Is Autism Easier Now That You're Older?

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I would say smell is my greatest sensory issue. Some smells are so bad I feel I could throw up.

This is a good question. I'm close to 50.

Things that are harder: My sensory issues primarily with sound, but also smell, light and to a lesser extent, touch are harder for me or I'm more affected by them as far as stress than when I was a kid.

I need far more along time now to function than when I was a kid.

Executive functioning is harder now since I have obligations that I didn't have when I was a kid.

Things that are easier: No one forces me to do things I don't want to do.

I care less about what people may think of me than when I was younger.

In some cases I agree, and for some, I disagree...

A lot of life is more difficult, because when I was a child, I was expected to be a child...now that I'm an adult, it's not quite so attractive =) People expect you to be responsible and take care of yourself.

In some ways, knowing about Autism has made life easier, like being able to cope with/avoid stress etc. But in other ways I feel like it was nice being blissfully ignorant: I wasn't so self conscious back then, and didn't worry about stimming in front of people.

There are basically two different forms of human disconnection:

1) disconnection from others, which may occur in severe or less severe forms

2) disconnection from the deep and important parts of the self.

These can co-occur, and the pain may manifest in dissociative episodes of extreme and unmanageable inner pain, usually triggered by some event or reawakened feeling memories and imprints of shame, failure, worthlessness.

When I was a young person, I consciously felt pain from (1), though I was perceived as a very self-sufficient child.
I was too young to accurately name, recognise, or perceive my experience of (2) and how it manifested in self-harming ways.

When you know better, in life, you tend to do better. This is a fairly universal truth of human life, both AS and NT.

I was unable to begin the healing journey regarding (2) until I was well into middle age. Grief and serious loss of family and my beloved partner were too distracting until then. Grief was ultimately a great teacher.

To the extent that subsequent decades in older age gave me greater opportunities to resume the healing of (2), particularly after retirement from paid work, I now know much more about the deepest and least accessible parts of my self, psyche, soul and the nature of past impacts on them.

So the older I get, the more I am able to ease my way through AS and other interconnected challenges.
I would not be young again for anything, nice as it would be to have that physical energy level back, old age has been better overall for me in terms of understanding and healing both (1) and (2).

I am and always have been temperamentally of an introspective nature, and that has perhaps made my journey easier
in some ways than those who have only outward perspectives on life.

Yes since I am an adult and legally allowed to say no two things I do not want to do or have done to me. As an adult, my voice is finally heard.

I wish I'd been diagnosed sooner than I was (which was about five or so years ago--I'm 40 now); it would make this comparison so much easier. All I can say is that it really depends on the mood that I'm in on a particular day as to how I cope with my ASD. If I've sunk into a depression, then it's really hard for me to cope with it.

If I had any kind of diagnosis when I was younger, I would have been far worse off than I am now, as autism in the 1970s, when I went to school, was only recognized among the most severely affected persons.

My life is much better now than it ever was. However, I'm uncertain I will ever grow much beyond where I am now. I have so many dreams that may stay just that if I don't improve my present level of functioning to one hundred times what it is now. At my present level, I don't see myself living alone or getting married. I know that the channels NTs use to achieve their goals aren't accessible for me, so I have to think up creative solutions.

Yes, adults are easier to deal with, in some ways, than children

Diagnosis clarified some things

The only thing that's easier about being older is that you can hide it a lot easier. Most people don't even think there's anything too unusual about me unless they spend extended time with me.

Things are easier for me than it was when I was younger. When you are young, you have to keep things hidden from your parents, so they don't kick you out. I had to keep things hidden from my parents. Another problem that I had is that kids in their early teens are very intolerant of people who are different from themselves. I had a very hard time when I was in Grades 9 and 10. Most people in Grades 9 and 10 are between the ages 13 and 15. I also don't care what people think about me anymore. I don't care if people stare at me because I'm unusual. Life is too short, so I'm going to live the life I want.

It is, because I didn't even know I was autistic until I was diagnosed as an adult, and I'm living on my own in an apartment where I have control over my own living environment instead of in a home full of mentally ill people and staff constantly telling me what to do and forcing me to be something I'm not.