Old age!

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Same here, even though I'm only 29, as well. Over the past week I've been lethargic and lazy.

I'm afraid of old age, of losing this youth.

speaking of losing youth, I can speak from personal experience that if you don't watch out [watch diet and exercise] that one's youth will disappear faster than genetically scheduled. don't make my mistake and get lazy! keep on the ball while you are still young enough to forstall premature aging!

I'll be 56 on September 8, The Lord willing and the creek don't rise I feel like 96 most of the time. I'm no spring chicken, as some people would say. My knees pop and creak, I'm overweight (although I just bought an exercise bike and been riding for a mile each day, when I feel up to it.), my lower back is killing me, and my blood sugars still bounce up and down like a basketball. I also still have problems with carpal tunnel syndrome, which is why I don't get the horn out of the case anymore. I should go out and walk, but not with the heat and humidity we have going through central PA right now.). The knees started up like this many years ago, when I was trying (and failed) to get my teacher certification in Music Education. I was coming home, late at night, after a concert which was mandatory attendance for all music majors. There were concrete steps going through the back yard and down the hill to the back door of the house. I got to the top of the last set of stairs and slipped on some ice. I had my briefcase in my left hand, and my clarinet and its case in my right hand. My briefcase flew off to the left, my clarinet to my right, and I went straight down the staircase on my arse. To say my gluteus Maximus was hurting 2 minutes later was an understatement. When I told mom and dad the next morning, Dad, being the smartass he always was, said "I didn't feel or hear no earthquake last night. It must suck to be you. Now get yer arse moving and get to work delivering the morning papers!"

I'm 54. Same high metabolism, body size & energy when I was in my 30s. Lucky genes. I've accomplished a lot of artistic work over the decades. But in the real world, the main difference is the job market is even less forgiving to those in middle age. Bad backs, we know it all, that sort of thing. So the money thing makes for increasingly conservative strategies. I ended up on a commune w/ lots of dippy hippies I don't like, but the flexible schedule & health benefits are worth the social hassles.

Well, i'm thinking i'm going to have to deal with joint issues in my right leg in old age since although very minor they are developing already. I'm trying to watch my health now so I will have it when I get older, I don't know how I will ever be able to depend on having to ask and call upon other people to help as that is hard enough now, I need my good health until the end its is simple as that. I know one thing, I am not ever living in a care home!

They get wrinkles. And lose hair. Nasty stuff.

Now seriously, usually you learn to deal with symptoms and to adapt to the world around you. To look 'normal', in a nutshell. That doesn't happen when you're 40, of course, it just gets better through years. In my case, I noticed a big leap in my early 30s, though it's a continous process. You never stop learning.

Indeed, ADHD symptoms get worse with age. On the other hand, Asperger gets better (or at least you learn to deal with it). As it to ADHD, there's drugs, so not such a big problem.



Good news. There's a new drug that cures alzheimer. By now, only in lab mice. But it's quite promising. It was published a month ago.

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/ ... -loss.html

I have just got my state retirement pension. I do not look or feel old. I still work but not all the time because I don't need to.
Seriously though I am feeling less tolerant these days and I dont know whether it is AS or just that life has become more and more complicated.

I was over 50 before I even heard of AS and 56 before it was "recognised". My body creaks a bit and I guess I'm a bit tireder and slower but mentally and emotionally I feel the same as I have since I was kid.

I was 69 before self-diagnosing after nailing the "deeply introverted" part a year earlier. In the '40s and '50s when I grew up no one had heard of AS so they just had you stand in a corner or off to one side; things are much better now.

Managed to survive thanks to a miracle...... I met my wife when I was 19.......the most beautiful woman in the world could see inside me. I "told" you it was a miracle.
At this point in my life I was spiraling downward in my hopes and aspirations and had few prospects.

But I was inspired and we soon began our family and raised a beautiful daughter and son. The various jobs I found after marriage always (with 20/20 hindsight) had me separated from much social contact and my last 20 years, before retirement, were working in a manufacturer's service department helping customers resolve technical issues with their machinery (this was almost 100% 1 on 1 over the telephone).

Could I have "accomplished" more without AS? Or with a athlete's body? Or with a large Einstein type brain? With parents and society that "understood"? Etc., etc., etc. The answer to all would be Yes........BUT that doesn't mean I'd be happier. True happiness, I've found, comes 100% from inside yourself and depends on how YOU feel about your accomplishments and not how others see them; after all: How can they know?

When I look back over my 70 years I DO see things I wish I'd done differently but I've learned to NOT measure myself by others rules and use my OWN set of values that better reflects my reality. I remember being a kid and having teachers say to my parents: "He's a smart boy......he just doesn't "apply" himself" which made it sound as though I was lazy when I was just depressed. I now know all the pleas to "Work to your maximum potential" are designed with the unimpeded in mind and that "aspies" work on a different scale and since no one seems to print this scale I just use my own ideas of "right and wrong" when it comes to measuring against society's so called "norms."

At 70 you tire faster and heal slower but I try to control my diet and exercise.......lost 100# to avoid taking insulin which has worked out well.

And I still can't run into the middle of a crowd and start making friends but I'm OK with that.

denny

@ZenDen - Thank you, sir, for your inspirational story. I can learn from this.

40's LOL!! ! That's not old at all! Maybe 90's! I am midway through my 40's and have just learned that I have these issues within the past couple of years! I always knew I was different but never new why until now. But I am very healthy and I love to do all kinds of sports and I am working on getting to be in either just as much or even a better fitness level than when I was in high school. There is no reason for me not to keep going strong until I am 150. But it's just like with everyone else. Eat right, sleep well, take care of your body, exercise, enjoy your life, try to be happy and you will keep on going strong for a very long time.

Denny, thank you for sharing your story. It is inspiring. You lost 100# - Wow that is really amazing. Congratulations. I am really inspired. If you can do it, I can lose the weight too. I am about 60 pounds overweight. Thank you for posting that.

This is very interesting. I am married but never had kids and there are parts of me that are not able to mature past a teenage level.

But don't stay at home alone unless you want to. There are so many wonderful things you can do at any age and lots of social things if you are comfortable with that.

It's more like the new 25!

I have read that there are ways to prevent those types of diseases. I think you can prevent it with diet and mind games and regular detox especially heavy metal detoxes.

I neve got to be a student or,really,"start" my life:-(///and now I'm in my 50s .........

I just turned 50. People at work constantly come to me for help and advice.