Feeling like a kid trapped in an adult body

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I'm nearly 23 but I have felt like a much older teenage boy, I'm 5'8 and there are plenty of 16, 15 and even 14 year old guys as tall or taller than me. I lived a very sheltered, homebody life, never held a job, only gotten around to learning how to drive when I was almost 22 and will finally be able to get my license in the next couple of months. I had late last year the social understanding and skills in many areas of a 12 year old. I often had to ask advice from my NT dad on things that very few 22 year olds have to, because I am very naive about the ways of the world. Because of my social immaturity I often feel that my dad's wishes and happiness are the first priority and mine a distant second.

I do not feel like an adult because of these reasons, but I am hoping greatly this will change this year and I can become an adult in my mind as well as in reality. Wrongplanet and it's members have helped me very much in how I can gain an adult understanding of the ways of the world and that me being Autistic does not mean I am stuck having the social skills and understanding of a 12 year old.

aww you're just a late bloomer newchum!

I don't think I grew up much until about 30, by then, a few social concepts had 'clicked' in my head and I was a bit more mature. I don't know, I would expect it's different for those dx'ed in their youth. I remember the frustration of not becoming mature in the way others were in their twenties. Oh well

who here doesnt feel ike that. i know i do and it gets very irritating

I think that the emotional part, at least, is very common - I know I read an interview with Temple Grandin where she said that she feels like she is emotionally about 14 and didn't feel like she was actually an adult until she turned 45 . . .

I know I feel that way, too . . . but I'd say I'm emotionally about 10 and I still don't feel like an adult at 32 - so I've got 13 more years to go, I guess

Sometimes, I think we put too much stock in reaching certain milestones at the "appropriate" age. Most people just act out the roles they think are socially acceptable for whatever age they are at the moment. The advantage of being an Aspie is since we're more likely to behave according to our authentic selves, we're not bound by cronological restrictions and essentially do whatever the heck we want regardless of whether society says it's "immature" or "babyish".

I, for one, have a collection of Beanie Babies and stuffed animals around my apartment that make it look like a zoo. I love flying kites, video/computer games and watching "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". I can't drive, not because I didn't take lessons but because the other people on the road have no business holding driver's licenses and scare me even when I'm a passenger. And I didn't have my first true boyfriend until I was 26.

Don't feel like you have to conform to some stereo-typical image of what an "adult" is supposed to be. Lord knows that many who hold high positions or are wealthy don't act like they've left their teens if their behavior is any indication.

I feel that I'm a 16 Year Old, trapped in the body of a 31 Year Old. I have the Rebellious Streak of a Teenager. I also get Moderate to Severe PMS and the Mood Swings that come along with it. I have the Mind of a Baby Boomer and the Emotional Maturity of a 16 Year Old. Maybe, that's why I'm a 1960s London-Type Mod. You don't see very many 31 Year Old Mods, walking around. Most Women my age are devoted Wives and Mothers. What can be different, can be beautiful.

"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened"

I have a genuine shock everytime i look in a mirror.That isn't me!
-but it is.

Newchum, do you think you could handle making a break from your parents for a while?
Probably something I should have done sooner.No need to be mean about it, just move across the country if you can handle it.Find an area with a labor shortage, if there are any out there.

I often feel the same way. But in certain aspects, I feel older. It's an odd combination, really.

I'm 22 years old, yet I have the wants, needs, cravings of a 14 year old (approximately) and I believe my emotional maturity is at that point as well. I still get upset over not getting my way, losing at games, and feel extremely shy, almost to the point of being afraid, of girls. I generally shrug off responsibilities, play video games all day, and carelessly spend my money without concern for the next day.

In other ways, I feel older than I am. I find very little in common with people my age, and usually identify with the opinions and customs of older people. I lack the energy and ambition that most people my age have, and no longer feel that "immortality" that most seem to believe they have until old age. I find politics, philosophy, theology, and history interesting. When I'm invited to go to a party or club, which is seldom but it does happen, I feel out of place and old. I feel like I'm not connected to the "scene" that people my age are a part of and I lack the link to their world to make me feel a part of it. I'm always tired, lethargic, and rarely possess the initiative to want to do anything active or "cool".

I dunno, I think I understand where you're coming from. I guess it's that my heart feels young, but my mind feels old. My body, as a result of this, feels restrained by itself to not embrace the age it is physically.

When I was a kid I came off as precocious.
Im abit like Saturnine actually.I dont have the ambition and energy that others have. Infact it annoys me how people are acting grown up even though I felt the way I feel for a long time. How come they are changing so much over such a small time. Other kids want to grow up. But I feel like being young is a pretty sweet deal actually. And just want to be a kid.

When I was age 4 adults would remark that I was like a little professor. Sadly, now, approaching the half century mark, the commandant of the Stalag I live in remarks that she has to "teach me" things her friends are teaching their adolescent children. Granted she is from a non Anglospheric culture where kids get lots of teaching from parents in any and all minutia, but the point is taken.

I'm still not sure what I want to be when I grow up.

I can relate. I had a very sheltered childhood and I am very scared of the idea of leaving my mother's home.
I sometimes wish i was still 18 so i would not feel like such a failure.

Most people my age can drive and i am afraid to do that. The thought of growing up scares me.
I sometimes wonder if have something worse than aspergers.

I'd agree, its depressing. I mostly just feel this though either in the process of falling asleep, waking up, or incidentally seeing my mannerisms in a mirror.

I actually felt like an adult in a child's body when I was younger and had been forced to grow up much too soon in some ways. I don't think either extreme is particularly healthy.