Autism and alcohol: questions and concerns

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I'm sure this sort of topic has been posted in some form or other in the past, that of "Aspies and alcohol", but I'm not here to ask about alcohol addiction among the autistic community or to suggest alcohol as a remedy in any way... but rather to gather some opinions on how your behaviour or feelings or experiences might have changed depending on alcohol use.

The impetus for me posting this was an article I just saw from earlier this year, called "What Happens When Autistic People Drink Alcohol?" and funnily enough, the findings seemed to match my own experiences as a young adult in the '90s, just before my 2001 diagnosis (which still in my 20s, and I applied my newfound knowledge with greater caution when consuming alcohol after that).

https://www.joinreframeapp.com/blog-pos ... nk-alcohol

I can recall at least three times in my early 20s when I had too much alcohol at a house party setting, and my behaviour was inappropriate, but not criminal... it involved a lot of puking, but not on someone - just in the toilet or a garbage can. I also recall that I was a lot "sillier" in my behaviour, laughing uncontrollably, and even being threatened on one occasion where I was basically forced to leave... and the part that corresponded to that article above was when I felt bolder and less inhibited socially, BUT I didn't have an increased capacity to read unspoken cues (just the opposite!) so that was to my disadvantage. I imagine that NTs might lose a bit of their capacity to read emotional cues when very drunk, but not to the same extent that we do.

Fast-forwarding to the late 2000s when I was 34: I was at a party with my girlfriend at the time, now wife, at a neighbour's condo and she had to tell me afterwards that I was ignoring (or missing) negative non-verbals from this one guy after I had a few too many - I was laughing and making jokes, and he was shrinking away from me which I didn't pick up on and it wasn't until after leaving my wife told me. She said something like "I've noticed you doing this sort of thing every now and then, and I think that the ability to read body language is not completely natural for you, it's something you have to work at and while other people can do it fine, clearly you need to use another part of your brain to do it."

Note that she didn't say that I had NO capacity to read non-verbal communication, as she confirmed there's times where I did just fine (and I'd already since confided my Asperger's to her, which I had to explain as she'd never heard of it), but clearly in her opinion I was not quite achieving "an NT passing mark" for nonverbal communication. Well, perhaps around others that I didn't see regularly, I would have been, but not for the woman who's been with me for over 3 years and has lived with me for the past two. And YES, she intimated that alcohol played a role in my diminished capacity to seamlessly read and respond non-verbals, which wouldn't be as pronounced for NTs.

I long ago realized that I had the potential to become an alcoholic, so I pretty much quit drinking. These days, I average maybe a six pack of beer every year or two, usually around Christmas when I buy a sixpack of specialty holiday beers.

Hmmm. I forgot to do that this year. Again.

I concur with your wife that alcohol diminishes our already reduced capacity to interpret social data.

I am very strongly and adamantly anti-alcohol & if I had my way, every bottle of booze in the world would explode at this moment.

I used to drink & smoke pot & warn you that these things reduce:

1. Social processing skills
2. Inhibitions (prize your inhibitions, they will save your life)
3. Spirituality
4. Calculating speed
5. Bodily health
6. Brain health
7. Longevity
8. Financial well-being

Use of substances implies there is something intrinsically wrong with your brain the way that it is, and that you feel you must modify it even at the cost of harming it. That is a very radical statement to make about your own brain.