when did you start puberty?

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That depends. Are people with these conditions deformed?

Seriously, she said 40%, so more than half of autistic people wouldn't have any of these.

Anyway, it's really okay. You have how long you have, you have the body you have and the mind you have, so do what you can with them.

Why is the idea that autistics might also look different from other people upsetting to you? Does it upset you to know that as a Brit you probably look British? (I think Brits have a distinct look, but it doesn't mean they'd never be confusable for Americans or any other nationality. That's about what we're talking about.)

For me, puberty started when I was in the 7th grade.

My breasts started growing when I was 8 or 9. I got my first period when I was 10.

I found those changes to my body annoying and embarrassing. I developed earlier than my classmates, so this was yet another thing that made me stick out as different, which gave others more excuses to pick on me.

I hated using sanitary pads and at first used cotton instead, until there was no way to get out of it anymore. I also hated when I had to start wearing a bra. I found those things really uncomfortable and didn't like the way they looked either. I didn't want anyone else to notice those things because my peers didn't need those things yet and using them felt so weird and unnatural to me. I was just a kid and wasn't happy about having to use such "women things" already.

I started at about 9, which isn't unusual for girls, but I am following an unusual puberty pattern. I am just about the done with the physical changes, but I still going through the emotional changes, which are much worse than the physical changes. I was the first one in my school to start many of the changes, which I don't want to talk about because I don't want to make anyone (especially men) uncomfortable.

I dont know. I dont even feel like i went through it.

Is that possible?

Thirteen years old.

My first period I got when I was 12.
Don't remember that other stuff. Didn't really bother me, either way, nor did I direct much attention to it.

Huh?

I don't understand this from either of you.

I never said autism affects you in every single way. I said that autism is sometimes caused by a condition that is also physical. How on earth is that supposed to be the same thing?

I never said not one thing about an autistic person is the same as an NT. I just said that sometimes physical things are caused by the same thing that causes autism for some people. As in, Down's can result in a higher rate of autism, and also can cause physical issues. If you don't have one of these syndromes, you don't have anything to worry about.

And please, kindly, stop blaming me for the results of your own black and white thinking. I'm getting tired of it. If you can't handle changes in information without flip-flopping from "nothing about autism can ever be physical and autistic people have some things in common with NTs," to "autism always has physical attributes, could kill me before my time, and we have nothing in common with NTs" then I am not to blame for this just for pointing out that one thing you said wasn't entirely true.

For the record, my position on these things is:

1. Autistic people have by far most things in common with NTs.

2. Autistic people have some things not in common with NTs.

3. Some 40% of autistic people (this is, btw, people diagnosed with autistic disorder, sorry if I didn't make that clear, that's who was examined in the study, so if you're diagnosed with AS, it's possible the percentages are quite a lot lower if any at all) appear to have physical conditions that caused both autism and other physical issues, so in those cases autism is related to certain physical issues. If you have these physical issues, you probably have very specific dysmorphic physical body features, often different from others in you family.

4. For the other 60% of autistic people (that is, again, people dxed with autistic disorder, as per the study I read) there are probably no physical issues or minimal physical issues (such as ones related to stress, for instance), or physical issues that are probably unrelated to the autism.

5. For autistic people not diagnosed with autistic disorder, I don't even pretend to know anything approaching the statistics on the matter.

6. None of that means that anyone here is going to die young or has to freak out about anything whatsoever.

Now please stop blaming me for your own black and white thinking that is unable to acknowledge that one thing changing doesn't make the entire world change. I'm getting very sick of this. Next time either of you read anything that I say, and say "OMG that means my entire worldview needs to be changed to its exact opposite," remember that this probably isn't true. I only said what I said. I didn't say any of the things I didn't say. And I'm tired of being held responsible for viewpoints I don't even have. The idea that if I say that some autistic people have physical issues related to their autism by a condition that causes both autism and their physical issues, then it must be true that this is true of all of us, and that we must have nothing in common with NTs, and all that other stuff, it doesn't even make sense. I said what I said, I didn't say what I didn't say, please stop attributing things I didn't say to me, thank you, just stop, now, please, I'm sick of this.

Sorry. It's just that most Aspies seem to blame every single feature on their body on having Autism, eg having blue eyes, having ears what stick out, having pale skin, having lots of moles on their arms, having small feet, never burp, ect - when I see NTs are equally likely to have the same things.

It just annoys me when people say ''Autistics have this, this and this, and NTs don't.'' (Emotionally and physically). I'm sorry what I said, but I was just waiting for the day to come where I type in ''death'' or something and a thread would come up saying something like ''are people on the spectrum likely to die early?'' or something like that. I've already seen a thread saying ''are people on the spectrum more likely to get Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s disease early?'' (Maybe not in those exact words, but I did find it). Reading all this makes me feel like I'm ill or something, or more likely to be ill. What if I type in ''cancer'' and something comes up saying ''are people on the spectrum more likely to get brain cancer?''

I'm not saying that's you, I'm just saying in general.

Well, since people with autism seem to be at an increased risk of being tortured, murdered or overall treated like they're worthless, I'd hazard a guess that the life expectancy is probably reduced, not so much because we're inherently not healthy but because, well... yeah. But so long as the people around you aren't planning murder, that doesn't matter from the standpoint of figuring out how long your life expectancy is.

4-5 y/o.

As with all things, there are people who know what they want, and people who don't. Being pragmatic, I have always had fewer hangups than NT people.

There is always a stabbing mentioned on the news every single week, but nobody never says anything about AS, and usually in the news they do mention every little detail about the victim (they do in East Anglia anyway).
My mum's colleague is NT, and he was walking his girlfriend home one Saturday night, and suddenly got beaten up for no reason, by people he didn't even know. He had to go to hospital.
Also my NT cousin is in a violent relationship with a really sick control-freak man (sick as in really weird, and nobody likes him, in fact everybody laughs at him).

Oh, yeah, I see that stuff too. I didn't mean to give the impression that I didn't.



Yeah I know what you mean.

And I'm sorry I reacted so harshly, I was just... I don't know, my brain wasn't working and I was frustrated and someone was rushing me and it all came out more intense than I intended.

I'm sorry I reacted so harshly, not the other way around

By age 15, I hadn't had my first period yet. I became anorexic a few months later, which probably delayed my already late puberty even more: until age 17 and some progesterone pills.