Has Anyone Developed A New Symptom Not Present When Younger
As a child I loved social situations, where as now I have social anxiety and don't always feel like big social events. But it might be because as an adult I feel more under pressure to dress up and put on make-up and drink alcohol, where as a child socialising was easier and I could just be myself.
But ironically my social skills have improved since I have grown up. When I was little, I was shy and awkward when talking to adults, except for my parents and grandparents and a couple of teachers at school, but with most of my aunts and uncles, I seemed awkward, even though they were all lovely. But now I can have better conversations with my aunts and uncles than I do with some of my peers!
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Auditory professing is certainly new to me. It's either this, or is overlapped with short term memory which is an issue earlier.
Lost symptoms?
I lost too many autistic needs, that I'm able to afford certain traits or symptom severity levels without or with little side effects along with the pressures of adulthood.
And my case is probably an unmapped one (is it?). I overcame the longterm cycle of anxiety and depression right BEFORE entering adulthood.
I wonder if it does affect adulthood changes.
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ProfessorJohn
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I have found my attention span is not as good as it was when I was a kid. Back then I could sit and read books or magazines for hours. I can't do that as long today as I lose my focus. For a long time I have written if off as brain damage caused by too many drugs and drinking in college, and it may be, but I am also starting to wonder if it is problems with executive functioning, which is an Aspie symptom.
I've started flapping my hands recently, which is something I never did until now. Also, the way my special interests work have change. Before I used to be super into one thing for a long time. Now I'm super into a lot of things and which one I focus on depends on my mood. Also, I've become better at balancing special interests and hygiene, what little social life I have, and school work.
There are traits I don't have or have as severely when I was little, which is why I went from level 3 to 2.
Some are that I don't stim by waving my hand in front of my eyes any longer.
Or stim by watching spinning things for hours.
I'm a lot more responsive. Even verbally sometimes.
I don't get triggered as easily or often because I have developed more sensensory tolerance.
Do you think it's possible to gain or lose a trait or is it just the severity of the trait changes , or your coping mechanisms change.
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Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury. Raise the double standard
I had small meltdowns earlier in life, which i noticed only recently after Reading up on autism. My first severe meltdown was after my girlfriend told me that my ex (with whom i broke up badly) was pregnant of my former best friend.
I got a few after my dad died and still have them sometimes. I freeze up completely and can't move for a time, i don't know how long.
It could be that i had them before, but never noticed it.
Do you think it's possible to gain or lose a trait or is it just the severity of the trait changes , or your coping mechanisms change.
I would say a combination of all of those.
I'm less awkward and outspoken.
More shy and more (MUCH more) anxious.
I'm less prone to get upset over things being unpredictable or plans changing.
I have more issues with sensitivity to light and sound (even if I am better about keeping my mouth shut about them).
I have fewer issues with wanting to control my environment, as I have learned that I have no right to try to control my environment.
I have more issues with apathy and lack of motivation.
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"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
1.
When I were a child/teen I could go to the public swimming pool whenever I had a chance.
I could also get into any water I seen - including ponds created by melting snow - in my clothes. Then cry due to the cold. LOL
Now I find public swimming pools way too loud and crowded.
I still like water and I might touch the water in rivers etc. but I know I am cold sensitive so I avoid getting wet.
So it looks like my noise sensitivity got worse and cold sensitivity is the same but my obsession about water is not as strong anymore - or I just learned that letting water get in your clothes leads to being overwhelmingly cold.
2.
When I were a child I was a picky eater - I could barely eat anything and when tried to feed me I could hold food for hours in my mouth without swallowing. But I could eat entire apples. All the way to the stem.
Right now I love trying new tastes. I don't eat much but whenever I see something "edible" I never tasted before I want to try it even if it looks and smells disgusting at the first glance.
But I hate entire apples or anything with similar, "cutting" texture(popcorn, fried worms, beans). I can't even eat apple skin, I always peel them. Same with tomatoes. I hate it when a tiny part of apple/tomato skin sticks to the walls of my throat and doesn't want to go down.
So I was apparently texture under sensitive but afraid of new tastes when I were a kid.
Now I am texture oversensitive but sensory seeker when it comes to taste.
3.
When I were a kid I had way less anxiety. Probably because I wasn't forced to make decisions by myself and the opportunities just appeared in front of me, all I need to do was to follow them. School was organizing trips for my class and all I needed to do was bring money from parents. Stuff like that.
Now I am terribly anxious. I would like to go on a trip but deciding where to go, how to sign up, where to get money for that, the meeting with all the strangers there and having noone I know going with me...
I also worry about my parents money. I am not sure if it is because we had more money when I were a kid, because my parents never shared their money problems with me or because I was just a kid but currently I am hearing "We don't have enough money" from my mom way too often and it makes me depressed because I think it is my fault because I am an adult and not earning(it should be getting better now though, because I am apparently going to receive disability pension starting this month).
The expectation is probably just too huge right now. I don't feel ready for the responsibility of an adult so I developed anxiety and depression. Come to think of it... when I were 15 I promised myself I would kill myself when I become an adult because I couldn't imagine myself dealing with all the adult problems and living on my own. I guess I didn't grow much since then...
4.
When I were a kid I was utterly disorganized. I could lose my stuff constantly and I would forget important documents and papers. I still don't have bike license despite passing the exam at age 10 because... I never brought the photo, despite being reminded about it for a half of year. My parents also didn't know - because I didn't remember to inform them about parent-teacher conferences.
Now I make sure to remember about important documents and dates and I don't lose my stuff anymore. But the document thing become an obsession to me. I am that worried about forgetting something or filling something wrong I will check everything a few times and the anxiety still won't go away. I hate having anything to do with documents for that reason.
I also am so careful about my stuff right now that I can't buy a big smartphone because I have to keep my phone in my pocket or else I get anxious I lost it, even if... I am holding it in my hand at the very moment.
So I got more organized but developed anxiety as the price.
As a child/teen I:
-Was very social, and wanted to do things with others
-Liked summertime and summer activities
-Liked colorful clothing
-Loved hugs
-Was very empathetic, loved helping people and trying to understand how they feel.
-Had relatively good social skills, especially as a teen
-Had much better hygeine
-Didn't like dolls. My idea of a doll as a child was G.I. Joe.
-Obsessively organized things like movie and CD collections, often
-Held movies as a special interest, maybe my only one as a child. If 200 new movies came out in a year, I found a way to watch 150 of them.
-Liked a small amount of food items as a child, then fell in love with food as a preteen/teen
As an adult I:
-Avoid confrontation and people to every extent possible
-Hate summertime, have seasonal affective disorder.
-Have a wardrobe that is 80% black. I think the only reason the other 20% consists of color is to stop my mother from saying anything.
-Don't like being touched generally, unless I initiate contact
-Am hardly empathetic at all. I took the EQ score yesterday and got 10 of 80. I took it a few months ago and got 15 of 80.
-Can rarely force eye contact, I put my feet in chairs in public and slouch. My facial expression tends to stay the same during conversation.
-Have poor hygeine, possibly because my routine of hygeine was imterrupted as a child. I would take a bath every day for 45 minutes, and my mother told me I had to stop taking such long baths. I haven't been right since.
-Like playing with online dolls and dressing them up. I can spend hours doing this.
-Obsessively organize far less but I have my moments
-Still love movies but I have other special interests, and I don't obsess over movies. And I only watch ones I'm interested in. So if 200 movies come out in a year, I'll watch 5-10 and it will take me 2 years.
-Don't really like food. A lot of it is texture sensitivity. I love making and staging food though.
So I've basically gone from pretending to be a normal child (and in hindsight not really getting away with it) because I thought I had to, to zero given. Bad life experiences can account for some of it but not all.
StarTrekker
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When I was little, I never really had meltdowns. I used to get angry and hit or kick things maybe once really hard out of frustration, but I wouldn't lose total cognitive control and start severely injuring myself like I do now. I think it's because as a child, I was really afraid and anxious of everything, so I hid inside myself and withdrew a lot. As I've grown older, a lot of that fear and anxiety has morphed into anger and irritation, which is where my meltdowns come from. I have to remind myself of this, as it's a lateral shift, but many times it feels like a regression.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!
Before I didn't have any problems being social, I acted strange, but I had no problems being with others. Now I act less strange, but I am doing much worse socially. I used to have more meltdowns, but now it's just anger. I'm also much more sensitive to certain noises and temperatures
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