Being a few years behind in growing up

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I think that's a part of autism or something, like I'm 17 and I feel like I'm 11 or 12 and that can either be a good or bad thing (maybe that's why autism is called a developmental disability).

Last edited by roygerdodger on 23 Aug 2008, 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm like that on occasion.

I hate that feeling. I feel like I'm as old as I am, but I don't do the normal things that someone my age would. I didn't have a serious girlfriend until age 19. I didn't get drunk off my ass until age 21. I didn't go to college until 20. Didn't get a job until 17. Didn't get my permit until 17. It seems I'm always 2-3 years behind the crowd, know what I mean?

I think I'm like that in some ways. I'm 25 and I haven't been to college, don't have my driver's license yet, and still live at home with my family. I'm behind on quite a few skills and other things in life yet I've always considered myself an intelligent person. Quite a paradox for me; I can't really explain it.

i am 19 and I have a twin brother and people always think I am his younger brother and I have been mistaked for being 16-17 years old. Also, I am always behind in my maturity and feel like I am like 15 or 16 years old.

I feel the same way a lot.
I'm an RA this year in college, yet I have theses friends much younger than me who can already financially support themselves. I feel awkward being around people who are the same age, or younger, who are farther along in maturity than I am.

I've always been more immature than my peers.

The same happens to me with my twin, recently I was at an art show with my twin brother and this woman starts talking to him then she sees me and says "is this your younger sister?" I said he's my twin! were the same age, she complimented how young I look and said she guessed I was 14 or 15. I'm 22. This is also a reason people are shocked to hear were twins since I look much younger.

I feel no older than 15 at times for certain things though.

I understand that's pretty consistent. I think I read somewhere you can figure about 8 years behind in emotional maturity. Looking back, and at my kids, I'd say that's pretty close to right. Decisions that I made at 18 and 22 make more sense in retrospect as more like if I had been 12 and 16. I think the difference persists but the older you get, the less difference it makes.

In some ways I'm ahead of the crowd, but in social aspects (doing the things other people do for fun, interacting at the level of my age, that sorta thing), I'm at least three years behind, if not just on another track entirely. My dad thinks it's because of all the time I spent in the hospital instead of in the "real world." It could be so. It could also just be how I am. I find so many of the social things people my age do to be uninteresting, or even harmful and counterproductive anyways. I do have trouble finding friends in my own peer group rather than people several years my junior (high schoolers) and people much older than I am (professors and other mentors), which I hope gets easier as subtle age differences start to matter less.

In maturity and academics, I have always felt like much ahead of most peers. However in terms of the ways that I perceive the world (not in terms of being innocent, as even at 9 I was quite pessimistic of the world and humanity; more in terms of how I interact with the sensory perceptions), then I still feel as I did when 5.

When trick-or-treating at age 15, I was told I sounded like a kindergartener. Something about the way I talked and walked about, I guess. I tend to have a bit more bounce in my step than many people my age, and in my movements in general I feel quite young.

Also my rebellion stages seemed to not really kick in until a bit later than for my sisters. It's almost like my mind is too busy trying to juggle everything in my life, that I don't have time to do some other things (much like how doing schoolwork meant that I couldn't learn laundry or dishes, though unfortunately my older sisters got jealous that I didn't have to do the chores, when I didn't know how to do them - they didn't understand though, that even though they'd learned when younger than me, that I wasn't quite able to do it yet).

Well I think I am, never had a job and doubt I will anytime soon, cant drive well I need to aply for learners again, and I am interested in things that younger people then me should be interested in. but on the other hand there are things which I feel above others in my peers, often I prefer to make friends with people quite a younger or older and often I can hold my own.

Well I was a late bloomer, so that caused some things with me.
I've occasionally felt less mature than my peers, but on more occasions than that, I've felt more more mature than my peers.

I agree! My son is physically and socially exactly like a 2-3 year old, even though he is 4 1/2. He goes through every new stage of interaction, but just a few years later than his friends.

But he talks and thinks like an old man.

I was always years behind my actual age group, I also looked ten years younger for most of my life. You don't always know these things at the time though.

Ah yeah. My development is irregular too.

Compared to the average, I am behind and then suddenly, I'm further along than the average person. Very jumpy.

I'm regularly perceived as 15 or so.

I don't mind.

The standard-non-autistic development scale doesn't work for me. I think that I just develop differently.