Feeling like I am behind my peers and missed out with what they've done.

I seem to sometimes feel I missed out on what maybe some of my neurotypical peers in their 20s and 30s do or have done like certain types of leisure/activities like going out with friends to a bar or pub or going to a nightclub and having a fun time with plenty to drink (I have never got drunk) and maybe start experiencing sex and relationships for the first time and going out a lot to places like travelling abroad with friends or a boyfriend/girlfriend. The thing is with me, nightclubs and places like that were never really places that interested me. I also hadn't been in a relationship although I did know someone I liked I might have wanted a relationship with but she didn't feel the same about me. There was someone else I quite liked who wanted a relationship with me but I wasn't sure so we stayed friends instead. I am also well aware of things like STIs and things like that.

Since leaving school, college and uni, I maintained few friendships with people and some of those people were not going-out types and some were autistic like me and not as social as me. There were times I got invited to go out and meet people during school days but didn't always go probably because it was out of my routines. 

I didn't start going abroad again until I was 25, I went to Amsterdam, Antwerp, Krakow, Rome and Berlin only with family and not on my own or with friends.

I now still feel like I am left because I am seeing some of my peers now getting married and having kids now. Even my sister who is a bit younger than me has a 4 year old son. I feel like I probably don't want children but I am just worried because what if I change my mind years from now but it might be too late to consider it because everyone else is having kids their 20s and early 30s which seems like the ''ideal time'' to have them and not later and so that's why I sometimes have this feeling as though my time is ''running out'' but I know I can't really rush things such as finding a long-term partner and then immediately get married and have children. Ten years ago I had none of these thoughts and had no interest in having kids or marriage or worrying about having or not having kids in my 30s. 

Parents
  • This. I relate to this so much I'm still a teen but I constantly feel like I'm falling behind but I'm trying to remember that life is about the experiences that make me happy not about competing and comparing myself with the people around me. 

Reply
  • This. I relate to this so much I'm still a teen but I constantly feel like I'm falling behind but I'm trying to remember that life is about the experiences that make me happy not about competing and comparing myself with the people around me. 

Children
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