For those who need help growing up!

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Hey everyone! (Mods: feel free to move this thread if it is better suited for another sub-forum)

This thread was inspired after reading through a thread created By MSBKyle.
the thread can be accessed here: http://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=276594
To summarize, many people on the spectrum feel that they mature at a slower rate than their peers. I can definitely relate! I am 21 years old, but honestly feel like I have the mind of an early teenager. I view any person with authority over me, regardless of age, as an "adult" who is above me in every aspect. I have only recently began developing emotional and sexual feelings for girls (and boys, but that is a different topic i won't discuss here), and I in general feel almost the same as I did, psychologically, when I was 14.
Now then, Being 21 about to turn 22, I feel that this is an important part of my life, the part where I need to get my act together, find a career to pursue, and focus on being a better man…I have no mental attachment to do so, but I know that if I don't, I'll get left behind. Ive come to realize that being a male comes with a stigma that you should be tactful and ambitious. As I get older, people have started to give me weird looks for how much guidance I need for simple tasks.

I would like this thread to be a resource center for anyone who needs help with "grown-up" issues, terms, etc. that they don't understand. A place where our members can offer nonjudgmental advice to those children at heart.

I will start off: I have lived with my parents all my life, and they have always filed me under their taxes and insurance. As such I don't know to file taxes and barely understand the concepts of insurance benefits offered by companies. does anyone know of a website or videos that can clarify these issues for me, or just explain it in text. (in terms easy to understand)?

I felt the same way. I'm a 25-year-old college student with Asperger's, who stays at home, studies, reads, and writes. I may put God first, and I may be talented at writing. But I want to work on myself. I have long-term goals for me, like continuing my education until I go to a university, working on my writing, and learning to how to be an adult. All in all, I am keeping my Asperger's because I needed to learn how to live with it instead of getting rid of it.

I will be 25 next month but I feel like I have the intelligence of a 12-year-old. I'm supposed to be moving in with my boyfriend hopefully some time this year, but I am finding it very hard to pick up on this cooking thing. Maybe I should buy some ''learn to cook'' books or something. I'm just so scared that I might undercook something. Also I have motivation issues, but I don't want to feel like he's looking after some invalid. I want to be as responsible and mature as him, and be able to do stuff without much problems. But I think it's anxiety that holds me back as well, and that is not immature. It's different. Like I sometimes feel really panicky when going to the supermarket. It's not that I can't do it. It's just that I can't face the outdoors, having to go out, having to pass people, having to endure the screaming kids in the supermarket, having to make my way through the crowds, having to queue up to pay, and then having to walk all the way home again. I like going to the supermarket, and I don't find it difficult in that way. I find it difficult in a more emotional way. But to other people it just makes me look like a lazy immature couch potato who wants everyone to run around after me. That's not it at all.

Part of my work is mentoring young adults with Asperger's/HFA who are facing many of the issues you all describe, so if any of you would like to chat then by all means send me a pm. I'll be glad to help if I can.

Mentoring can be a wonderful thing and I do wish more of it happened in the ASD world (where both parties are keen to engage in a one-to-one mentoring program, not as a prescriptive thing.)

wow, i feel like you nearly explained me. except i'm 34 now.

I would rather kill myself than become a slave to society.