Aspergers & Mental Age

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Why Aspergers can make me feel very young? I can get sooo overwhelmed that I can get more anxiety, cuz I don’t know how to deal with things & be very responsible. I’m a very worse adult.

How old are you Kitty? We all develop maturity at a different rate. However, yes, it is a known trait that people with autism seem younger than NT people of similar age. I felt so unprepared for adulthood. All through my 20’s I still felt like a teenager and completely masked my way through life, pretending to be a real “grown up”. I was probably in my mid 30s before I finally felt like an adult. Although never a capable adult but no longer a child!

I HATE this concept so much! My parents used it as an excuse to make me hang out with this neighbor girl 7 years younger than me who only pretended to like me so she could use my laptop and play games she didn't have. She came from a religious family that hated Mormons for some reason. She was in a fourm for other kids her age. I didn't care if she used it as it was intended.

She found out another little girl on the fourm was Mormon and wanted to create a new user account just to bully this girl. I said, 'If you want to do that, you're gonna have to find another computer. If you use mine, you have to obey my rules for it. You don't have to interact with this Mormon girl, but you CAN'T be mean to her." I tried to tell my parents I really didn't want to basically have to babysit a teenager who didn't need a babysitter and had other friends. My parents were like, "Well you're autistic and because of your mental age you can't make friends your own age!"

I also had to go to a swim class, even though I NEVER expressed any interest in swimming and we lived in a landlocked state but since they were specifically catered to autistic kids, I HAD to take them. Aside from a girl who was non verbal and either in her late teens or early 20's, I was the oldest one there. Ever other kid there was either a toddler or preschooler. But again, it was fine and dandy because "you're autistic and your mental age is younger".

If I wanted to do something I was legit intrested in some activity or group that was for my actual age group my parents were like, "No, your autistic and your mental age is lower". I was never allowed to quit any of the activites my parents insisted I do becuase they didn't want me to develop a "quiter" mindset. I never wanted to be a "starter" for most of these in the first place.

I never really had any desire to make friends, even friends my own age. I was content to be alone doing my own thing but if I did desire friends my own age I would have had to kiss that goodbye becuase since my parents only let me do activities for younger kids beucase they were adamant my mental age was drastically lower than my chronological age.

my mental age is variable depending on what areas of life one is talking about.

i still haven't accepted adulthood
even though i have all the responsibilities and achy bones of an adult.

i do belive i will be an senior citizen with the mental age of about 17

youth is a mindset, not a description of a physical form.

Ever since I was a kid people have mistaken me to be younger than my actual age. Until I was around 30 it was totally a bad thing. The only girls/women attracted to me was 4-5 years younger than me. Now, at the age of 57, I think it's quit positive and flattering when people, especially women, think I'm in my 40's. I am not sure if it is a mental thing - me acting immature - or if I actually look physically younger, or if it's a combination of both.

I was never ready for the restrictions of adulthood. In 2016, I decided that I was going to do whatever I wished and nobody could stop me. That's when I first started unmasking.

My friends say I look 20 years younger than my actual age!
They said I could pass for my 20s if I dyed my hair!

I constantly learn new things. Pick up new hobbies every five years.

My ASD diagnostic doctor said I have the social-emotional maturity of a 14 year old, max.

I stopped at that age because of ASD but also trauma.

When I'm triggered I go even younger, usually to 7 but also to 3.

i didn't start to look old until covid hit me, then i suddenly aged.

I look far younger than I am, but I wonder if it's subtle mannerisms that add to the perception that I'm young?

i was told i had the posture of a girl and sit like a girl.

Just because I'm almost in my 50s doesn't mean I have to dress like I'm in my 50s.