Can Asperger's get worse over time?

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Hey all,

Been diagnosed since May 2009, and I still have much to learn. One of the things I do know is that it is fairly common to have people grow out of the symptoms of Asperger's. However, is it possible that the symptoms get worse over time? For example...

Even before I knew anything at all about Asperger's (I had never even heard of it until April of this year):

-I've noticed over the last couple of years my short-term memory is getting worse. Watching movies in theatres has always been a great passion of mine, but over the last year I've struggled to watch movies because I often can't remember what happened...I'll walk out of the theatre and barely remember any dialogue or anything from the movie, and can only understand it during repeat viewings. I've never had this problem ever before.

-I've also notice that over the last two years, reading has been getting harder and harder for me, not because I'm illiterate, but because I get distracted far easier now than I ever used to

-My sleep cycle is getting near impossible to control. I find myself frequently pulling all nighters simply because it is impossible to bring myself to sleep. There's no predicting when I'll be awake or asleep anymore...it's become a sort of anything goes sort of thing. Once again, the timeframe this developed has been over the last couple of years...I was always a night owl, but I could control my sleep cycles. Alarms used to have an effect on me, but they have no effect at all anymore.

-Finally, another thing I've started doing within the last year or so is whisper imaginary conversations to myself. It started off as sort of a way to help me write, but they started becoming involuntary, and far more intense. I'll get into heated debates with no one but me in the room, and I'll get into imaginary arguments with people, venting my frustration...the unfortunate thing is, my mood from these imaginary conversations spills over into my real conversations...if I have a friend I'm on great terms with and I pretend to have a fight with him/her, my conversation might have a subtle but uncontrollable hostile tone.

Again, all of these things have developed within the last 1-2 years, and long before I had ever heard of Asperger's and during the time when I thought I was an immensely stange NT. And I think it's getting worse, but is that possible or is it just all in my head?

Now that you have a list of things to watch out for, you're noticing them more. There are things I do similar to some of the things you've experienced, that I have become aware of, and noticing them more may make them seem like they're worse. I think some of my traits probably have gotten better, but there are some things I do with facial expression that come across badly, wrong tone, or unintentionally hostile, and there's not much I can do because making a deliberate effort to improve makes it worse.

Maybe all in your head. I heard you can get worse and worse if you keep fretting on the label. I think it has to do with telling yourself over and over you have AS so your mind starts acting more like it because it's just like a man telling his women she is stupid and worthless and no one will want her so she starts believing all that after a while.

Another possible reason could be there are things going on in your life and depression can make it worse or stress and anxiety.

Or you are becoming aware of your symptoms so it seems like you are having more and more.

You're 18? It's possible you're under a lot more stress than you were a few years ago. That can bring AS traits to the foreground.

That and I agree. Simply knowing the traits, you find yourself looking for them almost constantly. It's sort of a psychological loop, kind of like changing lanes on a road. If you simply think about changing lanes, more than likely you will ever so slightly drift towards that lane.

One big question in my mind is if you're on any medication? You said it's gotten worse since you were diagnosed... did they put you on drugs that could be causing some of this stuff?

No, no medication, though I do regularly take caffiene pills which strangely seem to reduce many of the bad symptoms...

Like I say, the symptoms have gotten worse before I had ever even heard of Asperger's, and they were symptoms that I noticed without even thinking they were connected. I dunno anymore...

As fiddlerpianist wrote, you may just be under more stress. I find that my symptoms are worse when I'm under stress. You might not even recognise it as stress. People tend to think of all stress as associated with negative emotions, but being excited about moving into a new phase of life is also a source of stress. It could be that you're just feeling a bit overstimulated right now.

Worry turns to stress, stress changes to anxiety, anxiety changes to panic, panic changes to - pretty far down the rabbit hole. "Aspergers" isnt getting worse, but our sense of reality gets worse, our sense of being - our ability to cope becomes muffled when our understanding of the world comes full circle and becomes clear. If that makes sense? I'm just speaking from personal experience. Like a teapot, if you put it on a burner and watch it.. you think, omg, omg, its taking so long, omg, omg....

Yet in my personal experience if you just leave it there to heat on its own, it will start whistling fast and you'll avoid the stress.. Or on a more personal note the fire alarm will go off hours later and you'll come back to a red hot tea pot shaped piece of metal sitting on your stove.

I just talked to a psychiatrist today about this issue. Due to sensory overload recently and stress, I feel that mine is getting worse. He agreed, and recommended increasing the dose on of my meds for a week or two, until the stress and sensory issues (a result of factors I can't control) fade.

But we also talked more generally, and he made the point that in his clinical experience: "everything gets worse with age", that is to say that due to changes in the brain and in expectations in life, things may get more difficult for me (I'm 40+ now).

I've recently read several memoirs by people with AS, curious in part to see their descriptions of their life experiences. Unfortunately most of these were written by people in their 20s or 30s, shortly after they had settled into stable relationships, career, and family life. I'll be curious to see what they write as they head into their 40s and 50s.

You know, it's funny. I was just diagnosed last April and I have noticed that my short term memory has become worse and I can't sleep as much. Turns out it was a seperate disorder called obstructive sleep apnea that was creating this. It's just so hard to tell because my meds are in transition and there are side affects. I'd say that asperger's becomes more pronounced if you are off your routine and there are a lot of changes in your world. Once on a good routine with good support, asperger's may become less pronounced. And yes, I like to say pronounced rather than worse because as my boss tells me, it is rather an ability that a disability.

I have every one of those problems you outlined in the first post.

I don't think it actually gets worse, i think the severity of certain symptoms can fluctuate depending on environmental factors though.

I know my stimming has gotten WAY more apparent as i get older than it was as a kid. As a kid it was only little things with my fingers or fiddling with stuff, and these days i'm rocking back and forth a lot(even in public sometimes)... I don't think i started rocking much at all until my teens.
As a kid i was obsessive, quiet, didn't know what to say to people, and all of that basic aspie-ish stuff.. With the occasional meltdown or something at home(but they were quiet-ish compared to a lot of kids who have severe screaming ones.. so it probably didn't seem much different from a temper tantrum, aside from some head-banging and hair-pulling). This stuff didn't seem all that alarming to most in itself, though. It wasn't until i got a little older that those traits started to obviously negatively affect me, causing anxiety, depression, and some obvious difficulties dealing with things. So it could have seemed like my AS got worse over time, but, really, i think it's just due to the fact that as you move into your pre-teen, teen, adult, etc. years more and more is expected of you, and there's just more that you have to adjust to.. So it makes sense that some of your aspie behaviors might get more obvious at different points in life, but then there are probably some that you've learned to deal with better over time too.

I started developing difficulties like that (memory for reading/movies/etc, concentration, sleep problems) when I was about 19. Also physical stamina problems -- passed out if I was on my feet for too long. Anyway, I hope it's not the case for you (or is something different), but in my case those symptoms got worse and turned into serious problems. If it gets like that and nobody believes it look into getting a neuropsych workup.

This is a good article.

Indeed it is. Very worthwhile. Thanks for posting the link.

"Being around other autistic people"
This has happened to me. I have aspie friends and NT friends, with the aspie friends I kind of pick up little habits while I'm with them and so we all seem really similar and I stim more with them. But when I'm with my NT friends I act more like them, like I mirror who ever's with me.

"Learning you are autistic or perseverating on autism"
Yes this one's been happening to me recently. I have been diagnosed for 5 years but recently developed an interest/obsession with researching. So the more I've read the more I've noticed things. And also on this site I sometimes feel like a fake or an imposter because I don't have certain traits like sound sensititvity or shutdowns and a few others, and I think "but this can't be right!" so if there's an instance where one of these traits are showing then I feel a strange sense of relief like "phew I'm not an imposter" and then it gets worse because I'm starting to become psychosomatic about it. Even though I want to persue this interest in learning more about autism I want to get out of this cycle of self fulfilled prophecy and be more honest with myself. I have a bad habit of being psychosomatic and I can bring anything on or making it seem worse using my mind, so of course said bad habit will apply to this.

"Increased developmental demands"
And this one. I am starting college in a few days and everyone is growing up faster than me. I am expected to be more independant and in a few years time should have my own house. So now I feel more childlike than ever and much lower than my peers.