Getting Worse With Age?

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I've had my anxiety and depression all my life but recently even more mental health problems came up so.. i guess it does get worse or maybe the problems that come along with it change.

Some things get better, some worse. Last summer I pushed myself past my limits and developed chronic fatigue syndrome. It's been hell, although I'm much better now than I was a year ago. My nervous system is very very sensitive and a bit of stress makes my pulse jump way too high. I can feel my body deteriorating. But then, I'm more myself now as an adult which brings happiness, in my teens I used to wear a mask and my self-destructive tendencies were worse.

I'd like to be nineteen sometimes though, my body worked so much better then.

For me it has gotten worse the older I get. I got divorced 5 years ago and for the first time I live totally on my own (I am 43 now). I used to think the world was "too much" before, but now I have to do everything on my own, it's overwhelming. I developed chronic fatigue syndrome 3-4 years ago which hasn't made things easier, my sensory sensitivities are even worse. Just being alive and doing day-to-day-activities are more than enough, I have not been able to work the last couple of years (was able to work part time before).

But on the positive side: I do not care as much what people think of me, and I show people the real me (whatever that is...) a little bit more (not that I have a choice when my brain has shut down).

Also to me it seems to get worse with age. I feel less and less able to bare over with sensory and sensitivity issues and I also have gained different physical symptoms I think may be stress related. But on the positive side I must say that I have gained some life experience and found some coping strategies I didn`t have when I was young so I think I am making better decisions for my self today(even if they sometimes feel unconventional). Also better understanding my self through the diagnosis helps a huge amount!

I've found that at 43 years of age my ability and adeptness to hide my many Autistic mannerisms has dimished drastically with age. I guess I'm just not as quick as I used to be, or perhaps I'm just sick and tired or hiding all the time.

Hmmmmm... I'll go with the later than the former.

I've come to a place now where I have accepted this Autistic thing and will simply display my special needs with more pride and less worry now. As far as the actual symptoms getting worse, I think they've always been bad but now I just won't be holding back as much. If I keep that up I might suffer another heart attack due to Autistic burnout.

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*** High Functioning Autism - Asperger's Syndrome ***

ADHD, OCD, and PTSD.

Keep calm and stim away.

I don't really notice a difference between when I was younger vs now. My mom says that I'm a lot more functional but I guess it depends in certain areas. I'm actually surprised its not worse but very seldom am I put in depending situations where I actually have to put effort into normal functioning I guess o_O

At Autscape this year we had a lecture on the subject of ageing, and how we seem to become invisible as we get older.

The lecturer described how things may well follow a bell curve over a lifetime, giving occurrence of meltdowns as one example.
They may be quite frequent in young years, lots of exposure to the stressing sensory and social triggers (at this point my own thoughts added the observation that one also has only limited control of the situations)
Middle life, less frequent or severe as one teaches oneself ways to cope (and my own thoughts that one may be more in control of ones life and able to avoid some of the situations or environments which give the stress and overload)
Older year. resilience falls of generally as bodies start to age and wear out. Older brains less adept at filtering sensory stuff, it takes longer to recover from anything (just a general feature of getting older and starting to wear out). Also (personal thoughts again), one may become less in control of ones life, for example having to make use of carers, perhaps having to move into some sort of residential care (potentially stressing social and sensory demands coming back, from which escape or avoidance is not an easy matter).

Ones autistic profile may be fairly constant but the ability to deal with sensory or social demands varies throughout life with the external situations, the amount of control one may have, and the effects of aging generally.

Slides from the Autscape lecture :
http://www.autscape.org/2018/programme/ ... 0older.pdf