Why did my autistic traits show up later in life?

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I was diagnosed with autism and NVLD as a child but my parents kept it from me. When I was 17, I got diagnosed with ocd and PTSD and severe depression but I know looking back when I was younger my preservation and echochalia was not as intense as it is now and same with my sensitivity to stimuli. I used to be able to do more. It feels like I'm digressing. But also my hypergraphic tendencies developed later on life too. I'm 20 now. I'm just very confused as to WHY Now, all this new stuff is coming up

I have had autistic traits show up later too. This was mostly because at a young age other children were accepting my oddities and didn't think much of it. I was in some aspects a lot different but it wasn't a problem. It became a real problem in high school and on when my peers started physically and mentally abusing me on a daily basis with zero consequences for them. It made me feel horrible and made many of my symptoms many times worse, of which I have never really recovered.

Very very strange. I Don't remember the world feeling so threatening

I've wondered the same thing. As a kid I really don't think I was that different, but like qFox said I think it was at least partially due to the fact that children and people in general are less concerned about odd behaviors in children. Also, I think that since my life has gotten more stressful it's brought out more of my autistic traits, because now I can't devote as much energy to looking normal.

I think a factor is also just the fact that now I am aware of autistic traits, even ones that I've always had but never thought twice about (like sensory issues). Now I'm constantly thinking about it, at least in the back of my mind.

I think we just have more of a self awareness or so should I say window into our brains and minds

One guess I have is things kids do at a certain age are normal and if an autstic's child's symptoms are not as strong, they may be masked because of their age but then they get older so it may seem like those symptoms started to appear but they have always been there. Also I think puberty; hormones, feelings changing, more stress, can make it worse and it seems common too. I also seem to have problems I didn't have as a child such as anxiety and having friends and playing with others but as I got older it all changed because people change and so do social skills and rules and people don't do as much for you as they did when you were a child so I had less stress and less stuff to worry about because mommy took care of it for me. now that I am an adult, I have to do things on my own now and figure it out and it's stressful I wonder if I have executive function issues which didn't seem to appear when I was young because I had a mom doing everything for me all parents do for their kids and they help you with things too like getting ready and all. I think I have always had all these things growing up but it wasn't as noticeable because I was younger so things were easier and less stressful. I had always been literal but all kids are literal so it may have been passed off as part of being my age as a child until I reached a certain age.

I think also it's more noticeable because you're expected/have to do more adult things. Like, I live by myself now and my house is very very untidy. I have cleaners every two weeks but I only tidy up so they can clean. And cooking I can do the cooking bit but it's the is the food ready bit I don't get. I don't pay the bills (I live at home but by myself) but there is no way in hell I could cope with organising or paying bills. I can't even do a monthly budget. All the things weren't an issue as a child but then become an issue around 19+. It's like now you start doing things you never really had to do before. Unless you still have pretty much everything done for you then I'm not sure.

I'm undiagnosed so my opinion may be meaningless, however my symptoms got signficiantly worse in my teen years. That's when I became really, really stressed (and increasingly self-aware that I was being abused). I also find that when I'm more stressed even now I seem "more" autistic.

I also find the same when I wear my hearing aids (I get headaches because it's too loud and then my eyes start to burn from brightness). I think that when I am overwhelmed I am less able to use coping skills/appear neurotypical.

I think it's a combination of what tetris said, and what Qfox said.

You notice it more because you're expected to act like a grown-up now that you're old enough to be considered an adult, so the autistic traits that are labeled "childish" are more noticeable. How many times have you been told "you should have learned better by now" when you do autistic things that nypicals don't like?

And then, because the nypicals don't like the way you're acting, you get bullied or mistreated or at the very least marginalized and ostracized more. And the stress of that makes your autistic traits more prominent, and harder to hide. It's a lot harder to pass for normal when you're stressed out.

It's that way for me, at least. Sometimes I'm so anxious and so stressed, it's all I can do to keep control of myself. For some reason certain nt's in my life see my efforts to maintain control, and think I'm trying to control them!

And the more they tell me to grow up (or, most infuriatingly, to "man up"--you have no idea how deeply I despise the male privilege inherent in that phrase), the worse my symptoms get, and the more childish or neurotic or selfish I appear to them. They really have no idea what it's like to struggle so hard to grasp all those "all I really needed to know I learned in kindergarten" social concepts. :sigh

So it becomes a vicious cycle.

As metacognition increases, you become more aware of those times when you're not really being yourself.

Looking back over my life, I've had ASD symptoms forever. But they got MUCH worse when I was in my late 20's. My life was a wreck for a few years. Figured out the root digestive causes that were exacerbating everything, put myself on a strict diet/supplements/probiotics, and now ~2 years later I'm in about the best shape of my life and symptoms are fairly well under control. I've been back to work for a year and a half and everything is looking up.

For me it was a combination of being the parent of a toddler, lots of stress, bizarre and difficult social situations where the old rules no longer applied, more responsibility in job and otherwise.

Eventually everything just popped, and I was doing things I had never even done before like stimming.

I still haven't recovered to the level of functioning I had before.

It could be simply the fact that you became more aware of them, so they appeared to be increasing or, as others have said, you might be facing some kind of stress that are aggravating your traits.
I remember that once i learned about AS and started doing researches i was a little worried everytime that i noticed that i was doing "AS things", wondering if maybe i was reading so much about the subject that i was starting to "create" the symptoms in me. I needed to ask people that were near me to confirm that i wasn't starting all those things at that time, i just wasn't aware that i do them.

my symptoms were always there but they got worse when i started puberty, i was 10 times more anxious, my sensory issues were worse and i was way more obsessive, still am actually, it probably had to do with hormones and brain development but i always had obsessions, sensory issues and social issues.

I can agree with this as well, matches my own experience. Even my mate has said it, that I act worse (he seems to see most autistic traits as bad things) when I'm reading about ASD.

I'm definitely more aware of my awkwardness than I used to be, about communication gaffes, and about eye contact. Especially eye contact. When colleagues come to talk to me at work about a task, a project or a document, I look at the document, at their hands, at the space behind them (usually to my left their right) or back at my computer screen while I listen. I hardly ever look at their eyes, and when I do I wonder if I'm staring too much or making micro-expressions that communicate something I don't mean and don't even understand. It's to different levels with different people, too; there are a small handful of people whose eyes I can look at, but most of the time if I make eye contact I wince and look away. I'm pretty sure that sends an unwelcome message to neurotypicals but it's like jerking your hand back from a hot surface--I can't help it, it's reflexive. Unless there is compassion and a desire to help in someone's eyes, it hurts to look them in the eyes. And this is something that increases the more I'm aware of it.

My mom has said I was always a bit different, but she really noticed a change when I was in middle school (about 12 or 13 years old). I think it was because of the added stress of a more complex social atmosphere at school. A couple of my elementary school teachers noticed there was something odd about me, and told my mom they thought I may have ADD. She didn't believe them, so nothing was done even though I was starting to have problems in school.

I wasn't diagnosed until I was almost 29 years old. Since my Dx, I've started dropping the NT act that I had been trying to maintain since middle school. Doing so has been a huge relief and I feel much better about myself.