Do you ever feel older / younger than you actually are?

Post Reply New Topic

I apologize if this topic has been done before.

Some days I feel like I emotionally am a lot younger than I actually am, and some days I feel I'm older. I don't know if it's my rapid mood swings (my mood can change about 5 times within 30 seconds). Usually it feels like I'm feeling a lot younger when I get stressed out and wish for a simpler time, then I feel older when my body aches from stress.

Yes. I often feel older than my peers and older than I actually am when it comes to my thoughts and the way I think, but I sometimes feel like a child emotionally.

As a child I felt older than my peers. That lasted until somewhere in my teen years. Then I felt I was about the 'right' age. Ever since my early 20's I have felt younger than I am.

There are days where I feel very childish, and there are days where I feel really old (much older than my chronological age), but generally I feel like I'm at least 15 years younger than I am, maybe 20.

I've always felt younger. I often take into account the delays I have as well but yeah... I definitely feel younger than usual. I mean, coming from someone who still sleeps with her plushies, hates the dark and still watches kid cartoons... yeah.

Last edited by LokiofSassgard on 23 Sep 2014, 4:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

That depends on which areas. With milestone achievements such as driving and moving out, I consider myself emotionally behind. However, I think I'm more opened minded than my peers in general, which makes me feel older. It doesn't help me much to compare myself to them anyway. Moving at a pace I'm comfortable with is paramount.

Intellectually I can be older. Emotionally I am much, much younger. Emotionally I am like a very young child sometimes functioning at an emotional level between 4 and 12. As far as cognitive function, it can vary depending on the situation between my child ages and chronological age, I am in my forties.

I think my emotional intelligence is stuck in teenage mode. It's been like one everlasting puberty my whole adult life.

It's hard to feel "age" because I have trouble relating and am not sure that "mature" for other people even genuinely means mature. For one thing I've noticed that autistic folks have a trend towards being less materialistic, and I personally think that it is an indicator of superior maturity as opposed to rampant materialism in society (however that is only one instance and no offense folks but autistic people can also lack self drive and a work ethic). Almost a third of my post tax income goes into missionary work, local charities, and other funds for me to actually go around the worst neighborhoods in town handing people bags of food. Does it make me immature that I can't make small talk or do this or that which other adults are prepared to do?

No, in fact I think maturity being measured on some sort of scale and age figuring into it is just one blown out of proportion illusion that people have always perpetuated in order to validate the prevailing norms and stroke egos. I don't see these "mature adults" in the trailer park regularly associating with the disadvantaged, I guess they're too good for that? Don't want to take the risks? But they'll certainly sit down on church pews and bar stools, and gossip about this or that at work, because those are all very mature things to do (sarcasm).

I have noticed I have acted ~5 years more mature than some of my friends when it comes to certain practical financial things - potlucks rather than buying something to eat, simple pleasures (parks, walking, movies at home, hanging out) rather than spending lots of money at events and movies. Even now when many of my age peers are renting and the idea of property is not in their minds, I have been thinking about it for years.. but lack the money to act.

On the other hand, when it comes to socializing and what to say or not say.. I see I am behind the norm.

Mentally older because I had to fend for myself, very early I saw what the real world was like. I didn't have much friends so most of the time I was just learning and reading about new things.

Emotionally younger because I never had room for proper emotional development due to bullying and social isolation. This never gave a chance for a healthy childhood or puberty. By 12 I was having my first real depression and pretty much the whole puberty meant a combination of frustration and depression instead of being able to learn about myself and develop. Sometimes I feel like emotionally I am stuck at childhood, since I never actually got the chance to have a normal one. I guess this is what a lot of people with autism go through.

Rather than matured I would consider myself 'hardened'. Maturing is something that implies a healthy development. I haven't really matured in that sense, I have just become better in coping with things and understanding what needs to be done.

Sometimes I feel like I am socially immature (compared to my peers) but otherwise, I am more mature in every other way, than they are. Most of the time, I feel like I am more so in my 30's or 40's... Maybe when I am 50, I will actually feel (in my mind/thoughts/emotions) the same age as my peers.

I've always felt waaaaay older than my age. When I was 18, I can remember thinking that I should be, at least, 40; when I was 40, I can remember thinking that I felt like I was 80. Now that I am 50+, I feel about 70. I should also point-out, though, that I also have ADHD, so I've been exhausted all of my life from my insides racing about 200mph.

I've always felt younger than I am and hung around with people much younger than me. Plus I look a lot younger too and can often take ten years off my age on a good day. People are often genuinely surprised when I tell them I'm nearly 50

(Edit to Campin_Cats quote)

I've experienced too much 'life' in a short space of time, without the equipment to deal with it, or a support network. I don't fully understand all that I experienced yet. I'm like a child on the inside, as in, I interpret new experiences as bewildering, over time they make more sense.

I almost never feel anywhere near my age.
I either feel like a child filled with wonder, or at the end of my life and ready to die.

There's almost always a feeling of anachronism.

I feel ancient. It doesn't mean unhappy, tired or depressed.... just ancient.