How has your Autism changed as you have aged?

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rdhdbk
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31 May 2013, 8:26 pm

How has your Autism changed as you have aged? How has it stayed the same?



PerfectlyDarkTails
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31 May 2013, 8:39 pm

For me it seems autism and others it getting progressively worse, but it only seems so as I've only recently been labeled and diagnosed as such. It's difficult to measure a change historically when it has gone undiagnosed for such a long time.


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Thelibrarian
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31 May 2013, 8:42 pm

I'm fifty. The biggest change in my AS is that mine seems to be connected to some inflammatory problems, which are getting worse. I feel bad physically a lot of the time. Having said this, I'm actually reasonably happy with my life, though this was hardly the case when I was younger. I think the biggest difference is that I've learned how to live with my AS by living a life suited for me rather than normal people. I suppose I could say that I've learned to get along with myself better even if I haven't necessarily learned to get along with other people any better.



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31 May 2013, 8:44 pm

I get more easily frustrated and have more meltdowns as I get older


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31 May 2013, 8:46 pm

I've adapted my behavior to be more "socially acceptable", even though I'm still an Aspie.

Most people I meet for the first time seem to think of me as an "eccentric, but harmless old coot".

I can live with that.



MjrMajorMajor
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31 May 2013, 9:29 pm

I don't think my autism has changed as much as my self awareness has increased(somewhat). It's an area I might always be deficient in, but I am trying to be more aware of how my actions may be perceived by other people. I think at a certain point I hit a ceiling, but it never hurts to try. :shrug:



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31 May 2013, 10:12 pm

My speech and verbal ability got better (finally got reading and writing a few years later than everyone else at school).

Other than that, it hasn't changed much at all.



seaturtleisland
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31 May 2013, 10:26 pm

I've adapted well. Some symptoms have become less severe and others have stayed the same. My self-awareness increased dramatically towards the end of elementary school. That was probably the period with the most rapid changes in the way my Autism presents itself. Suddenly I could see myself from a 3rd person point of view. I couldn't feel embarrassment when I was younger because I had no idea anything I did came off as weird. Now I'm actually a bit hyper-focused on how I appear to others so I have the opposite problem but it's not as bad. I get self-conscious a lot more.

It's been pretty stable since the age of 16 and I don't think it's going to change that much in the future.



auntblabby
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31 May 2013, 10:40 pm

I got used to myself.



rapidroy
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31 May 2013, 11:27 pm

I'm much more sensitive to sound, light and perhaps a few other things then I was 10 years ago, every other change I can think of right now would be most likely enviromental and or self awareness related.



Einfari
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01 Jun 2013, 12:18 am

My autism has improved overall since I was a child. My sensory issues are nearly nonexistent now. while I was afraid of most loud noises as a child. My social skills have improved very gradually. I become a little more outgoing each year. I still have trouble putting words together, and I often hesitate to think before I speak. I still have social anxiety and am unsure to to act in some pressured situations. I've some a long way since childhood, but I am far from being NT as well.



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01 Jun 2013, 12:24 am

Either it is getting worse or I am just becoming increasingly disappointed at my own cluelessness.


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Marybird
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01 Jun 2013, 12:42 am

Everything around me keeps changing but I stay the same.



Wivil
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01 Jun 2013, 3:58 am

It is about the same....i have just gotten better at hiding it. :|



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01 Jun 2013, 4:03 am

I'm (somewhat) less socially anxious that I used to be; in grade school I was always afraid of doing something stupid (which it feels like I did frequently) and having the other kids think I was weird. I didn't have any friends, which meant I had no one to tell me when I was getting weird vs when I was just being paranoid. Around sixth grade I stopped caring so much about what the other kids thought. I'm still anxious when trying to communicate with strangers, but just being around them doesn't bother me like it used to. My stims have been constantly evolving and changing throughout my life too; I can probably list a different stim (for some reason there was usually only one) for every period in my life, including now, although my current flapping is a remenant of what I did when I was maybe 10-11, and that was less of a stim and more of a habit as I was often unaware of when I was doing it, and it wasn't really tied to my emotional state; at that point it was a needed tactile experience; I had to feel the compression on my knuckle joints in a physiological way.


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01 Jun 2013, 4:07 am

Rocking in car-seats and chairs was habitual the first 40 years of my life. I often stayed up way past the bedtimes of those I lived with (parents, then navy, then wives) just to get the necessary stimming out of my system. Seems my body has slowed; I'm habitually nocturnal but I don't rock any more. I sort of miss it, frankly; it really was the proverbial after-work cocktail.


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ASQ: 45. RAADS-R: 229.
BAP: 132 aloof, 132 rigid, 104 pragmatic.
Aspie score: 173 / 200; NT score: 33 / 200.
EQ: 6.