Published on 12, July, 2020
I am an occupational therapist who works with autistic teens and young adults. I am curious- what is the biggest challenge autistic teens and young adults face as they transition to adulthood? Is it the fear of being lonely? Employment? Succeeding in college? Being accepted by others and making friends?
Missing out on many typical teenage experiences (relationships, sex, drinking, smoking, drugs, driving, ...) when it's 'acceptable' to be learning from your mistakes. I was too busy trying to figure out the world, and behave like a 'good' person was expected to behave, when I was a teenager so I missed all that. I never understood the hidden meaning in my peers' language so didn't pick up on a lot, preferring to read books to make sense of things. Feeling more at home with my grandparents' generation than my peers. Lack of support - after 18 years of being looked after by parents you are now responsible for yourself but you might not have 'it' together enough to be responsible, and if your family don't want to support you any longer you have to succeed or fail on your own. That dichotomy of feeling older than your years in some respects, but younger than your years in others. Feeling like every decision will be with you the rest of your life and being paralysed with fear because you have no information to make the decision. Being good at a lot of different things, having diverse special interests/hobbies but deciding which ones to keep as hobbies and which will make money for you to live off. Coping with neurotypical version of 'honesty'. Not being competitive when the rest of the world is. Lonely - not really.
I was exactly the same. Behaved like i was expected. I think my whole 20's i was.in a.teenage phase. I slept most of the time as a teenager. Dont remember much about it lol