Do you feel much younger than your actual age?

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All the time lol
I am a bit younger than you though (I’m 16) but sometimes I act so immature and I feel the same way I felt when I was 7, and it isn’t good. Especially when everyone else around me is maturing into adults and I’m still giggling over silly little things. This combined with knowledge of sexual innuendo is not a good mix, let me tell you. I am called immature all the time lol.

When I was in my early teens, I felt younger than other people my age in some ways, and older than them in others. Now I just feel younger most of the time. I'm not sure what age I actually feel - probably about 20, because I subconsciously think of people that age as being about the same age as me, while in fact they're considerably younger. I don't feel that anything has changed mentally since I was that age.

I don't think I look my age. People are usually surprised when I tell them how old I am. I do believe that brain functions can affect physical aging, in that I think that people, AS and NT alike, very often look younger if they think of themselves as being younger.

I seem to notice my mental age in certain circumstances. For example, if I'm sitting down in a cafe with a cup of coffee and notice a no loitering sign, I immediately feel reactive. Then I imagine someone pointing at the sign and asking me to leave. I know it's silly but it happens on a subconcious level. Then logic takes over and I realize that no one will tell a 43 year old to leave if they've stayed a little longer. LOL.

Yes i do.

I don't know how young I feel. I think my various ages are very scattered. Some parts of me are pretty much non-existent and thus make me feel very young compared to peers, while at the same time other parts of me feel ancient because I know others will probably never be like this.

I mostly feel timeless. I like to put it like that because it fits best to say I'm timeless.

Normal time is used to measure normal people. You got to develop in a certain speed, learn things by a certain age...

I work by a different time.

It cannot be described as being slower or faster than that average time, because it is bend differently than average time and doesn't run parallel to it.

I feel considerably younger than my actual age of 59.

I feel about twenty years younger than my actual age but possibly for different reasons than most. They are lost years. One time it was 1979 & ten years later it was 2009. Nothing much happened in that time. I just went through my daily routine. There was very little travel or special outings. No true friends, no partner, no children. I don't even watch many movies or read many books. As a result I didn't have thirty years of experiences. I just spent my time studying my own particular interest & ended up becoming a leading authority on a subject that has relatively few devotees.

Before finding out about AS, I felt that my lack of social skills was possibly because I didn't have the normal experiences that most people have & therefore nothing to relate to.

In recent times I have been in the company of people who are ten years younger than me but I feel as though they are ten years older. Then I realise this isn't the case. It is weird feeling & when it occurs I usually end up asking myself "Just what happened to those twenty years".

Anyway, I think I understand myself better now & will adopt a slightly different approach to living in the future.

There's a saying; "If you didn't know how old you are, how old would you think you are?"

I'd guess my own age around 25 based on feel, taste in entertainment, inability to relate to soccer moms and Suburban Sallies, and yes, even looks. That is so not ego talking. DNA + a reasonably healthy lifestyle + thinking and feeling young, which I have seen in my parents works fantastic.

I was born the generation gap; siblings old enough to be my parents, parents old enough to be my grandparents. As my folks put it, "Your friends end up being the parents of your kids' friends. Your friends' parents were all 20 years younger than us - so we had to stay young to keep up!"

Interesting though to wonder if it's at all AS related. Not from what I've seen, but then I haven't met very many Aspies IRL. Hmmm, that'll have me musing for a while!

- Jo; 41, and listening to Rob Zombie to purge her eardrums of the classical the other 40-somethings listen to at work.

This is what I feel like happened:

When I was six I stopped growing up emotionally because I lost track of emotions at all. At twelve I felt very mature and that I knew everything. I felt thirty at least. Then things went all strange for a few years, and at 16 I popped open and started to age emotionally again from six. In college I had my preteen and teen years. Now I feel like I'm starting to catch up again, feeling about 20 now that I'm mid-20s. However, that's still an average of all aspects. I've tried (and succeeded, I think) to hold onto the best things about being emotionally young.

Here is how I think about it in fantasy terms: People think of elves as ageless because they're forever frozen in the bloom of youth, seeming sometimes somewhat older and sometimes somewhat younger. I'm not an elf. I'm a gnome. They have childlike proportions and attitudes, but the features of an older person. They represent both extremes at the same time.

I'm 16 but I often feel alot younger, and I probably act it, so I get on better with 13/14 year olds and when I'm with people my own age I feel like the kid of the group

Yeah I definitely feel a lot younger than my age albeit with a certain wisdom that people twice my age seemed surprised at. I didn't do the things most people do when they are in their teens and twenties which gets me really depressed if I think about it for too long. So I have never really grown up. I feel like an adolescent in many ways.

mmmm, I think it's more of a mindset, a way of looking at the world, than it is the arthritis....

I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised with the results so far. So many young at heart in this thread. There isn't much research on this topic though.

Keep sharing, it really is interesting to see how many of you have said exactly what I personally feel.

I have a similar reaction. I'm afraid someone is going to throw me out.

But I don't think it's because I feel younger than I am. I think it has more to do with "loitering" being mostly about nonverbal behavior. I've never quite figured out where the balance shifts from "taking my time" to "loitering." How many minutes do I get? If I sit up straight rather than slouching, am I still loitering? Fortunately, I eat and drink faster than anyone in creation (the result of having my father take food off my dinner plate when I was a child, yes, I kid you not, he was not real clear about boundaries...), so the issue rarely arises anywhere outside my fevered brain.

This is a very intresting topic, whoever started it...ummmn...

Well, my ways of being 'immature' may sound a bit frightening to some but sencable to others. Whether or not this 'young at heart' exsist's...well....

The MAIN way in which I may be 'immature' is the fact that i'm amazingly (though suddenly) attracted to soo many 'kiddy' things like cartoons and video games, and, just won't ALLOW myself to find ANYTHING 'too cute'. And I always have to watch cartoons with my bro now...it's kinda cool, though it can really get in the way of some things.....

But it's not like I can help it. I just can't really give up the 'kiddy' things...

Now...as for emotions.....

Well...i'm 'childish' in THAT sense, too...sorta. But not in soo many 'possitive' ways...yet.

I get cranky and cry easly, and, sometimes, yell/scream easly, too...I can act a bit spoiled, sometimes i may 'brag' about things...although, that trat seem's to be ending.

I can be really hyper, too....although now i'm starting to calm down.

As for the POSSITIVE...well, i'm trying to develup a cheerier outlook. If it's possable...i try to ALWAYS look on the bright side, though...

But sometimes I can also be really sad...I miss being a kid.

And yet...I still am one. Really...

And, yes...there are actually POSSITIVE sides to being 'imature'.

I still like to color in coloring books, sometimes...lately i've been making cut-up paper crafts again...to add to my ummm...'collection' of uhhh...well, stuffs. haha lol

Sometimes i'll play with toys or my stuffed animals. And sometimes i'll watch....

...baby shows. Yeah, shush up, pfft.

Yes...i'm too childish for my age. TOO childish. Seriusly...although I like some adult-like things (but NOT sex, no).

Oh by the way i'm 18. I know nobody beleve's me...think i'm a lier, I don't care...and I feel more like 5, anyways.....then again, I kept watching baby shows PAST that age, soo....

In some ways, i'm mature...I mean...I can socilize...sorta.

And well...in some ways, i do feel...ARRGGG I MAY HAVE TO END THIS STUPID POST, MY YOUNGER BROTHER IS LOOKING OVER MY BACK. Annoying....

Sorry, i'll post more later. Not done yet, but....I have to end this post now or my brother's gonna start tateling on me. >_>
~cmastler

I have felt like I am 14 with a mature out look on life at 29. It is kind
of strange. I am still in denial about being 29. I know people
comment on me and how child like I can be. Of course that is half of the animation student body here at school.