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OliveOilMom
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07 Feb 2012, 2:37 pm

You see a whole lot about kids, some about adults, but I haven't ever seen anything in the media about elderly people with AS/ASD. I haven't Googled it or anything, I'm talking about in the media like tv, movies, books, news, etc. There are plenty of documentaries about autistic kids, plenty of them about adults who live with parents, in group homes and occasionally something about someone living on their own, but I've never seen anything about the elderly folks.

I wonder why that is.

I'm gong to Google and see what I can find. Any thoughts on this?


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biologic
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07 Feb 2012, 2:44 pm

Well, as for AS, I guess the main reason is that there aren't a lot of elderly people who have been diagnosed as it's a fairly new diagnosis.



aspi-rant
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07 Feb 2012, 3:35 pm

OliveOilMom wrote:
I wonder why that is.


it would be to easy…

the whole "industry" had to learn to listen to the real experts… the ones with autism…

if they don't go looking for them, nobody can criticize their lack of understanding of autism, and they can keep up all the funding.

a whole "industry" depends on this lack of facts and real knowledge.

that's why.



Last edited by aspi-rant on 08 Feb 2012, 3:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

tall-p
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07 Feb 2012, 3:45 pm

I guess I am "elderly" now... 70 in April. I have had an interesting life. My mother was a Christian Scientist, and my father career military. I read early thanks to my mother, and "tested" well right into university. Mom prayed for me, I was a disappointment to my father, what with my stims and inability to assert myself, poor posture, and special interests.

The only time I really have connected with other people has been playing games. I am good at some of them, and that interests some people. I also got into cycling and race bikes for six years... it's a game too of course, but I did connect with a few others during those days.

I got sick six years ago and had cancer... a couple years later I had an anxiety attack, but I had no idea what had happened to me. I thought maybe PTSD? I Googled around and got into the DSM... and then I took a bunch of online psychology tests... I eventually narrowed my situation down to: Your Aspie score: 120 of 200 Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 69 of 200 You are very likely an Aspie. After reading here for a while, and other papers and articles, I can see that I'm an old Aspie who has struggled through.


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Joe90
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07 Feb 2012, 4:39 pm

I've been wondering about elderly people with AS a lot too. Obviously there are elderly people out there who have it, but their condition wasn't ever recognised beforehand, and probably still isn't now. My mum knows an 83-year-old who has always had differences and stuff, and now she reckons she might be on the spectrum (obviously my mum knows a lot about AS because of me).

But I think it's harder to recognise AS in elderly people anyway, because (from my experience) elderly people lose interest in conformism, they think more logically, a lot who I know enjoy doing puzzles and working out maths problems, and sometimes they can even come out with irrelevant things and they repeat a lot. Also some end up very lonely because a lot of their friends die and their older relatives obviously aren't around any more, and if they didn't have any children or many siblings then they just have to make do, and some get past caring with making new friends when they reach their 70s and 80s. I know a lot about elderly people because I've worked with them before.

Sometimes I wonder if one of my elderly relatives has some traits of AS. She has Alzheimer's now, but before then she was always a logical thinker, she always felt like an outsider to other people a little bit, and she didn't do very well in social situations. She said when she was my age she prefered to sit at home watching her mother do the ironing on a Saturday night, instead of going out with her friends. But, still, that ain't enough to throw a diagnosis of AS at her - she might of just always been a shy person, and NTs can be logical too.


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antonblock
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07 Feb 2012, 5:27 pm

hi,

my grandfather is 84 and is certainly an aspie, ... and he is the coolest guy I ever met on my life :-))

he loves to work very madly, he can't without, he was most of his life a farmer, and worked until 80 for his farm, ... had cows and so on. He liked this job very much and didn't want to retire. Even now he cooks on his own and likes to go by his truck and help his son. He doesn't care that his eyes are not so good any more and shouldn't drive any more.

He is regarded somewhat crazy for some reasons.... one reason is he only has a few clothes which he wear the last 25 years ... and they look really very dirty, but he doesn't care. And my parents are always abit ashame when he visits us and other people are there.

He likes to repair things on his own, and mostly doesn't buy any new stuff. He is very stubborn, and has very high morals. He doesn't like the church but believes in christians kindness. He does what he thinks is rright, but doesn't care much when others think differently.

He is a very sensitive guy, though he sometimes didn't care as younger people would expect. Since his wife's death he goes often to the graves, and also likes to talk with many people as he feels lonely. He has the same humor as I do :)

He goes to bed very early, but thinks alot in his bed, how to do which things at the next day. His father was said to be a very quiet man too, no drinking no smoking, no more than one women.

best regards,
anton



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07 Feb 2012, 6:11 pm

My poor aspie Mum died at 84, she would have lived longer if she had joy and happiness in her life. She married late and had me at 44 yrs old

She found some friends in church, but ended up rejecting them (due to mistreatment from bullies) and god about 4 years before her death

She ended up in an old folks home, dying within 3 years

I knew she would fall out with someone at the home, and the stress of her condition would eventually kill her

I knew nothing of AS back then

In summary: she was old school and lived healthy. All the problems we face today were the same for her 50 years or more ago



DJFester
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08 Feb 2012, 3:08 am

biologic wrote:
Well, as for AS, I guess the main reason is that there aren't a lot of elderly people who have been diagnosed as it's a fairly new diagnosis.


^^ This. ^^


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dr01dguy
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08 Feb 2012, 9:01 am

Frankly, I'm convinced that many -- if not most -- cases of "dementia" among senior citizens are really undiagnosed and untreated AD(H)D (with or without ASD) -- possibly, made several orders of magnitude worse by giving them antipsychotics. Unfortunately, there's an enormous taboo against giving stim meds to elderly patients, even those who are painfully obvious Aspies and/or ADDies and would almost certainly benefit from them.


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Mummy_of_Peanut
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08 Feb 2012, 9:30 am

I suspect my 87 yr old aunt has AS. She has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and has had a lot of psychiatric treatment, including ECT, sleeping tablets and lithium. My dad says she started to go drastically downhill after she was prescribed the sleeping tablets (don't know what they were). She's in a nursing home now and is probably one of the most alert residents, whilst being one of the oldest. She has mood swings, but they're definitely not bipolar. They're more like the ones I and others on here have.


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