Published on 12, July, 2020
I’ve seen a few posts recently about differences between older and younger autistic people and their attitudes, and I remember at least one thread about whether or not we look younger than neurotypicals.
I’m curious to know whether the “older” among you actually feel your age.
I know I look much younger than my age and I’m in great physical health but I also feel psychologically much younger than my true age. Perhaps because I feel I’m still learning social rules everyone else mastered by the age of 20? Or because I never got to be a parent, which must be one of the life experiences that truly signals to people that they are no longer the younger generation?
My dad felt very much that the world had changed and left him behind and so he had nothing in common with the young, but I never really felt I had anything in common with other people even why I was chronologically young myself so I don’t feel any more alienated now that I’m older.
I'm only 18 but I often feel much younger than I am due to some of the things I like to watch/do, but then other times I feel much older than I actually am and I've felt like that for years. I feel like I had been forced to grow up too quickly due to unfortunate circumstances in my life, and then I've missed out on a lot of childhood/teenage experiences because of it and also because of masking. i've come to terms with my self that it's okay for me to like things like colouring in and kids tv shows and build a bears, it doesn't make me any less of an adult. I feel a lot of the pressures of adulting, I just don't understand them and struggle lol. I also feel that I look younger than I actually am, like I look at literal 13 year olds and a lot of them look way older than me.