Asperger's is worsening.

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I need more time alone than I used to. I go through phases where I need to be alone and it is so frustrating. Because I want to be able to serve and help others. I do find some activities that are short and can help others but they are so emotionally exhausting and doing an activity that is a couple hours long leads me to needing at least that amount of sleep afterward, and quiet time after that. All stimuli gets harder to handle. Ear plugs don't work. I hate it.

I sometimes wish my diagnosis were autism because I feel more autistic than Asperger's.

Does that happen to anyone else?

Some diagnoses are wrong

The diagnosis matches the prescription. So misdiagnosis causes wrong prescription. And that is a bad thing

But the diagnosis itself, is splitting fine hairs. Between Asperger's and autism. For other functional purposes, it usually does not matter

Plenty of autistics do not have diagnoses

Some articles claim that the fifth edition of the Diagnosic statistical manual does not contain Asperger's


If you do not believe me, look it up




",Serve and help others". Mussolini was helping the Gestapo. ,"Helping" is not always a good thing


It gets on my nerves how some precious lil "people" say "may I help you?" . Like they dragged my worthless corpse out of a burning building.


Counselor Jeanne Courtney. all she did was sitting around flapping her trap. And she acted like I had a moral obligation to treat her like she saved my life. The insurance paid her 75 hour. Who is "helping" whom?

The DSM5 does not have Asperger’s Disorder in it, it falls in the Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis now. So really it’s still just there, just under a different name and stuff. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s under the DSM4, but my understanding is that you would now be labeled something under the ASD umbrella with some references to levels.

As for feeling like your Asperger’s is worsening... maybe it is. I feel the same lots too. I’m sure it’s always changing cause I can only manage some many things at once... so if I focus on some things others worsen... it’s hard to keep on top of everything all at once. My family notices I’m worse when I’m stressed and have lots of anxiety. I don’t notice the link much, but my family is quite a bit more sensitive to it than me. They notice me becoming more aspie than usual, or more rigid, or trying to hide more... mostly more irritable though. If I take some time to be alone and think really hard I usually find I am more anxious about more things... stuff I wasn’t really aware that I was anxious about.

I’ve read that we run at a ratio of our chronological age... so if your 30 and functioning like a 10 year old then that’s 1/3... if the ratio remains constant then at 60 your like a 20 year old in your mind I guess is my understanding... based on that life should get more stressful as we age and things would be worse if we didn’t use more brain power to overcome the gap. So I would expect wanting more alone time is your way of coping with some added workload in our subconscious. I also notice that I tend to avoid more and more social stuff just because it is more and more work.

I like being alone, and I hate people... and I think by the time I’m really old I’ll be craving a nice little quiet space in a coffin to get away from it all... but not yet. Hahaha

I use autism and Asperger's interchangeably when describing myself. You may want to consider doing that as well.

I've helped out my garden club by giving away spare plants and bringing freshly baked cookies.

Do you know the spoon theory?
Everyone has their budget of energy. High functioning autism/Asperger's is a lot about putting effort and energy into things that are unnoticeable to NTs. Human interactions are the most obvious example. So you are tired or even burn out.

My therapist repeated all the time that I must care for myself before others. Intellectually I agree to her but it's hard to really do it when you were raised with worship of selflessness. Maybe that's your issue too?

Selflessness does not work. My grandmother did a lot of "selfless" stuff and then she manipulated everyone into chewing her emotional sh*t because she did so much for them... Everybody has some needs and desires and it's better to be aware of them.

Also, my sensory issues get worse with being tired, too. Right now the noise in my ears is almost enough to overstimulate me :/

Yeah, I hear you, I feel like my ASD is getting worse, too.
I have no idea why, but it's been causing me a lot of trouble these last few months, and I no longer have the energy to do things I used to enjoy
I'm having to ask at work whether I can reduce my hours to try and deal with it.

I love the Spoon Theory.
I wish it were more commonly known that Asperger's can worsen with age. I will try using autism more often.

I know a few people with autism. Sometimes I hate how it isn't visible. I feel like people understand how visible disabilities affect people more often.

And MrsPeel, good luck getting the hours you need and that work best for you.

For me many traits worsened with age

OP, are you under more stress now than you have been previously? I know for me the more stress I have the greater my need for isolation to avoid shutting down.

No. I am not under more stress than usual. Maybe it is just a phase and eventually I will be able to do things. Right now I will do what I can and spend, as usual, my Saturdays as much alone as possible and ignoring phone calls. If they want to talk to me badly enough they can leave a message.

Have you considered something like autistic burnout?

https://boren.blog/2017/01/26/autistic- ... d-passing/

Burnout is possible. I mean I have been diagnosed for somewhere around 16 years but a lot of what it says fits me and that had some great links that I loved reading. It annoys me to say 'around 16 years' because I want to remember specifics but all I can remember is that it was in April. I can't remember the year except to try to figure out what I was doing at the time and use that for an estimate.

It does tend to occur between mid-to upper 30's to the mid to upper 40's I seemed to get it early. My overall functioning is a bit worse than it used to be and everything seems more difficult now. I'm not sure myself...but It feels like it might be in my own case.

Something to consider...

Uhura, I agree with you and the other posters that the symptoms seem to get worse as time goes by. For me, especially in my lessening ability to deal with loud noises and crowds of people. In addition, over the past year and a half or so I have added panic attacks to my repertoire.

My memory never has been very good either so I have resorted to using a spreadsheet to note down things that happened in my life so if needed I can scan back and see when it was. Have been doing so for over ten years now.

Cumulative toll

Not having friends doesn't usually seem more than left out

But the impact adds up

Some articles claim that clinical depression has the same MRI as brain damage