Drinking to Mask and Unmask : The Neurodivergent Addiction Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight

A thought-provoking exploration of the complex relationship between neurodiversity and alcoholism from an award-winning autistic author. The book features interviews with neurodivergent people and experts in the field of neurodiversity and offers advice for your sobriety journey.

Why do we need to drink? What is alcohol hiding? How do we live with what we uncover when we finally manage to quit? Through her teens and twenties, Chelsey Flood had a problematic relationship with alcohol. As she hit her thirties and tried to unpick what lay behind this, she realized that she didn't have a drink problem in the usual sense. She had a social anxiety problem, masked by drink. The official diagnosis? Autism. Blending Chelsey's own experiences with research and interviews with experts in the field of neurodiversity, this book explores the complex intersection between autism, ADHD and alcoholism. You'll understand why you might have struggled in relationships and why you may have relied heavily on alcohol and other substances to keep up the mask and avoid difficult situations or emotions. Chelsey's compassionate, thoughtful and gently humorous reflections encourage us all to accept and value our whole neurodivergent selves.