Addiction...

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Have you ever had an addiction to a substance after that first taste of the euphoric feeling of thinking you are "normal"? Where you obsess over it because of that feeling it gives you and a several months later you realize it's not helping with anything and you find yourself in a routine addiction? I have been battling this for over a year now and I have finally figured out that I may as well not abuse substances if I am just going to feel the same way afterwards. My question is, do NT and AS human beings have similar addiction pathways?

Yes. Alcohol. I bought a bottle of Gin, once. I mixed it with my pop snd became addicted. I don't drink it nowadays, because I'm not supposed to mix alcohol with my meds.

I've tried too many drugs to list and I've never fallen into a cycle of habitual usage of anything. The only things I'm using at the moment is cannabis, caffeine (Mate, coffee, tea), St. John's Wort, Vinpocetine, and Piracetam. Generally the only things worth using. I'm glad that methylphenidate, amphetamine, bupropion. fluoxetine, venlafaxine, cyclobenzaprine, PCP, and DPH are not things I use anymore. Though I'm tempted to go back to Tramadol, Vicodin, Oxys, hydromorphone, zolpidem, gabapentin, and methadone I manage not to. Herbs are really the only things worth using. I miss psilocybin.

pot binge drink skome times on pristiq deslefetine ati depressents

Yes. I've tried almost everything and anything to get that feeling of 'escape'. Inevitably, I find out that I'm only MORE depressed while indulging, and not as 'happy' as everyone else seems to be.
Intellectually, I know that it's not working, and I should stop pursuing a feeling I"m just not destined to have. However for some reason I don't understand, I keep trying.
Many months and a lot of wasted money later, I usually give up whatever the 'it' thing of the moment is, and try to find something else to make me feel "complete".

So far, I've found nothing.

You are not alone.

Pepsi and cigarettes ......... Just can't live without my pepsi and smokes.

I spent many years managing my ASD with alcohol and drugs. i did so up until the age of 36. I am now 47 and have been clean and sober for nearly 12 years. I am proud of that.

If I could have my time over, I would NOT repeat my addiction/alcoholism experiences.
I wish I had had the support I needed, the early dx I needed and the family unit I needed when i was young.

I was homeless for many year, and even went to prison very briefly.
I think drugs and alcohol - their misuse and abuse - is a completely tragic and awful way to live.
I have no interest in that fake euphoria.

Special interest euphoria beats it hands down anyway. It just took me years to realise.

I also saw drugs and alcohol as a way of fitting in. In early high school it was all there was left to me. that is sad.

Second Life is my addiction, it rules my life, I actually go though withdrawals it I am away more then a day

I'm interested in this too. I don't fit the personality profile of an alcoholic but I can't drink. It was suggested to me that my drinking problems were more OCD related. There definitely was a strong compulsive element in there. It's like if I take a drink a switch is turned on in my head. More more more even if another part of my brain is saying stop stop stop. I'm curious because it's been mentioned on WP before about treatment for alcohol abuse and anorexia with spectrumites needs to be approached differently and I'd like to hear more about that. I drank for social ease at first and at the end it was for oblivion. I had to learn that my feelings weren't going to kill me which was always the trigger for that first drink..

The internet.

Yes, NT's do it to for the same reasons. Same results too. People with AS may have an even harder time quiting if the substance becomes part of their "routine", schedule or even worse, their "special interest".

I'm addicted to the computer and I still have dificulty getting off when I get bored of it. My husband thinks it's my obsession but it's not. I tell him he is addicted too because he is on the computer also but he denies it because he works but I tell him he is on it when he gets home. I finally took down the tree and put away some of the Christmas stuff. I still have more to put away.

I'm also addicted to this forum and it's hard to leave when I am bored here. I just keep clicking the pages like it's a stim.


I know NTs also get addicted to computers. I have heard of the internet addiction and it's way worse than mine. I don't have true internet addiction or else I would have called in sick just so I'd stay home and be on the computer more. All these other people with it call in sick, don't go to bed, neglect their kids, don't eat. But I can see it being more common in aspies because it's so easy to socialize online than it is in real life. It rude in real life to enter a conversation just because they are talking about something that interests you and then they change the topic, you leave. But online you can click anything you want to read. If a thread bores you, you hit the back button. Also you have time to think before you say. In real life it's hard. You can't take back what you say once you have realized you shouldn't have said it, sure you can say "sorry" but it's already been said. The same thing happens online too of course. Sure you can go back and delete your post or edit it but it's already been said.
But I realize I don't go to bed when I am tired or eat so I have slight internet addiction. Before, it was about being too far into my special interest I didn't want to leave it. I wait till I am very very very tired to go to bed. But I can careless if I am starving. My husband worries about me because I am "so thin" but he isn't that worried because I am not anorexic thin. I once said at work as a joke "I'm too lazy to eat" when someone made a comment how me being skinny. My husband even thought he was going to have to shove food down my throat and spank me to eat when I'm pregnant but he saw he didn't have to do that. Because I ate every two hours because I was always staving and I cared about the baby.