Have your symptoms changed with age?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm not asking if you grew out of Asperger's/Autism. I'm asking if certain specific symptoms either disappeared, got worse, or developed out of no where.

I have a list of things from childhood that may have been AS related that I don't experience anymore. I still have AS. My diagnosis was reconfirmed before University and my new assessment says I have mild to moderate AS. I'm pretty sure it was more severe before but some things are still a problem.

Here are some examples:

-I used to sleep on the carpet every night which may have been because of sensory issues I no longer have. I sleep in a bed now.

-I was easily grossed out and couldn't eat certain foods or watch certain cartoons without throwing up. My family couldn't watch certain tv shows around me and I vomited watching Shrek in a theatre when it came out. The person sitting in front of me was shocked. If meat fat ever entered my mouth I'd puke so I'd cut it off obsessively. I couldn't eat mushy things.

-I probably had a hyposensitive sense of smell. I thought I had no sense of smell but suddenly at the age of 10 I had one out of nowhere and it was like my whole world changed.

-I don't ever remember stimming but my older assessment from childhood mentions stimming behaviours. It doesn't appear at all on my new assessment.

-I was emotionally immune to music. I felt nothing from it. It's still not the biggest thing in my life but I can actually feel things from it now. I remember the first time it actually affected me and suddenly I understood why it was such a big thing. I'm not sure if that one was AS related but could have been a hyposensitivity.



Even if this wasn't a change in Autism I bet I went through several neurological changes of some kind. Has anyone experienced changes like these at certain points in their life?

I used to be hyposensitive to temperature and smell. I could swim in very cold water (my parents were worried about me because of this) and I could often play with smelly garbage).
Right now I am hypersensitive to both. I have to keep warm to feel OK and bad smells are really uncomfortable for me.

That's all I can think of but I bet there was more changes. And of course my behavior changed since then - I learned a lot.

Last edited by Kiriae on 01 Jul 2014, 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My diagnostician told me that I had "apparently cured [myself]" when she diagnosed my GAD and OCD in January 2014, but declined take the next step and connect them (and my many other characteristics and screening-test scores) with having Asperger's Syndrome.

I agree that adulthood has allowed me to learn how to reduce several of my AS characteristics (angry outbursts, socializing, etc.) by masking. But, masking is more exhausting than doing nothing. My initial emotional and intellectual responses to certain stims is still there, just muted. So, I am skeptical about its longterm effectiveness.

For brief periods (less than an hour or two), I am able to restrain my characteristics because I understand that it is expected and yields me some benefits. But, for longer periods of time, or when (noise or conversational confusion) sensory overload is immediate and painful, no amount of planning or masking helps.

So, yes, I agree that adulthood brings some ability to reduce my characteristics with others. But, it also brings a kind of nonchalance about social convention, and I let myself relax the masking more often than I probably should. Hehe.

I'm not talking about masking or growing out of it. Did the symptoms you experienced change in anyway? Did you go through other significant neurological changes that weren't AS related?

No. Sorry.

Let's see what I can remember and from what my mom had told me:

-I used to wring my wrists in public and I couldn't be in crowed places where there was lot of noise like malls. (This may be tied down to my hearing loss and my ears still had yet to get used to it and it took me years because my body never learned to filter all the noise all babies learn to do in their infancy or because my ears had gotten used to the silent world Then I was hypersensitive to noise and my parents had to get me used to it gain by taking me back to those places and leaving if I got too overwhelmed.)

-I don't get as overwhelmed in crowds as I used to (again may be tied down to my hearing loss)

-I am not as literal and I have learned sarcasm and learned to understand it and pick up on it

-I no longer think every time someone yells is because they are mad at me

-Change doesn't bother me like it used to when I was a kid and I don't get as upset like I did

-I have learned to control my impulses (not sure if it was therapy or if my brain just finally developed this)

-I don't go around touching everything anymore like I used to and having to feel it

-Clothes don't bother me the way they did when I was a kid and I can wear jeans now

-I no longer bump and walk into things

-I have better social skills, mine were real bad as a kid despite I had friends and always copied people

-I no longer need to be told how to act in every situation and what the rules are

-I let people touch me now and hug me

-I don't boss people around and try and control everyone around me, I now keep to myself and don't participate if I don't like the game

-I can wear long nighties now without a problem and it's no longer an issue to get out of the warm water after my bath or shower

-I don't need pictures to be drawn to me to help me understand perspectives or being told about a previous situation that happened earlier

-I don't think anymore whenever someone is yelling at another person, they're mad at me. Mom told me I had this issue

-I used to talk and talk about my obsessions and whatever I was fixated on but not anymore. I have gone private about them.

-I have gotten a better social filter and this didn't come until my early twenties

-I learned to look at someone when they talk to me or when I talk to them. I still get uncomfortable with it if I look at their eyes. I just look at their hands since they distract me and I look at what they have on and their hair and their faces. Now it's become a habit it's become natural.

-I can control my behavior better, especially when I get hyper

-I seem to get more sensitive to lot of noise in my home in my teens and all of a sudden it bothered me when my brothers had friends over

-I all of a sudden wanted a clean house at age nine and would clean and it would drive me crazy and stress me out if there was a mess and if things were left out of place or if any shoes were on the floor making the floors all dirty and tracking in dirt. Now I don't care and it won't stress me out with shoes in the house and if the house isn't spotless. I can now put it off

-My anxiety got worse by 7th grade and then it got better again as an adult when I learned to stay calm

-I am no longer impulsive and it got real bad when I was ten I was finally on pills for it

-My sensory issues got bad in 6th grade and got better again

-I seem to have developed social anxiety and I find it hard to just go on the phone and make calls or talk to my boss and I still yet need to find a school for my son. I also seem to have gotten more shy and I used to have no problem talking to adults as a kid and now I do.

-I used to not be bothered by sweating and being out in hot weather and then it started to after I got a woman's body and I still have troubles with it

-My food all had to be served a certain way and I had to take a certain step in each room

I will probably think of more later.

Some of my traits are gone (or are less problematic) and others are worse.
I am way better at interpreting/using language expressions.
I don't talk of my special interests with someone unless they ask me to.
I know way better what things shouldn't be said depending on where i'm at.
I can be hugged by someone who isn't my mom and my grandmother.
I am not stressed as i used to be on places with a lot of people talking at the same time (unless they're screaming).
On the other hand i am WAY more anxious than before.
My stim of moving my fingers like if i'm playing piano is completely out of control most of the times.
I have some depression periods happening more frequently than before.
I'm way more scared of any social contact who isn't exclusively with the persons that i'm used to.
My daily routine needs to happen perfectly if i want to do something at least a little relaxed.

My traits have vastly improved, but that is not due to age - it is due to boosting GABA neurotransmitter levels in my brain, which I boost using either clonazepam, or GABA, or Glutamine/Taurine/Choline/Inisotol, depending on how low or high the levels feel on any day.

It has been such a great help to taking mastery of my formerly disabling anxiety that I am now in a LOVELY relationship after many years of not being in one (40 years, in fact).

Before the GABA breakthrough, my traits were slightly worse with age, as I got tired more easily, frustrated more easily, more anxious and more isolated.

I hope everyone here discovers something which for them will change their lives in the profound way that GABA has changed mine. One size never fits all, and it's "different strokes for different folks".

Not really

I'm slightly less disorganized than I used to be.

i'm not really sure how i was when i was younger but...
i don't bite people anymore (not really a "symptom", but)
i'm much better now at interpreting facial expressions, i'm more open to hugs and physical contact, and i'm not as loud as i used to be, which is probably not a good thing, given that people often have to ask me to speak up.
i'm also more self aware.
i'm only 17 however, maybe some of my traits will change further, for better or for worse.

we'll see....

I don't hit or scratch or push people anymore when they keep bothering me. Actually people haven't harassed me in a while so of course I wouldn't do these things and I have always told people don't and leave me alone and would walk away before I resorted to this. I also used to do biting but I grew out of that by elementary school. I don't think I would resort to it today because they could press charges and they never touched me to begin with.

I am not so OCD (yes I am using it in a literal sense than as a broad term like most people who have no idea what it really is) about the house anymore no do I freak out over shoes on the floor. I just grew out of needing the house to be perfect.

I am more withdrawn and kept to myself and I don't approach people like I used to