Rest of life

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Does having autism mean you will have symptoms for the rest of your life?

In my case, yes.

Does it bother me? No.

Hello dt18
in my case, my life with AS so far has been one of coming to terms with and learning to work around my limitations. nobody is saying you can't outperform lots of other folk in surmounting your autism, but chances are, you will have to do some work. cold comfort, i know, but you are still young and you have lots of years yet to get this all under your belt.

take care
bruce

Yes, of course. Autism is how your brain is made, not something added-on. For that matter, "symptoms" is not as accurate a word as "traits"; your autism is as fundamental to how your brain works as your learning style or your personality.

There's a related question that might have a different answer, though, and that is, "Will I always be impaired by my autism?" A significant number of autistic people come to the point that they are not impaired. Most lost diagnoses happen in childhood; but you can also be functionally unimpaired if you have a good environment (including either the right situation or the right accommodations for a situation that doesn't quite fit). As people get older, they learn more about how to get around in a world that's built for neurotypical minds. Some learn enough that, though they do things differently, they no longer need help with anything.

What I can almost guarantee is that in the future you will have learned more than you know now. People don't stop learning just because they leave school, you know.

Symptoms? Not necessarily, no. If you are on the AS side of the spectrum, eventually your Gift of Rote Memory will allow you to learn enough scripts to fit in and your symptoms will lessen as you age.* You may even be able to cover them up almost completely. Some who were diagnosed with AS as a child are no longer diagnosable with the same disorder as adults.

Oh... I just glanced down and noticed that Callista just wrote pretty much the same thing. LOL, I'm such an idiot sometimes

--Vip

*This excludes those that simply don't care about such things or have co-morbids that make things harder.

They're symptoms as far as I'm concerned, but your mileage may vary.

To answer your question, yeah, they'll always be there to some extent. They say the symptoms of Autistic Disorder may improve around midlife (a return of symptoms around early adulthood if you improved in childhood being common), whereas AS tends to be more stable.

A number of things might change, e.g.

As you get older, you mellow out more, learn to copy other people's behaviours more, appreciate people's company more, learn to share interests, and so on.

I know from personal experience that judicious use of certain drugs (especially SSRIs and anti-anxiety meds, and sometimes stimulants) can alter your brain chemistry favourably.

You find a job you're good at, end up being able to support a family, and you no longer care about being 'autistic' - most people will just see you as an eccentric, clever person, if you happen to be working in a good job.

But none of these things are set in stone.

It ultimately rests on whether you can be comfortable with who you are; as soon as it no longer upsets you that you are autistic, you can just stop caring, and get on with doing what you like to do.

There are people who can help you - you just have to be receptive, open, honest, express yourself, and learn to love others .... and eventually you learn how to love.

The return of symptoms thing is EXACTLY what's been happening with me. Does this "relapse" go away? I've been wondering why I've been more autistic than usual lately.

I think, there is a difference between traits and symptoms.
Traits are an integral part (if not the essence) of my personality, just how my brain is wired.
Symptoms, as I would define them, are how these traits are percieved (mainly by others but not exclusively).
On that basis I would state that symptoms might fade, some might even vanish if you are working hard on them. As for my self I don't think that my traits will ever change too greatly (other than perhaps a normal minute change in personality as you get older).

Stress. I had it too; ended up in the hospital thanks to that problem. It's what happens every time the developmental demands get increased--when you're a toddler, you have to learn things like speech and self-regulation; or when you're in first grade and you have to learn to make friends; or when you're in high school and you're expected to be completely able to take care of your own basic needs; or as a young adult, when you're expected to be living independently. When they suddenly require you to do all those things, it throws your brain for a loop and you drop or lose access to some of the more difficult skills.

Speaking as someone a lot older than you, my experience is that yes, you will.

However, it's definitely possible to deal with the symptoms better as you get older. It takes a lot of introspection and a lot of analysis on your part, but you can learn to figure things out and handle daily life a lot better.

This is a very general assessment, obviously, and based on just one person's experience.

autism is not curable so yes the symptoms will persist. however i find that as you get older, you not only learn to cope better (by trial and error and experiences), you also learn to structure, arrange and adapt your life so that you can live in a way that is more suitable for yourself.

Stress could definitely be a factor.

In a way, maybe overcoming certain "symptoms" of autism can be likened to learning how to write with the opposite hand: the writing seems clumsy and awkward at first - because the brain isn't wired that way, but after much practice it often becomes manageable.