What were you like as a child?

I found this clearing out paperwork of Mum's yesterday, lots of it still in the house after 6 years, due to PDA on my part...

I remember this, but not sure how old, 13 or so. The little mouse I beat the cat off to save. It sat in my hand for a minute or two... then, suddenly jumped off into the grass and away, to continue its life...

I was animal friend, as a child.

Hi! I have autism and just joined here today.

As a child I was quiet and shy. I was only ever close to my mum, I rarely spoke to anybody else, always ate the same foods, avoided the other kids at school, played with my toys and dressed in an old fashioned style, usually items of clothing from the 1930s - 50s. I've always been fascinated with vintage fashion, and vintage items, I think it may be my special interest but I'm not completely sure of this.

I was a curious child. I loved the world and the idea of adventure and exploration. My mum used to buy me maps and atlases and I would dream of where I would go to explore. I used to play pretend as an explorer when I was a kid and I would wear vintage clothes that an explorer might wear.

I would go in to the garden whenever I could on sunny days (and rainy days) and look for wildlife, then I would write about them in my journal, and try to collect them in cases but my mum would make sure I released them again after. For my 9th birthday my dad bought me a tent, only a one man tent and I set it up that day and was sleeping in it that night. It became my HQ where I spent a lot of my time, and where I stored my sweets!

I'm pretty much the exact same now just I'm in my 20s and I've got a beard.  

Younger

I was - 

Creative

Singing 

Drawing 

Reading 

Hanging out with my animal friends

Outside

Remarkably little has changed! 

I can totally relate! Even though I'm in my twenties now, I haven't changed all that much either. Still a bit on the shorter side, and yeah, adulthood and strangers can still be pretty spooky. Toys? Yep, they're still pretty awesome. And don't get me started on sweets—I've got a serious sweet tooth that hasn't budged since childhood.

It's funny how some things just stick with us, right? Even though we've moved past school, some parts of us just stay the same. Embracing those little quirks and staying true to ourselves is what makes us unique. Here's to staying forever young at heart!

I haven't really changed much at all. I'm still the same boy, lost in my own world. It was endearing when I was a kid but I'm supposed to be an adult doing adult things now.

I have a lot more experiences and knowledge and patterns matched, but at the core I am still that confused little boy trying to understand people.

My biggest change is that I think I've 'mellowed' in personality for better or worse and I don't know how much of that is especially depression related. As a child I was still shy and difficult with strangers but I was more vocal at least with people that I found myself comfortable around (not always positively comfortable like friends, just familiar enough people that I may have already alienated and don't get along with). Sometimes I think I'm too quiet nowadays, sometimes I forget what I even sound like xD

Another part of me that's mellowed I feel is anger. I used to be quicker to get frustrated as a child. I have trouble with displaying my emotions at all now, probably the other extreme but I certainly don't get frustrated easily.

But honestly, I think that elements where I haven't changed is part of the problem, I still feel like a scared kid in an adult body.

I saw someone mention food and I guess that's something I've noticed change. I wouldn't say I was especially picky as an eater but as I've grown older I'll pretty much eat anything including things I didn't used to like. I still find myself picking some of the 'bits' out of sauces sometimes but otherwise I'm easy and take whatever I get. That being said, I would rather stick to foods I know and consider 'safe' more under the logic of 'if I really don't like it, I don't have anything else ready and I don't want to skip a meal' and I'm conscious of wastage (especially considering the costs, I don't want to waste).

As a child, I was deemed by others in accordance with traditional Catholic Social Teaching at the time and because of my parents own mental health issues to be attracting and inviting bullying behaviour by others, in accordance with Irish cultural and social norms, to have no “cop on”for which it was decided that I needed to be silenced by being placed in a child residential psychiatric facility for 9 months, for which it was also decided that I needed to be held back a year in primary school as a problem child - it was also decided that I was not permitted to do group cert and inter cert exams and that from then on, my career path had to be decided by others for me without any input from myself permitted, any objections resulting in my being forcefully told to be quiet and stay quiet as if I was in a court of law, as it was deemed disrespectful for me to object because it was deemed that I was not capable of deciding my own future as I was deemed to be coming from a state of mental health confusion and of “not being right in the head” and of being wrong by default on all issues regardless - my autism diagnosis many years later was seen as a way of silencing my over-vocal nature in the infinite wisdom of everyone else and of making me grow up and take responsibility for my immature and dysfunctional nature as deemed by others - such people today still believe and maintain that I should not be living alone and above all, still need ultra strict discipline by a live in carer as the only way to manage my autism 

...Sporadic? I'm not sure how could I'd describe it, it's weird looking back, especially that I still haven't masked up everything at that point.

It hasn't been that long since I was a child, in some ways I'm still very childlike both in personality and appearance. If I buy alcohol and smokes - for others, not me - I always have to prove my age with ID. Though I'm 20 I still look about 11 I think. That's what I'm told by most people and when I look in the mirror I always feel happy, happy that I'm not changing that much. It's difficult experiencing and watching those around me change and physically get older. I really do not like it. It's a change I find extremely difficult to deal with.

I still play with my toys, have a very childish side and seem to get on better with children than adults, and I'm still close to my mum and like to be cuddled like I was when I was a child. My Gran once said I'm a child in an adults body now, I tend to agree with this. Despite getting older in years physically and mentally I don't seem to be getting older. Looking at this thread it could be autism related.

Thanks to Debbie for making the library of threads where I found this to.

I'm in my twenties but still look early teens. I don't seem to age like the rest of the world does lol.

I'm 23 years old. Personality wise I haven't changed much, and I like that! Get me in front of rockpools by the sea and I'm instantly 10 years old again, with the same excitement.

Food preferences is an interesting one! I used to be very picky and unsure of new food. I had a phase of only eating teacakes for school snacks as a child. But now I LOVE new foods and trying new flavours and SPICINESS! Food is definitely a sensory treat for me, and one of my special interests.

People tell me I haven't changed much appearance wise from childhood but I definitely dress more stylishly now and really enjoy it, something that would really baffle my 10 year old self!

I still get easily surprised and spooked by adults and strangers! I try and laugh at myself a bit now but my reactions are much unchanged from childhood. 

I forgot to add: I used to dance around and clap my hands, but only when I was really happy and excited.

Extremely shy. I was only comfortable and felt safe with my mum.

Here's a pic of me with my brothers and sister one Xmas. Everyone else was all smiles. I felt very uncomfortable as you can see in my face, I hated being so close to them and didn't like that I was wearing uncomfortable materials.

I kept my toys and clothes all neat and tidy. Hated it if anyone touched anything of mine and got it out of order.

I was a quiet child. Hardly said anything, even to my mum. I found and still find talking and interacting difficult and awkward.

I was a happy child though. I had a loving happy family and they understood me so I was also lucky.

yeah i probably changed alot in ways but stayed the same in others.

people who knew me in school likely would say i have changed massively. but they really didnt know me much more than surface level, and in school it was stressful and bad for me so i was kinda crazier and so bad in a way im actually amazed i wasnt recognised to be given any help or diagnosis considering i was probably the most bat *** insane mentally wacked person anyone could possibly know back then. but that was all because school was too much for me and impossible to cope.

my teachers clearly knew there was something up with me and even commented when i had work experience day which i didnt get a place so ended up work experience in school instead, they commented something like i cant make it in real life or speak with others. so they clearly knew then but i never got help. i was super thin too like 6 stone in school.

anyway now it would seem im totally normal, this is likely because im removed from the environment i couldnt cope in and now have more control, ofcourse it took long isolation to reach this state of normalisation and undo the state i was in at high school and relax into this normalised state... then i not only normalised but became a better more alpha type of human when i trained, of which to this day im muscular toned have six pack and so on. became physically better, about 9 and a half stone now. lucked myself a job, got myself a flat, i now fit in with society and seem totally normal. not only normal but as i said physically a alpha human. still socially rubbish, still can slip into previous mental instability in social situations but this is more controlled and held back, i only allow some crazy to get out now lol just enough to make it seem social and make up for not conversing. but yeah anyone who knew me from school would be surprised now with how much i have normalised. 

to be fair some dont like the change. but the one who doesnt like the change is kinda guilty in his own way anyway as he was my friend at one point early in high school then ditched me saying i attract too many bullies so i dont care if he doesnt like me and how i have changed as he was trash anyway for ditching a friend in their time of need out of selfish cowardice. anyway im just rambling now again lol but yeah i have changed alot of the surface level in many great ways but underneath im probably still the same and i can revert and lose control and the old me can show when pressured and stressed again. 

You may think I looked sweet as pie, but I have a feeling my parents would beg to differ. 

Being youthful seems to be an autistic thing. I've read this so many times where people look half their age. I'm in my twenties but still look about 12.

Bit of lager never hurt anyone :D 

Cute picture though. You looked sweet as pie.

As a child, I had strawberry-blonde hair, but it has since become more of a light-brown colour with bits of grey. I loved reading (fiction), and colouring-in, and was also a bit of a Tomboy. I enjoyed climbing trees, playing with toy cars, and kicking a ball around.

Food-wise, I'm not particularly adventurous, but am slightly more adventurous than I used to be. One thing that hasn't changed is that I continue to have a sweet tooth.

For the record, the can of lager in the photo was empty... Just in case anybody might be wondering. 

I was diagnosed with an intellectual disability at age 3.in 1997 was diagnosed with autism at age 6. I’m a teen trapped in an adult body. I’m still picky when it comes to certain foods. I still love going down the toy aisle, I collect dolls and plushies. I’m still a kid at heart even though I graduated from university in 2012. Some things have changed but not alot