First time user, alcohol and dyspraxia thoughts needed

[itfcollie]

Hi board mergers, my names Ollie im 27 and was diagnosed as dyspraxic at the age of 6. There was never much support growing up as on the face of it im quite well have a good job etc can sound intelligent (so im told) my dyspraxia is just below the surface and invisible to most who know me

Anyways im keen to get the thoughts of fellow board users of the relationship between dyspraxia and alcohol. I'm not a big drinker and rarely have been and am capable of drinking sensibly and normally. However on occasions its the complete opposite I get angry agressive tense anything that may be a slight becomes a major problem. Obviously I know alcohol changes everyones behaviour but I often get referreded to as extreme and someone or thing i am not therefore i have decided to quit drinking immediately. Anybody out there know of a link between alcohol and dyspraxia that makes people like us more susceptible to change so quickly and in such an extreme manner?

Obviously I know personal responsibility comes in hence the stoppind drinking

Thanks in advance

Ollie

[Jim]

I don't know if there are any quantifiable links, but if you consider that in general, Dyspraxic symptoms are more pronounced when we are fatigued then we'd be wise to assume that alcohol might also exaggerate our difficulties.

Having said that, I personally don't change my behaviour much when drunk, with exception of the obvious loss of balance (but as a Dyspraxic I have less balance to loose ) my speech gets even worse and I'm slightly less inhibited but not to any extremes, even when drunk I'm still mostly introverted.

I don't drink very often to be honest, not through any moral reasoning or health concern but because I don't really gain any enjoyment from it.

[itfcollie]

Thanks for the tips Jim, I have given up the drink temporarily and I feel better for it, I think its a case of finding my limit and not exceeding it.

Ollie

[Jim]

That's exactly it.

There does seem to be a social culture where people will drink themselves to oblivion, and mistake being "phished out of their skulls" as fun.

But it's not particularly clever.

Having said that, there's nothing wrong with enjoying a drink

[scififreak1992]

I don't know if it's a dyspraxic thing or not, but I know that It takes a while for my brain to realise how drunk I am. My speech supposedly changes quickly (maybe after 1 or 2 drinks) but I won't notice until I am 4 to 6 drinks in and am stumbling. Am I just really stupid in the rare occasions that I am drinking or is it something more?

[pouvik]

for me I am a heavy drinker and I can drink most people under the table and remain sober, it takes alot for me to get drunk, I do not think Dyspraxia effects drinking levels at all its an individual thing, after all as I said I can drink most people under table.

[Captain_Ludd]

I'm not sure if the affects of alcohol are different for us dyspraxics I think its just an individual thing.
I don't tend to get angry when I drink but I do find that the alcohol tends to exaggerate your mood at the time but I don think thats a dyspraxic thing.

[Maddie_24]

Hey Ollie, i happened upon this forum and your question while i was googling around for an answer, myself. I normally have trouble with gait and with spacial relationships (my hips are always running into walls) and when i drink my balance is the first thing that goes completely out the window. Im falling CONSTANTLY over nothing at all. Just tipping right over. I mumble a lot normally as well when im not concentraing on enunciation, and my speech slurs a lot when i drink. So there is definitely a correlation.

[Xenavire]

Isee, I can't say for sure, because I legitimately do not like the taste of alcohol, but the few times I have had drinks, I didn't even get tipsy. I think that a lot of the usual rules for alcohol consumption must apply (bodyweight and size, tolerance, hydration, etc) in how easily we get drunk, but once we are actually there? I can't imagine it's pretty, but I could just as easily imagine us being more prone to accidents as I could to imaging us having an easier time due to our coping mechanisms.

I can't say I'm not curious, does anyone have experience in the area they would be willing to share?

[Tom fod]

I don’t need to be drunk to fall over but I have enjoyed a drop of the old falling down water or two.

It is v much a mood amplifier so best avoided if you’re already feeling down. Everyone’s different and not all like taste or see attraction of getting off their face in a club where you’re paying £5 a drink. It’s been a while since I last went out and had to listen to music I’m not fond of and feel alone in a roomful of people especially if you’re not drunk enough or into trying to throw shapes on the dancefloor.

I prefer just having a couple nowadays. The last drinks I had out before lockdown were at a comedy night in March A week later it was my birthday and Boris closed the pubs!

[Jette]

Interesting!
I am very wary of getting drunk since I hate losing even more control (my friends in school used to laugh and say that I was basically drunk for free - I was only diagnosed after my first year at uni).
Not being able to stops seems to be quite common (having seen people get drunk while I was sober) so it's not necessarily related. Perhaps the drunkenness is exaggerated by dyspraxia - this is definitely the case for me. Personally I don't have a problem at all to stop after one or two drinks.
I do have a problem stopping to eat biscuits though - maybe it's related?