It seems like his biggest problem was alcoholism. I don't know that addiction is over-represented among smart people or people on the spectrum. It looks like it can be a vicious cycle though. Abuse alcohol or drugs, make bad decisions, bad decisions have negative consequences, abuse alcohol or drugs again to forget about negative consequences, rinse and repeat. It's a hard cycle to break. Many people can't admit that they have a problem to begin with.
I’m open about my past Heroin addiction on here, and get a tonne of emails from other HNers. Anecdotally I’ve no idea whether it’s more than should be expected, but a lot of people on here suffer the way I suffered, so it’s definitely an undercurrent at least.
For sure it's more common than people think. I think it's good to de-stigmatize both mental health and addiction. IMO shame gets in the way of people asking for help.
I’m pretty convinced there is at least a subset of smart people who are very (i.e. above normal rates) prone to addiction problems, it accept this is anecdotal and subject to sample bias.
