Autism changes through Puberty

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I've allready ritten in another thread about it: AS and ADHD

My autistic symptoms changed hugly through puberty.

With 14 years my entire symptoms kind of shifted within a year. My mom even thought that I would take drugs or something, because I changed that dramatically, but nothing. Just puberty. But something must have changed there biochemically during puberty. Since this time I have far less autism symptoms, I'm more social and hyperactive and I have bipolar (like) symptoms.
And lithium seems to work (I don't take it since that long and it's lithium orotate at the moment, but I want to switch to lithium carbonate).

I have to say that my brothers also have diagnosis:
me: HFA
1. brother: ADHD
2. brother schizophrenia

In my case this makes it very difficult for psychiatrists who are not autism experts to recognice my autism correctly, eventhough that I was VERY typical as a child. My mom even thought that I could have some intellectual problem, until I was 12, because I was so autistic and had no social understanding what so ever. So you can diagnose it for 100% sure that I have autism, but today it's more tendencies I think and I'm in my social understanding even nearly "normal". But because I was so typical as a child and still have a lot of routines and overload and stuff and my AQ is 32, I got diagnosed with HFA.

I never found a real explenation why my symtpoms changed that dramatically within a short period of time, hitting puberty.

Who made simmilar experiences and changed in their symptoms during puberty?

I changed a lot at the same age. That was when I became social for the first time. Before then, I was a classically autistic child who was socially aloof and unaware, but around that time, I started getting more social and made friends. I don't know if I just lucked out to make friends and learn social stuff from them, or if I had learned some social stuff during the previous years and suddenly started to use that stuff more, like talking and smiling and having more facial eggspressions, to be able to socialize and make friends.

Another shift happened between ages eight and nine, an even bigger shift from learning to speak and communicate, but that shift was accounted for by the fact that I finally got taught to do these thing eggsplicitly. No one really taught me to do social things eggsplicitly. I just started doing some when I started high school. But both of these shifts happened quickly, although my parents never thought that I was on drugs. I did get the MMR vaccine and a bunch of other vaccines too at age eight, so maybe the mercury in them made me less autistic.

During puberty my social interaction got better while my sensory issues got worse.

You may be on to something. I experienced a major shift in grade 6. Suddenly I just 'got it'.

The only problem is that once I understood how embarrassing the things I had done before the shift were I felt it all at once. I realized why everyone probably thought I was a ret*d special needs kid which wasn't an issue before.

In grade 1 I used to spin all the time and even run circles around people saying tornado or something. I guess I thought maybe it would suck them in. I thought the school yard was a warzone and I had this mistaken concept of territory. I actually slashed someone with a shredded alluminum can lid I found on the ground for the sake of defending first grade territory. I got to know every nook and cranny of the school so that I would be able to hide from perceived threats. I even hid under an idling truck.

I did so many things without feeling embarrassed because I didn't know they were weird but as soon as the shift hit in grade 6 I realized it and that's when I really felt like a freak. I looked forward to highschool so I could take my newfound awareness to a place where I didn't have such a heavily rooted reputation as the crazy kid.

I still have some Autistic symptoms and I still fit the criteria. My AQ is 60-something. There's also a way you could interprete me to have nonverbal deficits. My nonverbal communication skills test in the 68th percentile which is in the average range like many neurotypicals. The only thing is my verbal communication skills are 30 percentiles higher. They test in the 98th percentile.

Even with my average understanding of nonverbal communication you can still say there is a deficit in nonverbal communication if you look at the 30 percentile gap. You'd never notice it in public.



I never thought of puberty as a cause until you mentioned it. What do you think happens in puberty to have this effect?

Do we have any neurological experts in here?

Not a neurological expert, but just someone whose symptoms changed. I finally started bathing regularly and taking care of my appearance in a realistic manner. Before, I'm surprised that my mom didn't have the DHR called on her because I was so dirty and foul-smelling.

I got interested in wearing "normal" clothes instead of costumes (one of my childhood special interests--the only reason I joined the Girl Scouts and took ballet lessons was for the uniforms/costumes). I got interested in actual boys, not characters in books and operas.

Everyone changes through puberty. That's what puberty is all about.

So, interesting thought. I'm transgender, and I've been on HRT for a year.

Before puberty one. (I.E. Male puberty) I was super reserved spoke in a monotone, was very sensitive to touch but not so much noise or light. I had minor stims, and spoke in a formal way.

After I was very mellow, yet unable to express myself emotionally. I spoke in a less formal way, but had no interest in people.

After I started HRT, I started expressing myself outwardly a lot more, but in a more autistic way. I now stim A LOT. My voice is not monotone, but I speak a lot less and have difficulty with words. I'm less sensitive to touch, but mores sensitive to light and sound. I look a lot more autistic now because I'm expressing myself more.

I got WORSE at puberty. My mother tells me that the things I've told her about AS seemed to appear more obvious when I was a teen. Less social, more fearful, fewer friends, more introverted, more "stimming". My grades dropped off from honor roll to failing because I didn't want to be at school because of the teasing.