Asperger's: Adolescence vs. Teen

Post Reply New Topic

Is it common / typical for an aspie child to appear more and more emotionally withdrawn as he becomes older? Specifically when transitioning from pre-teen adolescence to a teenager.

It seems to me that as one blossoms with puberty the social interactions become much more complex. Thus an aspie would fall further behind and have to react somehow. I suppose withdrawing would be one such way to react.

A specific example would be a kid who as a pre-teen seems fairly joyful to his parents (though is not entirely happy because he's bullied) but then as a teen becomes less joyful, more withdrawn, more unemotional, less interested in others, more like a Vulcan from Star Trek, etc.

I actually only really bothered to really socialise properly when I hit my teenage years.

That describes me pretty well I think. I don't remember ever wanting to be withdrawn before my teenage years. I was always the super quiet person but I still talked to people occasionally. After I became a teenager I completely withdrew from everything and everyone and am still doing that today pretty much.

Now that I think about it, that describes me very well, too.

My big momento of withdraw was from child to preteen