Life Expectancy for ASD

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But with my high anxiety levels I'll probably drop dead in another 10 years time.

Probably not.

i was on alcohol and hard drugs for 10 years or more when i was younger but i didnt die although i could have died like amy winehouse

i look old for my age now if im not wearing makeup like in my avatar

I would make the same guesses.

And there is a reasonably good chance that...despite a lifetime of stress...it will be some other pre-existing congenital problem that gets me. (Though the replacement heart valve seems to work well!)

OK now I understand why it can be upsetting. I don't know what protected me from feeling bad about those statistics. I suppose it's just that I don't believe them. I usually have plenty of anxiety about dying of something nasty, and it's not all rational.

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Not a representative sample, but based on some of the posts in wrong planet, it appears that, a disproportionate number of autistics unemployed or underemployed. On government benefits or not eligible for government benefits.

All things equal, which they are not, earning less cash makes it harder to eat healthy groceries. (Especially since Covid).

According to some wrong planet posts, a disproportionate number of autistics tend to eat diets not particularly nutritious. That could be due to autism, a comorbid condition such as Sensory Integration Disorder, or anything else.

It could be a lot of different reasons

Not enough information to determine the reason

But nobody chooses to be autistic and there is nothing they could do about the statistics

The statistics might not take into account the recent definition of "autism". The definition of "autism" has changed in the past ten years

Not all geographic locations have the same average lifespan, neurotypical or autistic

Not all autistics officially diagnosed and disclosed

Mean, median and mode and standard deviation are all different things

Quality is not always proportional to quality

Some articles (correctly or wrongly) claim that lonely people tend to live shorter lives than other people. Autistics tend to be lonely

A lot of medical and psychiatric diagnoses comorbid with autism

Some articles claim that autistics have a higher suicide rate than the rest of the population

Not everyone is "average".

Every person, autistic and neurotypical, has a different situation with many factors/variables. Many variables determine the lifespan length of someone

Example:. Diagnoses, cash, unfortunate things that happened (such as getting shot),

Autism comes under "diagnoses"




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But, statistical analysis aside:

Please tell me why any autistic would even want a long life, given the occupational challenges, comorbid diagnoses, and social rejections and sensory overload?

"With that amount of quality, why would any autistic want more "*quantity*" ?.);:

*"':;!@#$_&-

Anyone with an official diagnosis on the autism spectrum, please riddle me that.

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If you've met one Autistic you've met one Autistic.

Some of us are in better situations than others.

And being comfortably retired and clear INTJ preference makes me want to live a long, long, long time.

I'm hoping medical science advances fast enough to solve my medical problems when I get them.

I saw somewhere that much of the low life expectancy is from childhood accidental deaths. Even without ID, we are often less fearful of danger, less attentive to warnings, etc. I had some near misses with water and remember my mother being extra protective with me around water later in my childhood.

I was a wimpy child and was more aware of danger than what my peers were. I even never broken a bone in my life even though I was hyperactive and was always climbing and running around.

Sorry, but my nonsense detector is ringing wildly. Mayyyyybe people with severe conditions who have been institutionalized die younger than average, but 39 is like your whole population lives in a plague-ridden medieval village. HFAs and aspies definitely aren't keeling over that fast. Heck, my grandmother was HFA and she lived into her 90s.

I didn't need to worry about danger because I was careful! Um. Yeah...I did not do physically dangerous stuff. Still don't.

On occasion I might have been bolder than others, but it would've been in circumstances where I believed I would be safe and the others were being frightened my their doubts and imagination.

I've never been on crutches or in a cast. My ADHD bride has a collection of crutches...every once in awhile we donate them but she keeps getting new ones.

Don't smoke.
Don't vape.
Don't do drugs.
Don't drink.
Eat 5-7 fruits/vegetables of any combination daily.
Keep sodium intake no more than 2,000 mg daily.
Eat mosly whole food rather than processed and fast food.
Drink six, 8-ounce glasses of water a day.
Do structured aerobic exercise.
Lift weights 2-3x/week.
Get annual doctor checkups + screenings at the recommended intervals for mammograms, colonoscopies, PSA tests and mole checks.
Wear sunscreen.
Do monthly breast exams.
Do monthly skin checks.

Do all of these things and you won't worry about dying at 39 or 58 (the Level 1 average).

I've made it to 47, so I'm happy about that. I do have asthma and diabetes. I also weigh at least 100 lbs more than I should. I can't afford health food or a gym membership. I could exercise for free and go for long walks which I do 6 months out of the year. The air quality isn't too good the other half of the year. The air in my part of Canada has changed over the past 25 years. I'm looking for work right now, so I'll be able to afford all the healthy things.

There's an aspie / autie Youtube channel by a lady called 'Of Herbs and Altars' who was talking about this topic and some of the studies and I could relate to what she was saying.

Life feels like it's a tower defense game where the goal is not to have your health and sanity ruined by trauma, and that game involves building all kinds of elaborate safety mechanisms for both keeping idiots, manipulators, and predators at a distance and where you're a bit more helpless, ie. employment, doing what you can to brawl your way through that and get to a place where you're able to do the job without depleting yourself and getting yourself ensconced somewhere well enough that the office politics aren't going to touch you (which if you can land that great but every new employer / new job feels like a click of the barrel in Deerhunter Vietnamese roulette).

I'm four months from 43 right now and praying my future can be gentler than my 20's, 30's, and early 40's. The thing I've noticed is if you're stuck in a position without a lot of money and where anyone has any controlling influence over you - it's extremely difficult to get out and I'm coming to the sense that I really would just about need to retire early and build the funds to retire early to beat the world back far enough.

This is one of those areas as well where I'd have to say I really miss having an ASD support group in my city. Most days recently I just end up feeling like a failed/loser NT even though I'm employed - it's where I'm at in life, where I live, my marital status, etc. and my awareness that for as far a radius as people know those things about me it's like I can't participate in society (ie. winners only). I'm not sure whether my awareness of that helps me stay motivated to dig my way out or whether it drains me more, and I'm sure it's going to be a pretty big reality check when my parents pass - not as to how hard life gets (though it might) but rather just how lucky I've been to have as sanguine a relationship with them as I have and probably a lot of mixed feelings - partly knowing that on some level I might have understated my sense of just how much they've loved me and how much they've cared but also the sense that - per the outside world - life's a Darwinian blood-drinking contest, your status is what you can beat out of other people, and I'm still a failure for living at home, really having to do a full accounting that both of these things are equally true at the same time.

If anything I really just wish that I didn't live on a cannibal / psychopath planet where the good generally get eaten.

Last edited by techstepgenr8tion on 25 Jul 2022, 9:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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even if someone perfectly followed all medical advice, anyone could get

(1) shot with a gun
(2) run over by a bus

or something like that.

healthy eating and habits, reduce your risk of some diseases. but does not reduce the risk to zero.

some diseases are genetic.

39 or 58 is not guaranteed, even if someone perfectly follows all medical advice.

I don't think this really applies to anyone who doesn't have any serious comorbids or serious developmental delays. I always see otherwise healthy, "higher functioning" people get upset over statistics like this, but early death is more of a concern for people who have severe digestive problems, heart defects, autoimmune disorders, etc. and who can't advocate for themselves or take care of themselves. If you're healthy and relatively independent then it's safe to say that you probably won't be dying in your 30s unless you purposely neglect yourself or do really risky things.