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Autism and Alcohol

mia97
mia97 Community member Posts: 51 Courageous
edited December 2021 in Autism and neurodiversity
I am interested to see the result of the following;

I am autistic and have never had an interested in drinking alcohol - I have tried it literally once but did not like the taste at all!

Apparently not liking alcohol or even having an interest is sometimes a common theme amongst those on the Autism spectrum.

Does anyone else relate to this?

(p.s. nothing against people who drink, each to their own)
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Comments

  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,488 Disability Gamechanger
    Apparently not liking alcohol or even having an interest is sometimes a common theme amongst those on the Autism spectrum.

    That's interesting @mia97, I haven't heard about that before. Do you have any ideas on why this might be?

    When I googled 'autism and alcohol', I came across this post on the National Autistic Society's website, which presents a bit of a different view by looking at the link between autism and alcoholism. Do you have any thoughts on that?
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  • Libby_Alumni
    Libby_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 1,251 Pioneering
    mia97 said:
    I am interested to see the result of the following;

    I am autistic and have never had an interested in drinking alcohol - I have tried it literally once but did not like the taste at all!

    Apparently not liking alcohol or even having an interest is sometimes a common theme amongst those on the Autism spectrum.

    Does anyone else relate to this?

    (p.s. nothing against people who drink, each to their own)
    That is very interesting @mia97, I've also not heard this before, but it would be interesting to know if there's any evidence behind it :) 

    I'm not autistic, but I don't really drink at all. I have the odd drink here or there, but I don't really drink because of my endometriosis. I find that if I drink, it can really flare my symptoms and sometimes it's just not worth it! Do you like to have mocktails/non-alcoholic beverages a lot?
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  • rubin16
    rubin16 Community member Posts: 348 Pioneering
    Hi,

    I have autism and have never really liked drinking or getting drunk, I personally don't like the taste of alcahol and have never really been into drinking like everyone else seems to be. To me beer tastes disgusting and makes me gag, I was always told that as you get older you start to like the taste but this hasn't happened to me and I still hate it to this day.

    When I try to drink on special ocassions I get very unwell the next day as I also have crohn's disease so I tend to be sick after drinking so its just not worth it for me. I'm also on medication that doesn't work well with alcahol so maybe thats why I am unwell after drinking.

    I'm the only one in my family that hates drinking, i'm also the only one diagnosed with Autism so maybe there is a link there just never thought of it before. Interested to see if anyone else is the same now.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,357 Disability Gamechanger
    I've never heard of this before either. My daughter has Autism and she's 21 next month. Although she doesn't go out and drink alcohol, she does like a cider or 2 sometimes, she also likes a specific Rose wine. (can't remember the name though)
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
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  • L_Volunteer
    L_Volunteer Community Volunteer Adviser, Scope Member Posts: 7,979 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @mia97

    What a really interesting thread. I must admit, it is not a correlation I have heard about previously either. However, I am autistic and I have never enjoyed the taste of alcohol and now I can't drink because of the medications I take for other health conditions! :D
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