interesting article

"It may seem surprising that people who received a diagnosis much later in life had more severe features, as we might expect people with severe features to be more likely to seek a diagnosis earlier in life": https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/autism-features-may-be-more-severe-in-old-age/

  • Yeah, it’s a relatively new diagnosis and they still call it a mystery, and in many ways it is ~ I think they will find out eventually, that we are the ones wired for success and we’ll begin to study the more neurotypically minded people ;) 

    I agree, it’s great they’re looking into older age, although their data will probably be fairly low but I would dearly love for older adults who are no doubt still undiagnosed, to get the care they need in a way that will not make things worse for them, such as carers turning up late/early which is common practice and annoying and sometimes an inconvenience for most people but for a person with autism, it could be a major meltdown. I hope at some point, to get involved in discussions with the local council regarding care services for older people with autism, to help make services more appropriate and less troublesome. 

    I think people like ourselves, need to be speaking out and telling the experts what it’s like from the inside out which will help them to get a better understanding of what is actually going on,  although the more I learn, the more I’m convinced that it is a major shift in societal values etc that need working on as much as understanding autism and I think autistic people will be a major part of that shift, for several different reasons. 

    It’s positive news though so thanks for posting the info. I don’t read newspapers etc so I’m always grateful when people post stuff like this. 

  • Yeah, I think there's still a lot not really known. I hope that they do more research into older adults with autism. It seems most of the people doing autism research is focusing on children, but those children become adults and move to old age, and there's not much research in that area. It's nice to hear that there are people who are trying to understand how autism manifests in old age. Hopefully, there will be more support services in the future.

  • So basically the study is saying they have no idea how autism effects people as they move into older age, but, they’re going to look into it, which makes sense.

    It’s interesting that they used the word ‘severe’, several times in relation to autistic traits, because that’s how I describe my autistic traits. Maybe, as the article suggested, the more self aware we are, the more aware we are of the difficulties we have and maybe in that sense, they appear more severe? Who knows, but I’m glad they’re looking into it as it will be a step in the right direction, to be better informed in how to better care for older adults in care homes and at home receiving home care services. This is where I have seen difficulties arising for older people with autism/undiagnosed autism so it’s great that there is talk of looking into this now.