Alcohol and AS

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Possibly, but Miss Construe does not appear to be and we need to try to help her understand it is not up to her to quit drinking.

I seem to have irritated you. I'm sorry. It was not intentional. I am taking myself off some strong meds and actually feel dopier as it leaves my system so I'm sorry if I didn't realize what you were trying to express to MissC.

No, you have done nothing wrong here, and I was concerned about not sounding like I was speaking against you.

Of all the things I might never understand, this matter of how to help a real alcoholic learn to ignore and get past all the "Don't drink" BS typically killing him or her is, for me, the most difficult challenge in life.

I agree. I was unable to just decide to stop drinking. I had to be restrained for 28 days and then go through therapy.That's just my personal experience and the success rate for sobriety with a 28 day program is a whopping 1% so I'm a rare case. So I agree, "just don't do it" is not feasible. I hope this is clear. I am really feeling dopey which is weird to have happen when a med is leaving your system.

Certainly. At least figuratively speaking, something must "stand between" the real alcoholic and his or her next "first drink", and that "something" just cannot be himself or herself.

I have drank many times just to feel comfortable in social situations, and I've always had to be drunk just to have sex with somebody for the first time or two or three.. even if I've gotten to know them pretty well.

The scary thing is that I never have any side effects from drinking, whatsoever. No matter how much I drink or how often, I never get sick or hungover, I never black out, I never do anything I didn't already decide to do while sober.

There was a period where I was drinking too much, and none of my friends believed I had a problem, because I was "cute" when drunk, not obnoxious.. and I was always able to function just fine the next day.

I go on breaks where I don't drink for 6-8 weeks. Then I drink again, usually as a social thing on weekends. But lately I have been asking myself.. if I have to drink to fit in with people, are they really the right people for me to be trying to fit in with? Do we really have a friendship outside of partying together?

Do you remember everything the next day? I do. When I was younger and would go out drinking with mates. The next day I would tell them all everything that had happened as the night went on. They would freak out.

Yes, I always remember everything the next day.

Only twice in 15 years of drinking have I not remembered everything, and that was because of my eating disorder relapsing. Not eating and then drinking lots is a very bad combination. It scared the crap out of me to not be able to remember conversations from the night before.. especially since I can remember conversations from when I was a toddler like they happened yesterday.

Good perspective there. A few drinks as a "social lubricant" is one thing, but joining a drinking culture that only lasts until everyone passes out is quite another.

I was enabled to start binge drinking starting at the age of eight. I only stopped recently after a few tries and relapses.

My inability to stop drinking wasn't a part of being "powerless" which may be the case for some people, but rather because deep down inside I have always wanted to die (I am starting to get over this compulsion). I have never been overtly suicidal, but have always drank as a way to homeopathically kill myself (along with smoking ciggarettes, also recently stopped).

I believe good information is the first step to stop drinking. Understanding the biochemistry and phsyiology of addiction, not just a vague semblance of the psychology of addiction. If you are not familiar with Chemistry, the following may be a rough read, but I suggest reading it anyway if you want to better understand Alcoholism:

Alcohol and You


If someone were to have told me in the past I was powerless to stop drinking, it would have been counterproductive. I suggest being cautious with this portrayal amongst people under the PDD and ASD spectrums. I understand it "works" for others however. It is easier than understanding why you are really addicted.

To stop drinking, I had to understand several things:

I could not "socially drink" even though it made me more "social" because that is not what I learned drinking to be. I learned drinking to be the ultimate escape from reality via binging. I cannot count the number of horrific experiences caused by "social drinking" lead to willful belligirent drunkeness. I never have not known exactly what I was doing when drunk, except once when I drank during a phase of several days of annorexia. In that case the only thing I did was offend people, which is no different than if I had remembered. If I were smaller and less intimidating, I would probably have had my ass kicked more than never as a result of drinking (I am not a meat head, just can't explain how else nobody ever kicked my drunk ass). Having to drink to be social with people who drink exclusively socially isn't worth it, because the people that do so don't have any intrinsic value (in other words they offer nothing meaningful in the way of interaction, so what is the point?). Unfortunately, this is a large percent of the population. Being and staying sober around such people is hard, but when accomplished, shows how worthless they really are.

There are more meaningful ways to trigger the brain's reward system than drinking: I had to learn what to do to fill the void of drinking. I can't say what this is for other people, but for me it is playing the classical guitar and going to thrift stores/garage sales/estate sales/flea markets to find good deals on stuff, along with focusing on other specialized interests, and caring less about unmeaningful interaction with unmeaningful people.

Finding something productive rather than counterproductive is a good thing as well, such as focusing on eating healty. It removes the bad effects of alcohol and replaces it with the good effects of good food. I cook healthy and mostly organic asian food from scratch. It takes a lot of time, and although I typically am a loner, from time to time I cook for others and it impresses them. This makes me feel many times better than drinking ever did. Knowledge is power.

Last edited by RomanceAnonimo on 27 Oct 2010, 1:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

^ Great post. I relate to & agree with much of what you said.

I like drinking more for the taste than to get drunk. It's yummy stuff.

I've never blacked out, hung over or anything. I'm just a giggly drunk so my friends never saw a problem with it.

when i started this thread, it was for exactly the reasons i said, but it seems this has become Alcoholics AnonymAS, and thats fine. someone above me, the name escapes me, refered to alcoholism as a stigma in this forum; and i dont beleive in stigmata.

someone else above me (name escaping too) started talking about blacking out when they drink, or more to the point, that they dont. i dont either, never have. even on the occasions when i become so sh*t faced, fall down, cant walk, dont even have the muscle control to vomit only in the toilet drunk, i can remember every detail of the evening. however, my freinds dont know that; i find it is often convenient for them to believe that i have forgotten something.

Not at all, but the idea it might be bringing out "the real you" or whatever is part of its deceptive allure.

that's an interesting effect of alcohol. it does boost confidence. i guess related to diminishing inhibitions. So like you i rarely drink much in the company of others. I often have a drink at the end of the day because of the boost. It desensitizes enough so that i can try to find bits and pieces of myself that are buried somewhere.

All perceived benefits of alcohol are as a result of the diminishment of key brain functions.

It's an unfortunate where alcohol continues to be legal while more organic mind altering substances are illegal (in most places) such as marijuana and mushrooms.

It is unfortunate that societal and economic existence is so artificial that a substance such as alcohol has to be used by so many people to deaden themselves (alcohol improving anything is only empirical based on an intoxicated state, really think about it).

There are more meaningful ways to take off, put on a mask, better ways to socially lubricate (through intellect) but so many are dependent on alcohol it's hard to find those environments where it is not a requisite, particularly when media and popular culture give it a thumbs up and encourage it from a young age (we are brought up to think it's cool homeopathically).

I choose to no longer drink because it is a false promise of the condition of humanity, rather than being a true and valuable part of being individually human.