UPDATE DECEMBER 2017

Several things to report since my last post.

One, I have stopped my anti-depressant medication after a gradual withdrawal. The reason for this is I didn't really think it was helping my depression. Again, I am not necessarily recommending others who take meds do this as it is a personal decision. I have managed before without medication as my depression is something called reactive depression as opposed to a 'depressive illness.'
Two, I am having acupuncture for my addictions which seems to be helping. I've noticed a reduction in the cravings for alcohol since starting the treatment. I have cut my alcohol use down and want to stop completely but I am trying to do one thing at a time as it is early days yet of coming off the medication.
Three, I am having counselling which I am finding helpful as I am trying to work through a number of issues and conflicts I have.

WHERE I AM AT AT THE MOMENT

I am currently suffering from persistent mild/moderate depression. My alcohol use unfortunately continues although I am now part of a support group for people with addictions that I am finding useful. The medication called antabuse that I was taking was not really a success due to me being somewhat inconsistent with taking it and the fact that I found I could still drink despite having taken it.

I guess I feel quite stuck at the moment. Where do I go from here? You see, because of the depression, I am caught in a vicious cycle of feeling low then self-medicating with alcohol that temporarily relieves the low mood but the next day I am low again and feel like having more alcohol. I don't always give in to the cravings and DO try other strategies to help me. Also I still manage to function well despite my low mood, for example I am managing to go to work one day per week. I also keep active during the week going to various groups run by MIND and other organisations.

I HATE STAR TREK!

I cannot stand Star Trek or for that matter most sci-fi (with the notable exception of '2001: A Space Odyssey' which strangely is my favourite film of all time). I am not into superheroes or computers. I use computers but that's about all. I don't know that much about technology and in fact am quite ignorant of a lot of it. I still don't fully understand what Facebook is nor do I know what a Podcast is or an 'app'. I think a lot of so called social media sucks!

Why am I saying all this? Well, there may be assumptions about people who have Aspergers or who are autistic that we are all into sci-fi, are computer geeks or maths geniuses. Speaking of maths, I am not very good at it. You know, I am just trying to dispel some myths here in that people on the spectrum are all different as is the general population. We are INDIVIDUALS and yes many of us do have obsessive interests but these are varied.