ASU Research Looking Into Effects Of Autism On Aging

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She is looking to see if dementia comes on earlier in autistics amoung other topics.

I do feel like I'm losing my (especially) short-term memory.

I find myself taking online Alzheimer's tests frequently.

My ASD-ness
has become
more so
in the last 2-3 years.

Aging?
Stress?
Head injuries?
Combo?

Maybe the part
of my brain
that does all the
workarounds
is on the decline.

Last edited by Slug on a Bike on 25 Jul 2018, 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

My memory still works fine; just a little slower, that's all.

My older relation that’s on the spectrum has no sign of dementia.He is around eighty.

I thought I saw a post recently on WP or a link that said some study's findings were that people with ASD on average died 16 years sooner than non-ASD people? That was one thing I was curious about for quite some time so it caught my attention.

Although I look younger than my age, internally I feel like I'm aging more rapidly than my biological age so perhaps I will die sooner than I would be expected to biologically.

My grandmother died from dementia. I was with her a few hours before she died. My memory isn't what it used to be so I wonder if the same will happen to me.

I am thankful for every day I have.

I would guess probably the Swedish research talked about <here> on the UK's health service site. I have read that some of this research has now been duplicated in the UK, with similar findings.

As always, you have to be very careful with life-expectancy figures. The averaged results may be skewed due to a large cohort dying at or before early adulthood, while saying little about the life-expectancy of those who have already lived longer. The two main reasons for early death were; 1) The high occurence of seizure conditions (e.g. epilepsy) among autistic people, which carry the same risks as those conditions would for a non-autistic person; and, 2) suicide, the risk of which peaks in early adulthood and then reduces with age (a pattern seen in the general population, though the overall incidence of suicide is far higher for autistic people.) Other factors were proposed to be things such as poor diet and difficulty accessing health-care (possibly arising from social impairments, poor executive function, and difficulty dealing with change.)

The Swedish research didn't look into the prevalence of age-related conditions such as dementia, arthritis etc. so far as I remember, so the research in the OP should complement it well. There's also a similar study which has been running for a few years at the University of Newcastle in the UK.

One should look at the "functioning level" of those who died young. One should also look at other, possibly genetic co-morbids which might lead to an early death.

Autism, in and of itself, doesn't shorten the life span.

Co-morbid mental illness. And (especially) co-morbid genetic disorders shorten the life span.

As a "high functioning", at 48, I'm not very "high functioning" anymore. Somewhere about 40 or so, back problems started getting to me. This started limiting my activities, and challenging the shakey 'coping skills' I had learned in past years. My diet suffered, I barely eat beyond a very limited, not healthy, formula.
My poor executive functioning has me at odds with heath care. I deal with bureaucracy only when it's extremely necessary. I rarely go to doctors or dentists. i don't make phone calls" I don't like doing all that phone stuff necessary for an "adult life".
But I'm falling apart. Kinda like a car, one thing goes, then a cascade of things goes.
My pain thresholds have been pushed to the limits, sensory overloads are commonplace now.

I call these years "the great meltdown" years.

No social skills, no social life, no "network". I do not use social media, never really have been able to "connect" with anybody here in cyberspace. This is all just words to me, no real people here. well, no sense of people. I logically know and understand you all are real people. i just don't "feel" it here on the internet.

I'm just so alone, nobody in my life. No job. No friends. never had much luck in romance.
I'm lucky my family supports me, I'd be homeless if it wasn't for my dad.

I can also see how that research suggests ASD live shorter lives.
I just see it all getting worse and more painful from this point. I think the physical strain of aging just overloads the autistic, til we can't take it anymore and end.

And being older, people really do not respect our autism, to many, we are "just being babies" and need to grow up. No friggin respect out there for adult autistics. It's all about helping the kids, forget older folks, I'm obsolete now.
That angers me about the whole ASD community, it's really just for helping younger autistics, everything for the kids, UGH.

I don't want to be old anyway. I don't want to live past 60.
I'm going to go chainsmoke cigarettes now. Its my stim..... more than an addiction.

I don't have anything else.