Disappearing, Weakening symptoms of Autism

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Noamx
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22 Jan 2023, 10:36 pm

About disappearing and weakening symptoms of Autism, I was wondering if you can explain what you think / know about this in generally, and what kind of symptoms for example might have disappeared or weakened for you. For me, there have been various symptoms which have, but I cant tell you exactly. I just generally started to feel after a certain age, I'm getting along with other people in situations, social situations, much better, in generally, and it was a good feeling of course. Im talking about High functioning autism, in this case.

What about you?

Thanks.


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About me, my name's Noam 32 years old from Israel, diagnosed with High functioning Autism at about age 21 but unofficially had this problem since I was born. From age 25 or so I started to function better but I still have alot of problems in my life. I live in Israel in a city called Ashdod, but I was born in Jerusalem. I'm Agnostic when it comes to religion.

Hobbies include Video Games, Music, Sports, Swimming, Watch TV, Sex/Getting laid, Alcohol, Writing, Reading, and more.


IsabellaLinton
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22 Jan 2023, 11:21 pm

Nothing disappeared or weakened for me.



autisticelders
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23 Jan 2023, 6:24 am

life experience can help give us insights and we can learn to cope and adapt as we grow older. I think the neurological setup we were given at birth does not change but we learn how to use new tools /ways to do things and understand many things better as we age. I still have autism, but I am not the same inexperienced child I was at age 3,5,8, 15 or even as I was as a young or middle aged adult. We all grow and change... well, most of us!


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Joe90
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23 Jan 2023, 7:28 am

My fear of dogs barking has disappeared, although there are other sudden loud sounds I still fear.

I haven't had obsessive interests since I was about 24, not do I feel the need for them any more, which is a relief because I don't like my mind being taken over by random people I fixated on and made myself look like a stalker. I just have casual interests now like everyone else.


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Edna3362
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23 Jan 2023, 10:44 am

To a greater extent, I lost the reactivity over sensory stimulus and the ever infamous anxiety, intolerance to uncertainty in general.

My reaction of changes went from triggering to just confusing, that the only symptom I have was this struggle to adjust quickly, in need of time knowing and integrating new information and changes.

I'm completely alright with that. I don't want any more overreaction or reactivity, more so if involuntary.


I'd very much rather have disappearing/outgrowing executive dysfunction. Or even emotional dysregulation.
But nope! :roll: Instead my hormones just puts me into this ADD-like state weeks before that
damnable time of the month.


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klanka
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23 Jan 2023, 12:57 pm

Could be that socialising a lot gives you learnt social skills



MaxE
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24 Jan 2023, 12:58 pm

If your autism is primarily due to Theory of Mind issues, it can seem to improve over time because you can learn compensatory techniques once you become aware of the nature of your problems. If your autism stems from sensory processing, there's probably no way to compensate, in fact it may be possible to "get worse".


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Edna3362
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24 Jan 2023, 7:46 pm

MaxE wrote:
If your autism is primarily due to Theory of Mind issues, it can seem to improve over time because you can learn compensatory techniques once you become aware of the nature of your problems. If your autism stems from sensory processing, there's probably no way to compensate, in fact it may be possible to "get worse".

Reaction to sensory issues can be better. i.e. losing misophonia, not to react in anxiety during overstimulation and overall learning to manage pain...

Sensory issues itself doesn't.
The intensities are the same more or less, but the distortions and processing do get worse. i.e. gaining auditory processing issues, the overall slower time reaction and processing speed with age...

Learning theory of mind related stuff is basically just more trial and error, experience and observation.



My primary issue with autism is very much to do with emotional regulation issues.
It's always been my primary issue as a child and even now to a point that I wish I was the unemotionally alexithymic.

Thankfully I don't have mental health disorders or something like BPD.

But more like I have stupid emotional interpretations that are very much against my rational and conscious self. Yeah, that's a very human issue.

If I cannot do well with reacting with emotions at the moment, then I would have to go to the very root of the problem -- which is incidentally, the subconscious and where the egodystonic personality traits programmed within me.

When I never have to solve that, there won't be anything to deal with in the first place.

So my main focus of learning was the root cause of being emotionally triggered in the first place, than mainly in social or sensory areas.

I'm alright with autistic emotional processing by itself (which is usually delayed, in a different angle and in retrospect -- the latter is not really autism exclusive), but I'm not alright with having the need to emotionally process and made to manifest it into misaligned behaviors and misaligned thoughts.

So basically, I'm more like mastering an aspect of 'humanity' than autism to make 'autism better'.


My second primary issue with autism is language and communication...
Which doesn't seem get better in my case. Auditory processing and working memory issues doesn't help.

Yet I get more communicative and clearer only and only if I'm well regulated.
So it just goes back to sensory and emotional regulation in my own case.

Not at the human aspect -- I accept all it's frustrations that came with having issues and limitations with verbal abilities.
But I may or may not improve if speech therapy had been available for me.


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ToughDiamond
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25 Jan 2023, 9:53 pm

Yes I've learned a lot over the years about how to deal with people.

If I've been getting the right amount of regular exposure to people then I seem to start doing quite well. If I go into isolation for long enough then my social skills seem to get rusty.

I don't think the ASD gets any better or worse over time. I think it's just the amount of exposure to people and the circumstances of the particular social situations I happen to be in that make the symptoms seem better or worse.

So to answer your question, it would be useful to look at how accustomed you currently are to socialising, and how many (or few) challenging things come up when you do socialise, and to look also at whether you're applying lessons you've learned from previous experiences and study.

I think it can be quite random. I thought I was doing quite well at a music night the other day, until a guy came up and invited me to a "fish supper" he was having. It took me by surprise and before I had time to think I bluntly replied "I don't eat fish." He said he was sure they could sort something out for me, and then I didn't know what to say, so I went rather blank, and he looked disappointed and walked off muttering something like "come and ask for my address if you decide you want to turn up." I was too shy to walk over to him and ask for the address. I was scared I might make a mess of it by forgetting his name or his face, or be unable to get his attention if he was talking with other people. So I felt I'd blown him off, and could have kicked myself. Luckily the event was announced later and they said what the address was. He looked really surprised and delighted when he saw I'd turned up for it. I'd been trying to rehearse an apology for seeming so rude before, but as it turned out it wasn't necessary. So it worked out very well, but it was mostly a matter of luck. My social intelligence seems a bit too slow to keep up with such things, but I got away with it.