Published on 12, July, 2020
So recently someone I know told me that their doctor had told them one of their symptoms was age regression.
I actually had to look this up to be sure. Apparently it’s a psychological response, it’s quite rare, that’s associated with some mental health conditions, where a person will take on childlike qualities and behaviour and sometimes start acting or believing they are a child. Now every time a mental health professional accuses this person of behaving childishly they remind them that age regression is one of their diagnosis symptoms. This person is autistic but has a ton of mental health conditions on top of that.
However it got me thinking. I am often accused of being childish or immature. Of not acting my age. A lot of autistic people are painted rightly or wrongly as being Peter Pan types. It is perhaps ironic; like many other autistic people as a child adults said that I made a better adult than a child. Too serious, too linguistically precociously, too formal. And now as adults we’re too immature, not self-aware enough, not serious enough. The expectations have shifted from one side to the other and I’ve stayed the same or more the same than people expected.
So todays topic for debate. If not age regression; more generally is age inappropriate behaviour a symptom of autism? And if it is a natural aspect of autism to what extent should society be expected to accept and include it?
Here are some things to consider:
As a gay man myself this is probably relevant in some respects, but also, growing up in a Catholic background, being constantly commanded as a child to grow up, often while getting corporal punishment for being bullied in school - in later years, some people use a diagnosis of autism to dismiss, disregard, invalidate and discredit, anything that someone with autism says as irrelevant, inappropriate and as nonsense, in the belief that the only way to manage autism is ultra strict discipline and screaming commands at an autistic person to be silent, just like a USMC drill Seargent
Okay? And do you think this relates to age regression somehow? Do you think perhaps you displayed some age regression because of these events? Not clear exactly what point you’re trying to make.
Many parents firmly believe and maintain that ultra strict discipline right from the start and giving children an upbringing that is as harsh as possible, forcing them to grow up in the ways that they want, prevents all tendency towards inappropriate behaviour, which they believe must always be punished most severely, including that of age regression, as they believe that severity and a harsh upbringing for children is for their own good in the long run
I guess I was thinking about age regression among adults. Not kids acting immature for their age which I think is more widely accepted