Thank you so much for this. You are bringing me a lot of insight here. I'm very interested to read the research and your upcoming writings. One big difference in our childhood/teenage experiences is that I didn't discover drugs or alcohol as a teen because I was so socially isolated (I now realize because I was autistic). Instead of drinking, I spent time alone (often not happily). I had some creative outlets but mostly watched TV. When I finally met a good group of people who felt like friends late in high school, they were all the punk kids and they were straight edge - fiercely anti drugs and alcohol. If they had not been a sober group, I do wonder what would have happened. High school for me was in the early-mid 1990s, and at that point I don't think there is any chance I could have discovered I was autistic in terms of how diagnosis worked back then. But, wow, once I found alcohol late in my college career, it changed everything. And I've been using it ever since to do just what you write about here - enable me to function in the "normal" world. For me the pandemic was the big revelation - It was much easier to avoid drinking excessively without the social situations that encourage me to drink a lot. Even though I didn't stop drinking all together, I reduced enough that I could see things more clearly and I think got to see myself in a new way, which eventually led to seeking a diagnosis.
Thank you so much for this. You are bringing me a lot of insight here. I'm very interested to read the research and your upcoming writings. One big difference in our childhood/teenage experiences is that I didn't discover drugs or alcohol as a teen because I was so socially isolated (I now realize because I was autistic). Instead of drinking, I spent time alone (often not happily). I had some creative outlets but mostly watched TV. When I finally met a good group of people who felt like friends late in high school, they were all the punk kids and they were straight edge - fiercely anti drugs and alcohol. If they had not been a sober group, I do wonder what would have happened. High school for me was in the early-mid 1990s, and at that point I don't think there is any chance I could have discovered I was autistic in terms of how diagnosis worked back then. But, wow, once I found alcohol late in my college career, it changed everything. And I've been using it ever since to do just what you write about here - enable me to function in the "normal" world. For me the pandemic was the big revelation - It was much easier to avoid drinking excessively without the social situations that encourage me to drink a lot. Even though I didn't stop drinking all together, I reduced enough that I could see things more clearly and I think got to see myself in a new way, which eventually led to seeking a diagnosis.