Aspergers and age
MindWithoutWalls
Veteran
Joined: 25 Oct 2011
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,445
Location: In the Workshop, with the Toolbox
I've gotten better with some skills and used to making better responses to certain things that I've learned to recognize. I've appeared better in some ways because of help I never used to have. Understanding what I'm dealing with also helps me. But my sensory stuff seems worse, now that I've allowed myself to be aware instead of suppressing it all. I can't always successfully suppress my reactions anymore, though I can still mask enough to get myself out of a situation before I start to become unable to cope. Also, because I'm being assessed and learning so much, I'm going through a period of uncertainty, and everything is harder. In addition to everything else, I'm not sure I'm always correctly gauging how much better or worse I might be at some things. So, this is kind of a tough question. But I suppose changing circumstances might make some things harder for a time, and that's different from the age issue.
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Life is a classroom for a mind without walls.
Loitering is encouraged at The Wayshelter: http://wayshelter.com
I think I'm getting worse as I approach 40.
My energy is less. I used to love to go for long cartrips... now, not so much.
I've also had a family of my own for 17 years. That's getting harder. She's got health problems now, so she's finding it far more difficult to have any sort of patience with my difficulties.
Part of it may be that not only do I know what's wrong, I also know that everyone else can see it too, even when they don't say anything. Which is quite discouraging. What's the use of pretending when everyone can see through it?
The kids are getting older, and I'm finding them every bit as difficult to connect with as I found my teenage classmates back when I was their age.
Shellfish
Velociraptor
Joined: 6 Nov 2011
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 485
Location: Melbourne, Australia
I have spoken to several people who have told me that they feel like they may have had aspergers (or at least traits) as children, who have outgrown some of the behaviours. I can definitely believe it knowing them now as they still have 'trace elements' but I have come to believe that there are far more people around who are somewhere on the spectrum than people realise.
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Mum to 7 year old DS (AS) and 3 year old DD (NT)
Without wishing to cause any undue worry to 20ish year olds who're saying they've gotten better as they've gotten older, I too had some relief from various ASD related issues in my 20s and 30s. Beyond then, however, I seem to've lost the will or energy to be constantly masking to not stick out in NT public. As a result those issues have returned.
That said, I wasn't diagnosed before 45. Hopefully, with the interventions or whatever help you may have received since diagnosis, this may not be the case with you.
I'm 25. I feel I still have the same intensity of issues, but my coping skills have changed. As an adult, I am more able to control my environment and remove myself or make changes when I need to. As a child, I had more melt downs because I was frequently stuck in situations beyond my control. Adults around me didn't understand I had a legitimate problem and told me to "suck it up", which is something I obviously couldn't do.
Well, I definitely know much more about social situations now than I did as a kid. Now I have to deal with depression and anxiety, I don't know what is better.
I am annoyed by social conventions. Now I know more about them, but I still don't see their point.
One of the things I have learned is that I shouldn't talk a lot. Because if I do it mostly goes wrong. This gets me put into the "shy" box by many people, but at least they don't think I'm as weird as people used to.
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EXPANDED CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
"It's how they see things. It's a way of bringing class to an environment, and I say that pejoratively because, obviously, good music is good music however it's created, however it's motivated." - Thomas Newman
I'm 70... I'm still totally inept, boring, friendless. I'm far less emotional about most things now than when I was much younger. I realize now that one of my major differences was that I never wanted what most people want. I did a lot of faking to get along. How do you learn to want stuff you don't care about? It was a miracle that I found work that made good money for over 20 years.
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Everything is falling.
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