“I’m just a woman who got sober then diagnosed then noticed that nearly everyone in addiction recovery (i.e. those who struggled to ‘toe the line’ or are ‘maladjusted’ or ‘fit in’) seems neurodivergent AF. And now I can’t let it go. Do you relate?” Yes! Except for the woman part. I got diagnosed autistic and then had this realization about why I drank, which led me to stop drinking. But then I felt like life was too hard without drinking, and that’s when I went to AA. And I was like “this is the only place I have ever been where I’m not weird”
As another late-diagnosed autistic lady with a former alcohol problem, it’s so refreshing to see discourse finally shifting in this direction. When I got sober in 2023, there was so little out there hitting the intersection between (particularly high-masking AFAB) autism and AUD. I owe a lot of the life that I’ve built up to alcohol - life is a lot smaller now (but a lot richer) - so it’s definitely still hard to process and adapt to a new way of living. Thanks for writing about this topic - I’ve also written about my sobriety to diagnosis trajectory: https://open.substack.com/pub/ebonylaurenn/p/i-quit-drinking-and-all-i-got-was?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hi Ebony, thanks for sharing. I think there are a lot of us!!!! I really enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing. I was really confused by my drinking as I really wasn't your classic alcoholic, not just not a 'low bottom' alkie but sometimes I didn't even drink that much. But the thing that worried me was how I had to drink to be around people and also how I lost control sometimes of the amount, either because I was relaxing so much or because I was sipping out of anxiety... It was really confusing to get sober while not understanding I was autistic!! Thanks for reading, great to meet you : )
“I’m just a woman who got sober then diagnosed then noticed that nearly everyone in addiction recovery (i.e. those who struggled to ‘toe the line’ or are ‘maladjusted’ or ‘fit in’) seems neurodivergent AF. And now I can’t let it go. Do you relate?” Yes! Except for the woman part. I got diagnosed autistic and then had this realization about why I drank, which led me to stop drinking. But then I felt like life was too hard without drinking, and that’s when I went to AA. And I was like “this is the only place I have ever been where I’m not weird”
As another late-diagnosed autistic lady with a former alcohol problem, it’s so refreshing to see discourse finally shifting in this direction. When I got sober in 2023, there was so little out there hitting the intersection between (particularly high-masking AFAB) autism and AUD. I owe a lot of the life that I’ve built up to alcohol - life is a lot smaller now (but a lot richer) - so it’s definitely still hard to process and adapt to a new way of living. Thanks for writing about this topic - I’ve also written about my sobriety to diagnosis trajectory: https://open.substack.com/pub/ebonylaurenn/p/i-quit-drinking-and-all-i-got-was?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hi Ebony, thanks for sharing. I think there are a lot of us!!!! I really enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing. I was really confused by my drinking as I really wasn't your classic alcoholic, not just not a 'low bottom' alkie but sometimes I didn't even drink that much. But the thing that worried me was how I had to drink to be around people and also how I lost control sometimes of the amount, either because I was relaxing so much or because I was sipping out of anxiety... It was really confusing to get sober while not understanding I was autistic!! Thanks for reading, great to meet you : )