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:
What's wrong with spending time with people of different age groups? I thought it was healty to mix with a wide range of people, traditional communities are all based around all ages mixing together, is this another case of normal behaviour being pathologised?
That was my interpretation, but I think this post is something that has to do with trauma - emotional or physical.
These days ages mixing, at least as peers, is viewed as a bit weird/ subversive. For example the very existence of 18-30 holidays. Ask the average 18 y/o when is too old to go clubbing most say between 30-35.
and I’m not talking exclusively about trauma. I’m talking about some degree of age incongruity arising out of autism. I’m just using trauma as an example of how mental health isSue’s can give rise to age ‘inappropriate’ behaviour.
Hypothetical example. A mature student turns up to the student pub crawl in fancy dress acting as loud and rowdy as all the young foke. Or a 35y/o guy turns up at the local kpop fan club which is mostly girls 18-21 and is keen to join the dance class.
JuniperFromGallifrey said:Right! which is why I added that: Autistics mature slower than non-autistic peers specifically due to how humans 'mature into civilised beings'. I say this with quotes because mature and civilised are sometimes wobbly words with different ideas as to what they mean.
I have dificulty with the notion of adults being 'civalised.' I would probably say more 'domestiated,' like pets, by sociaty.
JuniperFromGallifrey said:Freud, Jung, Lacan and so on all noted that Autistics weren't creating Defence Mechanisms.
And since I don't know that much about freud, jung or lacan I didn't really understand any of what you said. my background reading in psycology has all been cognitive psychology (post 1960s). None of the old stuff beyond very limited history of psycology stuff.
Peter said:some degree of age incongruity arising out of autism
Right! which is why I added that: Autistics mature slower than non-autistic peers specifically due to how humans 'mature into civilised beings'. I say this with quotes because mature and civilised are sometimes wobbly words with different ideas as to what they mean.
JuniperFromGallifrey said:It does seem to me the theory suggested in the early-mid last century that Autistics don't create Defence Mechanisms because we aren't wired to pick up social-linguistics is water tight. This accounts for language differences. a lack of desensitisation (thought the physical senses are coupled with other mechanisms) and how one matures.
Freud, Jung, Lacan and so on all noted that Autistics weren't creating Defence Mechanisms. these are different than Survival Mode (fight, flight, freeze, fawn). Defence Mechanisms are a way of dealing with the social contracts explicitly understood within NeuroTypical "Language". Basically, the idea here is that NTs are subconsciously traumatised into adulthood and further repress this. It's part of what breeds that competitive 'nature', hierarchal systems. It's been suggested it's linked to the ability to dull the senses. So one might have a hard time catching immediate details of their surroundings and what is impacting them, because they'll internalise it leaving them with a feeling and rely on these much more.
Sublimation, a main Defence Mechanism is a human engagement with turning momentary desires into 'appropriate behaviour". And this is partly why ABA is so heavily focused on behaviour. In NT speak, if you give someone a behaviour to latch onto they can associate with the feeling, so next time the same urge is present, they'll have the 'choreographed' response to tunnel that energy into. But these are really deep dives into clinical psychoanalysis.
Technically, with Typical peers, what appears 'mature' on the surface might have a lot of immaturity too far out of one's conscious to recognise.
That was me at uni, I was hanging out with people younger than my kids, I was known as Aunty... and they often came to me for advice or reassurance, I found that a lot of mums were comforted by having another mum around. I was in my 40's when I went to uni, I've always had friends who of different ages and I've loved spending time with my very young friends, small children have such a refreshing and unique way of seeing the world. Older friends have years of experience, knowlege and wisdom to share, how can any of this be wrong or abnormal?
I wonder if it's a middle class white English problem? Other culture's have all ages mixing, Indians and Afro-Carribean especially. If you step out of the mainstream white British culture and look at some of the sub-groups then you get a much wider age range and much wider range of everything really and I've found such groups often more inclusive and welcoming.