Why do people on the spectrum look young for their age?

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LaetiBlabla
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05 Sep 2017, 3:15 pm

Maybe because time does not really exist in our minds, it impacts less our faces.

Also if you rarely express feelings with your face, you get less wrinkles. :)

There must also be a biological cause delaying age signs because we look younger from an early age even if dressed like friends.



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05 Sep 2017, 3:47 pm

I look a little young for my age, but my wife (who has aspie traits and Autism runs in her family) is 40, looks even younger than me and she gets ID'ed all the time. Just last week, we were at the Hospital and the triage nurse pulls up her personal information and he then says "Wow. I would have never guessed. *I* am 40 too and I look nothing like you." He looked about 50! We also went to a gas station for lottery tickets. The clerk calmly asks for ID (the age is 19 here), then yells out so everyone can hear "OH MY GOD!! ! You are only 2 years younger than me!! ! Please let me what your secret is!" One clerk even asked for a second ID he was so convinced it was a fake ID. I've learned to smile and tell clerks that this happens all the time and not to be embarrassed.

I am married to her and I still can't believe it. If not for the fact that nobody over 19 would lie about being older than they are, I would almost want to hire a private investigator! One thing I find in common with all Aspies is that if you ignore the hair, they all could easily pass for College or even High School students. I personally am called "kid", "young guy" and other similar terms all the time and I will never forget my wife and I were in a meeting and someone commented on how we are of a "different generation". We are, only what he didn't know is that we were both older than him.



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05 Sep 2017, 4:16 pm

I am 27, yet often resemble an adolescent to many.


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Benjamin the Donkey
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06 Sep 2017, 8:49 am

From my late twenties till now, people have thought I was about ten years younger than my actual age. I didn't know this was a common thing for people like us.


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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06 Sep 2017, 9:00 am

Good question. I've often been thought 5 to 10 years younger. Remember one time in 1980s when my brother and I went to a club to hear some local band no longer remembered, even though he was almost 4 years younger than me they carded me and not him. Fascinating.


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07 Sep 2017, 12:46 pm

I'm 24, and most people think I'm about 14. I've had bus drivers tell me, "you don't have to pay, you're under 18", and when I tried to buy pepper spray at Walmart, the cashier told me, "You have to be at least 16 to buy this, do you have a parent with you?" Like that was her assumption, that I must have had a parent, rather than that I was old enough to buy it myself. I work with people in nursing homes a lot, and I always get asked if I'm lost, and once one of the residents asked her nurse, "Who's that little girl?" *Sigh* everyone always tells me I'm lucky, but it drives me a little crazy. The one nice thing though is that I can still act like the kid I feel like on the inside without too many sideways looks.


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07 Sep 2017, 3:24 pm

Hra1993 wrote:
I look older, although people are often surprised I have 2 children. I never get asked for ID. I'm 24.

Yeah, that's the way it was for me, when I was your age. I can remember being only 18, I think, and my eldest sister and I went somewhere, and they carded HER, and NOT me (she didn't like that LOL)! !

It might start to change, for you, when you're around, 30-something----that's when it changed, for me; I can remember getting carded, when I went to buy cigarettes, for myself, and I was 33!!

Now, it is the same----people are always saying I look, at least, 10 years younger, than I am (I've had people guess, 42, and I'll be 56, in a couple of months - I'm certainly NOT gonna complain, about THAT LOL).

In response to the OP: I don't know why, it is----it definitely seems to be something common, amongst ASDers----the only thing I can think-of, is that it has something to do with our being different, neurologically.





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07 Sep 2017, 4:46 pm

I don't know how it affects our looks, unless it is by lack of facial expressions, but I've often joked with people "Oh, I took a few years off." I'm still asking questions more appropriate for teens, though.
I happened to have several new friends when I turned 55, so I invited them over for "a birthday party." Nobody asked which birthday, but they brought a cake with four candles, assuming they had the right decade.



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07 Sep 2017, 6:04 pm

Huh. I'm the other way around. People think that I'm anywhere from 5-10 years older than I actually am. Not sure why...?


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arandomguy46
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10 Sep 2017, 7:55 am

Not necessarily. I'm 14 but people tell me that I look like I'm 16-17.


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GiantHockeyFan
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10 Sep 2017, 11:14 am

arandomguy46 wrote:
Not necessarily. I'm 14 but people tell me that I look like I'm 16-17.


I remember going out at 13 trick or treating and getting told I was too old to be out. Once I hit 20 though I stopped aging for a decade.



arandomguy46
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10 Sep 2017, 11:45 am

GiantHockeyFan wrote:
arandomguy46 wrote:
Not necessarily. I'm 14 but people tell me that I look like I'm 16-17.


I remember going out at 13 trick or treating and getting told I was too old to be out. Once I hit 20 though I stopped aging for a decade.

That's how old I was when I stopped trick or treating. :lol:


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EzraS
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11 Sep 2017, 2:20 am

I'm prolly short enough to get away with it still, especially wearing a mask.



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11 Sep 2017, 10:08 am

I often times look about 14 or 15 despite being almost 30. It has its upsides but its kinda creepy when you get attention from guys way older then you because they think that you're 13 or 14 years old ... Apparently they have a major pedo fetish in the south because I get hit on at least every other week by some guy way older then me. I hardly ever got hit on back home in NY and the way I am, that's actually a good thing.