Apserger's Teenage Manifestation

Post Reply New Topic

I know that one doesn't "catch" Asperger's mid-life; you're born with it. But I'm curious to know if it's possible and, if so, how common for a gifted aspie child to start out appearing to others like a normal-enough child (perhaps the aspie traits mistekenly attributed to giftedness) and then as a teen have the symptoms worsen very suddenly? Going from hardly-noticeable to very obvious within a year or two? Voice becoming robotic / expressionless, showing less interest in others, emotionally disconnecting from family members, things like that.

I have seen discussions revolving around this issue.

Asperger's (or any various form of autism) tends to show up at the big "life stages."

I.e as an infant it is readily noticeable.
Or they appear normal as an infant but once they should be up and about and exploring people or things there is a difference.
Or they appear normal till school age, then they don't engage the other children or engage in play as an NT might in this more complex environment.
Or they appear normal until puberty; and then when other kids are developing the more sophisticated modes of interaction, the autistic child does not.

That said you have indicated very little about the AMOUNT of change in the person you are talking about. If they have traits attributed to "giftedness" then some oddness must already have been noted. Was it a "tipping point" type change, or is it more "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" type change?

Anyhow, hope that helps,
Izaak

(edited for clarity of thought and purpose)

I become to be solitary at school only at 10 y.o., and I think that my intersts become more narrow in adolescence than in childhood (as a child my main interest was animals, but was also interested in science, history, comic books, etc, while in adolescence my interests become to be almost exclusivly focused in politics and associated fields).

However, I am undiagnosed, then I don't know if I am a good case.

Another point is that "socialization by the sake of socialization" (instead of "socialization from doing some activity together") is much more usual int teens and pre-teens than in childrens (much of the social life of children is within games and activities), what probably is more difficult for aspies.

I was only diagnosed as a teenager because before then, even though I wasn't a 'normal' child, everything was just put down to being shy and smart, and when you're a kid people expect you to grow out of things. It became noticeable when I wasn't becoming interested in the same things as other teenagers and my social problems were only getting worse. I also became more self-aware I guess, and noticed that I was different, which led to quite a major breakdown and a really bad time in my life. Ultimately all that ended with me being diagnosed, and I've been rebuilding things since then. I don't think I've changed a whole lot since I was young, but it's the fact that I haven't changed while everyone around me has that makes it seem a bigger problem.

(Don't know if that even makes sense, I feel really out of it today.)

TPE2 is right. As being an aspie young teen by myself, I can say that I'm living this exactly this way. Because of this i've been having bad times and was finally diagnosed with light AS.

Yes it's very possible. In fact, between about 17-35% (I'm doing this from memory so may be off by a few percent) of autistic people show some signs of so-called "regression" during puberty according to some outcome studies I've read.

Otherwise, see:

http://www.autistics.org/library/more-autistic.html

I got worse for a year ar the age of 10. It was just after I watched the Olympics for the first time, in 1984. I was more pronounced for a year with an obsession with the United States, due to the fact that those games took place in Los Angeles. I didn't know how to express my feelings in words that I felt let down that the games were over, and 4 years was a long time to wait for another Olympics. That's how that strong obsession with the USA came to be. I also talked about that country to a lot of people all the time, to a lot of people. That's where I ran into trouble. I was scolded for talking about the US, so I never talked to my family or loved ones about any of my special interests, again. That's the reason I act the way I do, here on WrongPlanet. I also talk about my current passion less than I did around this time on WP. I work on talking about the interests that the rest of my fellow WP members have, so it's not Kinks, Kinks, Kinks all the time, like it was last year around this time.