biologically pointless, like I didn't really need the fluid in the first place.) I don't know why, but as I got older it faded away. Never knew what it was.