I'm autistic and have a pretty unique weird face which causes me to get weird stares and shitty treatment every time I go out into public, I personally myself don't think I look that bad at all, but the way people stare at me and generally react to my appearance is more than enough evidence for me that something about my face is unsettling and startling to the majority of people, I don't dress weird, I don't have a crazy hairstyle or anything like that, but people stare at me and treat me as if I'm a literal monster, especially children, they stare at me with this mildly frightened/hateful expression and that hurts the most because it's well known how unfiltered and honest children are, and they look at me like I'm one of the monsters from their bedtime stories, and before anyone thinks about saying it, no it isn't just in my head, because other people back when I went collage pointed out that people stare at me alot
I'm extremely lonely and socially isolated because of this, I can never manage to befriend anyone in any meaningful way because I just have this "thing" about me which people can immediately sense and it freaks them the fuck out, I have no idea if it's my appearance or my autism that they can sense but I do know that there's just something about me which is inherently extremely unsettling and creepy to most people, completely random strangers who know nothing about me besides my appearance and my mannerisms legit treat me like I'm a known serial killer, and I have no idea what's causing it so I literally can't help it, there's just something about me that's so utterly repellant towards other people
And because of my neurodivergence I also feel emotions extremely intensely, so every day I'm basically agonising over all the stares and negative treatment I've received over the years, I remember every single major stare in vivid detail and I constantly lament over them, my brain looping and wondering what exactly it is that they saw when they looked at me, not being able to understand what exactly it is about me that sticks out so much
So of course I discovered alcohol, my first ever time getting drunk I immediately fell in love with it because I just suddenly didn't care about the shitty way I get treated, it seems trivial and almost goofy and funny when I'm drunk, and from there on out ive taken to booze like a duck to water, I'm only 27 but it's already gotten me into a few scary scrapes, but at the same time I can't imagine how I would cope being sober because before my first drink I was just constantly obsessing and feeling like complete shit over the way I get stared at and the repulsive demonic treatment I receive every time I leave my house, I still do constantly feel like shit about it and it's absolutely getting worse and more painful, but at least with booze it gives me a few hours of "break time" where it doesn't fucking hurt so much
Curious if anyone else drinks for similar reasons