Is it Possible for AS traits to appear later in Life?

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Niche99
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24 Apr 2014, 7:30 pm

Just like the question above...could AS symptoms appear later in life? like in teenage years perhaps?
...just being curious....(I've read some forums about it in the Internet)



Alyosha
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24 Apr 2014, 7:38 pm

No.



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24 Apr 2014, 7:45 pm

For the most part, I agree with Alyosha, although I see how a lot of comorbid anomalies could only be picked up or manifest when the associated systems were called upon. I think the variance in ASDs allows for symptoms to present themselves in most any order; barring infantile tendencies...


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24 Apr 2014, 7:46 pm

Maybe the symptoms were more pronounced during teenage years because of school and all that???? and the symptoms during childhood went unnoticed??
Is that possible??



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24 Apr 2014, 8:22 pm

Yup, it is possible. But to be clear the traits don't appear on teenage years, but may be more pronounced then or only noticed then.
I read it is common for female aspies to have their traits noticed only on teenage years, because that is when social skills and executive function start being really important, and all may be too much for the aspie. That is my case more or less, when I was a child everything was fine, I was happy. Lots of free time, all day on special interest, no responsibilities, no organization, not much anxiety, other kids liked quirky. Then things started getting worse when I was 12, and by 14 I was a complete social disaster. I only arrived at aspergers possibility at age 18 and diagnosis at age 19. I guess teenage years are not easy for anyone. In the case of aspies the struggles may become more apparent.



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24 Apr 2014, 8:31 pm

I think it would depend on specifics.

Kind of hard to prove something is impossible.

Whatever is going on, is obviously going on. Autism may not be the only possible explanation for it.




Want to share some more specifics?


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24 Apr 2014, 8:50 pm

Probably depends on which traits. I.e. you can't have a speech delay until you're older than other kids when they speak. I think some social things may not be noticeable when kids are still socializing as kids. The age where kids start to acquire adult social awareness (social rank consciousness/desire) may provide more contrast that makes previous denial by parents impossible, eventually.



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24 Apr 2014, 9:59 pm

Like someone said earlier, I think this can be true especially for girls. Not that Autism starts older but certain traits show up and present more significantly when we are older. But there should be traits that are evident when we are very young. For example, when I look at pictures of myself between the ages of two and five, almost all of them have that "Aspie stare." One of my relatives also told me that when I was very young I used to like to "build" things. This relative does not speak English as a native language so I am thinking that there may have been a lot of stacking and ordering of those things. Socially as a little kid I was great and no one would have noticed that I was different. But I also had an older sibling who was close to me in age. I remember as a little tiny kid I had some friends of my own but I did a whole lot of tagging along with my older sibling imitating what he did. I also remember that I used to imitate some of my little girl friends a lot as well.

But as I got into my preteen and teen years is when I started to become noticeably different. That is when I started being a little more odd socially and I found it harder to make friends especially with kids that were cool. Anyone who was my friend was also a little different and kind of like an outsider from the cool crowd. When I was in college, I was able to manage socially and so much so that I was even asked to pledge a sorority but I think that that had more to do with how I did academically. But even the girls who asked me to pledge were not really my friends. They never hung out with me or ever invited me to hang out with them. I think they just asked me because I could make their group look good. It felt more like I was tolerated by my peers in school and respected for how I did academically and for the way I conducted myself as a person. I did not sleep with anyone or speak with profanity or drink or anything like that so people respected me even though they did not choose to befriend me. Most of them were nice and polite and respectful but that was the extent of it. I was never invited into their little circles in the dining hall or the study groups. And no one ever chose me for anything. And some people were obvious about the fact that they felt I was different.

But it was not until I got married that the symptoms really started to show much more strongly. I think that the difference is that once I entered a life that gave me huge amounts of responsibility like taking care of a household and a husband, I started to experience different kinds of stresses that I had never experienced before. So the coping mechanisms that I had figured out to help me deal with situations that I found myself in as a student or a single basically living either with my parents or with their finances supporting me, were no longer working in this new environment with these new stresses and responsibilites. So now that I found myself having to deal with stress on a whole new level my Aspie traits really started to show in a way that they had not before. They became much stronger and much more apparent and much more frequent.

But I have always had sensory issues ever since I was a baby. My mom tells me that when we would go to the beach I had to be carried because I would refuse to walk on the sand. I have always been sensitive to things that I touch and to sounds and to food textures and colors for as long as I can remember. But as a small child I did not have a lot of stress at all so these traits did not really show so much that anyone would have thought anything of them. And I did not have any speech delays. And even the speech issues that I have now did not show up when I was younger because the stress levels were different.

I was always younger than my chronological age emotionally but I think that that did not become noticeable until I reached a age where it would have been weird to act childlike. What I mean is that if you are seven years old and you act like you are five, people might not notice. If you are ten and you act like you are seven or eight, people will think you are immature but they won't really make any fuss about it. If you are sixteen and still playing with dolls like an eight year old then that might be a little weird. And yes. I played with dolls like a little girl until I was about sixteen or seventeen. But I always did that in secret so no one really knew. They knew I still had my little girl dolls but no one knew how I played with them.

And because I did not have nearly the stress I started having in my preteen. teen and adult years as a little kid, I did not have real meltdowns until I got older. I am sure I had some but they were also misunderstood so they were treated as tantrums. So I actually did not have an understanding of why I was having them until I got older. When I got older I was able to identify the fact that I was suffering from sensory overload. When I was very little I just understood that I was being "bad" because I would get disciplined for them.

So in that sense it can appear that you are developing symptoms when in fact you are not. What is actually happening is that you are not growing out of behaviors that most kids grow out of by whatever age because these are in fact behaviors that are linked to being on the Spectrum.

It might not be as noticeable for a little kid to not understand social norms and people don't really think much of that. But when you never seem to get them as you grow up then you start to appear odd. So even though the symptom was always there because it was more age appropriate when you were little you may not have known it was there. That is one of the reasons I think it can be difficult for HFA's, especially girls, to be noticed as Spectrumites when they are younger. If your symptoms are not as severe as someone who is more severely affected, even though you may be experiencing them they can easily be mistaken for bad behavior or just kids being exhausted and pissy or a little out of control or just shy or whatever. But this would give you the appearance of developing Asperger's later in life when in fact you always had it.


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Last edited by skibum on 24 Apr 2014, 10:32 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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24 Apr 2014, 10:19 pm

Niche99 wrote:
Just like the question above...could AS symptoms appear later in life? like in teenage years perhaps?
...just being curious....(I've read some forums about it in the Internet)


Yes, but it's not AS. They give it other names like schizoid and schizotypal personality disorder. Also, prodromal schizophrenia. Sometimes it can be caused by traumatic brain injury.

But you need the symptoms from early childhood for it to be AS.



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24 Apr 2014, 10:56 pm

The sources I've seen -- if I could remember which one, I'd share it -- says that while the physical wiring may have been in place from the beginning, the traits may not fully manifest before teen years. Supposedly, the stress over increased socializing, dating, and friendships based on something other than someone your age can set the traits in motion. There are always childhood traits -- I was scared of people and rocked as long as anyone can remember -- but unless they are REALLY pronounced, no one may notice them initially. It's pretty much "It's not a problem until it's a problem."


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24 Apr 2014, 11:22 pm

Autism and aspergers appears at latest 2 years old. anything later is probably a series of simular traits caused by upbringing, trauma or something else.


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24 Apr 2014, 11:28 pm

ZombieBrideXD wrote:
Autism and aspergers appears at latest 2 years old. anything later is probably a series of simular traits caused by upbringing, trauma or something else.
Symptoms will be there by that age. Whether or not they are recognized might not happen until much later. So even though they were there. if no one recognized them you could be deceived into thinking that they started later. Some symptoms become much more apparent in later years especially for girls.


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24 Apr 2014, 11:36 pm

skibum wrote:
ZombieBrideXD wrote:
Autism and aspergers appears at latest 2 years old. anything later is probably a series of simular traits caused by upbringing, trauma or something else.
Symptoms will be there by that age. Whether or not they are recognized might not happen until much later. So even though they were there. if no one recognized them you could be deceived into thinking that they started later. Some symptoms become much more apparent in later years especially for girls.


Great point Skibum! they may be there and Noticeable but only to a trained eye, it may just be labeled as "shy' or something the child is suppose to grow out of from the parents.

i know the one thing that REALLY worried my dad was the fact that i couldnt hold things like pencils, scissors, and Forks and spoons.

i used to think that was due to Dyspraxia, but i asked a psychologist and he things the autism caused it, i do not have dyspraxia.


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24 Apr 2014, 11:42 pm

ZombieBrideXD wrote:
skibum wrote:
ZombieBrideXD wrote:
Autism and aspergers appears at latest 2 years old. anything later is probably a series of simular traits caused by upbringing, trauma or something else.
Symptoms will be there by that age. Whether or not they are recognized might not happen until much later. So even though they were there. if no one recognized them you could be deceived into thinking that they started later. Some symptoms become much more apparent in later years especially for girls.


Great point Skibum! they may be there and Noticeable but only to a trained eye, it may just be labeled as "shy' or something the child is suppose to grow out of from the parents.

i know the one thing that REALLY worried my dad was the fact that i couldnt hold things like pencils, scissors, and Forks and spoons.

i used to think that was due to Dyspraxia, but i asked a psychologist and he things the autism caused it, i do not have dyspraxia.
Yes! :0)

That is very interesting about your having a hard time handling these types of utensils. Do you still have some struggles with that now?


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24 Apr 2014, 11:44 pm

skibum wrote:
ZombieBrideXD wrote:
skibum wrote:
ZombieBrideXD wrote:
Autism and aspergers appears at latest 2 years old. anything later is probably a series of simular traits caused by upbringing, trauma or something else.
Symptoms will be there by that age. Whether or not they are recognized might not happen until much later. So even though they were there. if no one recognized them you could be deceived into thinking that they started later. Some symptoms become much more apparent in later years especially for girls.


Great point Skibum! they may be there and Noticeable but only to a trained eye, it may just be labeled as "shy' or something the child is suppose to grow out of from the parents.

i know the one thing that REALLY worried my dad was the fact that i couldnt hold things like pencils, scissors, and Forks and spoons.

i used to think that was due to Dyspraxia, but i asked a psychologist and he things the autism caused it, i do not have dyspraxia.
Yes! :0)

That is very interesting about your having a hard time handling these types of utensils. Do you still have some struggles with that now?


yes, because i didnt develop a Pincher Grip, i cant use a Fork and Knife at the same time and i hold my pencils in a fist, Scissors ive mastered though XD


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24 Apr 2014, 11:45 pm

In my view, no. ASD is hardwired from the start, not a developmental disorder.

Some aspects of it may become more evident during periods of high stress through.