Can one grow out of Asperger's / autism?

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     I have a question I'd like to ask for opinions about: can one ever grow out of Asperger's syndrome or autism? - either partially, so that one copes better with life, or even completely, so that one is in effect completely normal?
     I am still severely affected by my own condition (which is probably Asperger's), but various people have commented over the last 10 years or so how much I have improved in my social abilities. To some extent I can see this is true (although maybe not completely) - and I can sometimes in fact appear completely normal to people I casually meet or know slightly.
     But where I am still severely disabled is more in the areas relating to my own internal mental condition: depression, anxiety, extremely poor organization of my own affairs, lack of motivation, and so on - in which areas possibly I am gradually getting worse. And I have many, many eccentricities and odd interests or habits or ways of speaking that would probably instantly mark me as Asperger's, although I can hide some of these from other people, and usually choose to do so.

     So how does this condition change in different stages of life, and is the change usually for the better or the worse? And at what ages is it most likely to happen?
     Any comments, anyone?

Regards, Michael.

One can certainly learn effective coping strategies as one gets older.

Regards,

Patricia

They say you can never grow out of Autism/Asperger's Syndrome, only cope with the symptoms, and this is true. Autism is a mindset, or better yet, it's an individual's brain structure. You can't alter your brain's structure, and how it's made affects the individual. The Autistic person's brain when starting out doesn't have the neccessities as the NT's, but as time goes on an he learns more social skills the brain absorbs the information, and the autistic person uses it to navigate his way through the labyrinth of the world. He may learn social skills, but the way his brain works--his mindset, his nerves, how he percieves things, how he thinks (such as taking things literally)--still becomes prevalent throughout his life. Why you think they're trying to find a cure if social intervention still makes an autistic person autistic despite how much training he has?

I think an appropriate question to ask would be... Can a neuro-typical grow out of being a neurotypical?. We cannot outgrow who we are as a person, we can only learn to deal with what life throws at us. We will always be the same person at heart.

It can certainly become much less apparent in adulthood.

I agree with Batz' as well, though with less 'buts'. Practice can smooth out social awkwardness, as you've noted yourself. If people say you've improved over the last 10 years, then good for you. Keep at it.

As for eccentricities and odd interests or habits, I would say that's only 50% autism, and 50% your own individual personality. After all, we none of us have the exact same special interests or same quirks. For as long as they don't bother you, you can embrace them. But if hiding some aspects of autism makes some things easier for you, that's good, too.

I can't say anything about depression, anxiety, or lack of motivation. I suffer from that myself. I think it might help if you focus on the things you have that are good, for instance the progress you've made so far. If you say it's steadily getting worse, then a focus on the string of successes and victories you've had so far, and seeing how you can continue to improve in those regards, could provide counter-weight for what seems to be a descent into chaos.

"There is some evidence that as many as 20% of children with AS "grow out" of it, and fail to meet the diagnostic criteria as adults,"

That's from wikipedia. Now I understand that wikipedia isn't the most reliable source, however I remember reading up on some studies awhile back that said that it's possible. I'll look them up later.

I believe it's more than becoming less apartent in adulthood. That it is actually possible for atleast 1/5 (depending on the study) of people diagnosed with AS as a child or teen can actually "grow out" of it later though life.

A S/Autism are life-long, we can't outgrow it or anything. However, we can learn strategies to cope with it sovour proboems aren't as bad.

It seems, from what i've read, like a lot of people can adapt to the point that they function pretty normally.. I think maybe certain manifestations of it can be outgrown.... Because, looking back, when i was really little i had a lot of classic Aspie-ish issues that i don't have now at all really... Like being particular about which clothes are comfortable enough to wear, and also OCD-ish rituals like excessive hand washing. Of course, the Paxil could be helping out with some stuff too. But i also do some things more now than i did when i was little. Stimming, for instance, is something that only got to an unusual level with me within the past 10 years. As a kid, i can't remember any rocking or hand tapping, and my parents don't remember any. I did like watching spinning, blinking, or whatever other kind of repetitive things moving, though. So maybe it's even possible that, though life, one manifestation of Autism or AS could be replaced by another? I've never read anything about that, but that seems to be the case with some stuff for me when i look back on my childhood. Just a thought.

There is a reason that one of the diagnostic criteria for any psychiatric diagnosis is that it causes a significant impairment in some area of your functioning.

Some people will meet the other criteria, but not be impaired enough to be diagnosed. And some people will meet the other criteria, and have once been impaired enough to be diagnosed, but no longer be.

Obviously, the functioning of people with autism can improve - and in some cases it may improve enough that there is no "clinically significant impairment," and so technically you no longer meet the diagnostic criteria.

So in that sense I guess you can "grow out of it." But that does not mean the underlying condition is not there so much as that you have learned to work around it so well that it no longer causes you much trouble.

I have a niece who is an interesting example.

When she was little she was seriously weird. At the age of 6 she would still pull down her pants and poop on the carpet.
She was frightened of all men except her father.

At the age of 7 she was sent to a special school for Autistic children which seemed to help her a lot.

At the age of 10 or 12 she was still quite odd and didn't get jokes. When watching tv she would keep asking "why are they laughing?", "why is that funny?"

We were all convinced that she would never be able to function in the outside world and would have to live at home.

Yet she continued to improve although she might seem cold or reserved to someone who just met her. A bit lacking in empathy.

Now she is 25 and a trained physical fitness instructor and recently got married.

You never grow out of it. It's a part of your biology/psyche (however you want to put it) and never totally goes away (feeling nervous when trying to socialize & not make a mistake = to coping). We learn to cope "act like chameleons amongst the normies"/NT's!

Autism has been described as a grouping of normal traits found all over the human population that exist together in a severity that cause a clinical condition. In other words, the difference between neurotypical and autistic is a line in the sand.

So here's a question...

Let's say you had a lot of autistic traits when you were younger and probably would have been diagnosed but weren't. Now you've managed to "grow out" of most of the symptoms and would probably escape a diagnosis were it done today. The unwritten rule is "once autistic, always autistic." Okay, but if you no longer have traits to the severity that they form a clinical condition, the only thing that determines if you would be autistic is whether you were diagnosed as a child.

It's possible, then, that another person could basically have the same autistic traits to the same degree as you, and yet they would undoubtedly be autistic because they were diagnosed as a child. Does that make him any more autistic than you?

You will be autistic for ever, but it becomes less apperent, I know that's happened with me, when I was a kid I was pretty noticable and I was clueless socially but when I got to about 12ish no one seemed to notice that much. It still affects me in some ways like my executive functioning and things like that, but socially I do pretty well. And I know an aspie who has improved loads, he is still at the moderate/severe end os AS but how it shows has changed dramatically over the last 5 years I've known him. in year 7 there was a school disco and he sat against the wall with his hands on his ears, but at the school prom he was standing right next to the speakers having a laugh, and both me and him were putting our hand on the speakers because the vibrations were pretty cool, but anyway I was really surprised that he hardly even mentioned the noise, he did say "wow that's loud" a couple of times but he didn't react or anything.