Alcohol and AS kids

[Canopus]

Are kids with AS more likely to drink alcohol than NT kids? Are they also more likely to be a secret drinker or drink alone than NT kids?

[bevalee]

I can't really answer that one. My 16yr AS son doesen't really like alcohol, he some times has a sip of wine with a meal, but he never drinks even half of it.

 

I did hear him anwer a friend on the phone at half-term though. His friend must have asked what he was upto that night. He said 'oh i might just pop down the pub for a few jar's' He's never been in a pub in his life except for a meal.

[Kathryn]

My daughter isn't particularly interested in alcohol. She likes mulled wine but it's the aroma of the spices she goes for: she's just as happy with a non alcoholic version. As she's been on anti depressant medication for the last year she shouldn't be drinking anyway - luckily it hasn't been an issue so far.

 

I can see how some young people might see it as a means of alleviating social anxiety though.

[ceecee]

Just wanted to add and I dont wamt to worry amyone but i think it has been discussed on here before.Adults with as can become alcoholics to help cope with their inevitable social difficulties.My father suspect as is an alcoholic and I think others on here have said the same

[littlenemo]

There's a thread

here

It's more about adult alcoholics, but it does highlight the main problem - alcohol lowers the inhibitions, so it makes social interaction less stressful. As an AS teenager/young adult this can be very seductive, i know as i had a huge alcohol problem in my late teens/early 20s. Still have the problem, but it's not as huge any more

In the thread it says that Tony Atwood says 90% of alcoholics are AS (hard to prove, i would have thought) which is worrying, but that's not the same as saying 90% of Aspies are alcies.

There is the mitigating fact that early alcohol abuse is usually due to peer pressure, something AS kids are less prone to (as they tend to have less peers).

 

Teaching your kids about alcohol before they have access to it is the best solution (as with any other drug), and honesty has got to be the best policy. Explain the pros and cons (personally I'd stress the life-long daily pain in the **** that is addiction)

They say that seeing their parents drinking alcohol 'responsibly' helps too. It's got to be a better role model than binge-drinking bozos

 

As to being a secret or lone drinker, i'd have thought not. The aim is to be able to join in socially, and it only takes one go at being drunk when others aren't to realise that it triples the problems.

 

As someone once said "I drank to drown my sorrows, then I found they swim better than me."

[Canopus]

Many kids with AS suffer from depression, especially if the AS isn't diagnosed. They often endure lots of stress and victimisation at school and sometimes from their parents as well. I am tempted to say that many turn to alcohol and end up drinking alone or secretly if their parents disprove of underage drinking.

 

I used to drink alcohol regularly as a kid and young teenager. My parents don't drink and don't think highly of alcohol so there was no alcohol at home. It just so happened that I had friends who had access to alcohol and supplied me with it. Initially I consumed alcohol either at a friends house or at home. At secondary school I was drinking during the day to combat stress. I worked out the best way to conceal alcohol at home and school was to mix spirits in a bottle of a fizzy drink - in other words I invented alcopops. I would buy bottles of fizzy drinks then mix the spirits into them in advance so I would have a selection of alcopops to store until I was ready to drink them.

[Malika]

Hi

 

I think alcoholism has a lot to do with feeling insecured and having problems communicating. My father who passed away long time ago but I am trying to put pieces toghether and think that he had communication pb slowly slowly from social drinking to confort drinking alone at home became an alcoholic even a DX of diabetes type II and spending some time in a clinic did not help ( he would pay a cleaner to bring him some wine)

I even try to talk to him about it but he would never recognised he was drinking too much beside with the French culture refusing a drink is a crime

anyway.

I know somebody else who has communication disorder and was an alcoholic he became abstainious and found other interests he has not drunk any alcohol for 12 years now.

 

As we say in France: Why do you drink?

 

I drink to forget!

 

What do you want to forget?

 

I want to forget that I drink!

 

Malika.

[Canopus]

I think alcoholism has a lot to do with feeling insecured and having problems communicating.

 

Including nobody to communicate with. The internet didn't exist back when I was a kid and young teenager and I used to feel isolated and helpless because there was nobody to turn to who could help with my problems or provide advice on things I wanted to know about. The internet came on the scene around the time I hit 18 and my alcohol consumption rapidly decreased.

 

I'm sure schools don't tackle the issue of kids regularly drinking alcohol alone or secretly. They seem to approach alcohol from the social drinking or being in with the crowd viewpoint such as bingeing in pubs or gangs of kids swigging alcopops on street corners and park benches.

[mossgrove]

I remember participating in a long thread abpout this on the OASIS forum o Delphi in the US (In the dark ages, pre-krism). There were anumber of people with AS on the thread. There seemed to mainly fall into two groups.

 

One group consisted of those who used (or had used) alchohol to help socialise or to mask depression.

 

Another group of Aspies simply couldn't see the point of drinking alchohol to get drunk and were virtually teetotal.

 

Simon