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 23 and feel like an old man. People still call me a boy but I do feel old somehow. A girl I dated even said I look older than 23. I was talking to guy in his 40s the other day and he said I’m just a baby chicken lol
Actually this raises an interesting point.
As a child I was a stereotypical “little professor” and was more comfortable with adults than children.
So maybe I’m actually Benjamin Button, aging in reverse!