petitefeet5
Emu Egg
Joined: May 11, 2012
Posts: 3
|
 Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:01 am Post subject: Aspergers worsening with age |
 |
|
Im almost 48 and everyday I feel less and less connected to the world.
I do not understand the majority of people in that they are what is commonly known as two faced, jealous, catty, etc you know the drill.
I do not understand them and cannot relate to them. I always had a degree of difficulty with others, and I THANK GOD for the decent people I have met in life. They give me hope for this world lol.
Normally I would just deal with others on a very superficial level when needed.
However, for reasons I will not go into, for the last 10-12 years I have been dealing with a ton of stress, with the last 2 years stepping it up a ton in the ways of stress.
I have noticed lately that I am having a hard time finding my words, where I once had a virtual dictionary at my disposal. My memory, while it was never stellar, is even worse. I'm in a constant state of anxiety. I have never handled change well. I have always needed my day planned out with few changes occuring throughout the day,but feel like my world is spinning very fast around me lately.
I'm dealing with a lot of new people and their difficulties in my life and do not seem to be handling it well.
It all seems to be overwhelming to me and I would like to know if anyone has ideas on how I could cope better as well as whether anyone can tell me if things will normalize when the stress reduces.
I feel lost. No, I'm not depressed. I am stressed, confused, and have no real sense of direction right now. Thank you in advance. |
|
| Back to top |
|
auntblabby
Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief
Joined: Feb 13, 2010
Posts: 18156
Location: the island of loveable toy humans
|
| Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 4:50 am Post subject: Re: Aspergers worsening with age |
|
|
| petitefeet5 wrote: | | Im almost 48 and everyday I feel less and less connected to the world. I do not understand the majority of people in that they are what is commonly known as two faced, jealous, catty, etc you know the drill. I do not understand them and cannot relate to them. I always had a degree of difficulty with others, and I THANK GOD for the decent people I have met in life. They give me hope for this world lol. |
Hiya Petitefeet5  welcome to our neat little club  the golden rule says to be to others what you would have them be to you. the ones that matter will respond positively towards your kindness. as dr. seuss says, "be who you are, and say what you feel - because those who mind don’t matter - and those who matter don’t mind.”
| petitefeet5 wrote: | | Normally I would just deal with others on a very superficial level when needed. However, for reasons I will not go into, for the last 10-12 years I have been dealing with a ton of stress, with the last 2 years stepping it up a ton in the ways of stress. |
i never had much of a sense of direction, either, through life or otherwise. i was just stumbling from day to day with no effective goal-orientation. surviving but not living. when i was around your age, everything came to a head also, when i was caring for my late parents who both found their health deserting them at just about the same time. at the same time i was stuck in an uncivil service job that was akin to being trapped in a bottle with a bunch of scorpions. so i had no respite either at home or at work. that concentrated and unrelenting kind of stress will kill. my health numbers were like that of a 70+ year old man, or 25 years older than i was at the time. i suffered from CRS syndrome up the yinyang, i couldn't remember worth beans. i had tremendous freefloating anxiety and nightmares every night. i don't know how much longer i coulda lasted at that point. but when my parents passed away, i got laid off from my uncivil service job [and with what my parents left me] i could move to the woods away from "civilization" i found my health improving greatly within a few months.
the only thing i could think of, was that it would only be good if you could find a way to change the scenery in your life, i was luckier than most i suppose, but there comes a time when one has to step outside their comfort zone and uproot themselves and migrate elsewhere, to give the new background a chance to resonate with you. granted, my uprooting cost me a lot, i went from lower middle class down to lower working class, so it cost me lots of money but i am so much more [psychically] comfortable despite the poverty.
i wish you all good luck and am praying for you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
petitefeet5
Emu Egg
Joined: May 11, 2012
Posts: 3
|
| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 10:10 pm Post subject: Your response to me |
|
|
| Thank you so much I could not agree more. |
|
| Back to top |
|
MrMacPhisto
Phoenix
Joined: May 21, 2007
Age: 26
Posts: 1083
Location: Chatham Kent England UK
|
| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 1:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I disagree with Tony Attwood. I think it depends on the person when I got my diagnosis the phychologist told me that my Asperger will be less evident with age. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Apple_in_my_Eye
I don't remember
Joined: May 08, 2008
Age: 44
Posts: 3941
Location: in my brain
|
| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
Not having a good writing day today, but I've also had the brain-turns-to-mush-due-to-excessive-stress-for-too-long thing happen. It's interesting/amazing/gobsmacking to have seen how many people here have had that happen in the same particular way (CRS/verbal memory loss).
I've been looking up stuff on Google Scholar and it turns out that excessive stress hormones for too long damages the hippocampus, which is involved with memory. So, it makes sense that stress ==> memory problems. Studies done with people with PTSD (runaway stress reaction) and tumors that cause excessive secretion of stress hormones end up with the same impairment in verbal memory. So, were talking major stress levels here for that to happen (or else ASD folk have a lower threshold for such damage).
On the upside, the damage appears to be reversible, as the hippocampus normally grows new neurons if your stress level is low/normal enough.
I don't have much advice as I dumbly plowed on until I ended up wrecked and (luckily) on SSDI. It's too bad that there isn't a device that you could aim at a person and objectively measure their stress levels. It seems like there's probably a lot of ASD folk suffering from huge stress. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Heidi80
Phoenix
Joined: Dec 05, 2011
Age: 33
Posts: 507
|
| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
| My asperger's haven't worsed with age, but I'm more sensitive now and don't have to pretend to be normal |
|
| Back to top |
|
HalibutSandwich
Snowy Owl
![]()
Joined: Oct 02, 2011
Posts: 139
Location: On the hairy end.
|
| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 8:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Apple_in_my_Eye wrote: | | I've been looking up stuff on Google Scholar and it turns out that excessive stress hormones for too long damages the hippocampus, which is involved with memory. So, it makes sense that stress ==> memory problems. Studies done with people with PTSD (runaway stress reaction) and tumors that cause excessive secretion of stress hormones end up with the same impairment in verbal memory. So, were talking major stress levels here for that to happen (or else ASD folk have a lower threshold for such damage). |
This is interesting (since I'm also having memory problems, age 42). But maybe it's not the hippocampus. Some research has shown people with autism have a less developed hippocampus. But newer research is showing something different. Maybe it's the amygdala:
| Quote: | "There was a significant group difference in aging of left amygdala; controls, but not individuals with Asperger syndrome, had a significant age-related increase in volume (r = 0.486, P<0.01, and r = 0.007, P = 0.97, z = 1.995). There were no significant group differences in volume or age-related effects in hippocampus. Individuals with Asperger syndrome have significant differences from controls in bulk volume and aging of the amygdala."
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21948742 |
The amygdala is also involved in memory so that makes sense. What's more:
| Quote: | "We found that amygdala volume correlates with the size and complexity of social networks in adult humans. An exploratory analysis of subcortical structures did not find strong evidence for similar relationships with any other structure, but there were associations between social network variables and cortical thickness in three cortical areas, two of them with amygdala connectivity. These findings indicate that the amygdala is important in social behavior."
- http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v14/n2/full/nn.2724.html |
Also, there's evidence the left amygdala is involved in the positive reinforcement mechanism of the brain. That might explain why many of us have such low self esteem and never feel like we're moving in the right direction. And why in my case no matter how much I'm rewarded and praised I still feel like a worthless piece of sh** that's just doing everything wrong. 
Is modern research finally getting closer to understanding what causes Aspergers?
_________________
There's something inside me'n'I know it's good...
But understanding, it's misunderstood. - D.A.D. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Apple_in_my_Eye
I don't remember
Joined: May 08, 2008
Age: 44
Posts: 3941
Location: in my brain
|
| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
^ Very interesting stuff HS. I haven't even gotten to looking for ASD-specific stuff yet. I.e. I wonder what the brains of people w/ASD and PTSD (and also those dx'ed late in life?) look like.
I read somewhere that explicit memory is a hippocampal function whereas implicit memory is what the amygdala does. So, CRS syndrome would presumably be a hippocampal thing and feeling lost or directionless the amygdala thing (maybe).
That thing about social networks -- makes me think about how people remember who to fear and who not to fear (and who would be easy to take advantage of). I wonder if a smaller amygdala leads to ASD egalitarianism. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Ataraxis
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: May 02, 2012
Age: 32
Posts: 39
Location: North Idaho
|
| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:51 am Post subject: |
|
|
| HalibutSandwich wrote: | Also, there's evidence the left amygdala is involved in the positive reinforcement mechanism of the brain. That might explain why many of us have such low self esteem and never feel like we're moving in the right direction. And why in my case no matter how much I'm rewarded and praised I still feel like a worthless piece of sh** that's just doing everything wrong.
Is modern research finally getting closer to understanding what causes Aspergers? |
That sounds like me, I take compliments almost as badly as criticism. If I had a choice, people who were happy with something I'd done would just smile and do that single head nod thing that indicates respect or acceptance or something along those lines. I hate the squirming inside feeling I get if someone goes on in a positive way about something I've done, for some strange reason it always makes me feel inadequate, like I'm not worthy of it or stealing credit from someone else, even if no one else was involved.
_________________
Your Aspie score: 181 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 40 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie
INTJ
What's the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care. |
|
| Back to top |
|
vanhalenkurtz
Velociraptor
Joined: May 10, 2012
Posts: 460
|
| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 5:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
| The_Perfect_Storm wrote: | | I'm significantly improving. Don't see that changing. Ever. |
That is beautiful.
I believe better. Old(er) people receive less attention in society (unless they are authority figures) so there's less heat.
_________________
ASQ: 45. RAADS-R: 229.
BAP: 132 aloof, 132 rigid, 104 pragmatic.
Aspie score: 173 / 200.
NT score: 33 / 200.
EQ: 6. |
|
| Back to top |
|
SteelMaiden
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
Joined: Aug 20, 2006
Age: 23
Posts: 2635
Location: Rosehill, Greater London
|
| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 1:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I have got worse with age, but I think the stress of repeated psychotic episodes that started when I was 15 (I'm now 22 and have had over 20 quite florid psychotic episodes with incomplete remission in between) made my Asperger's get worse.
_________________
I have Asperger's, schizophrenia, and OCD.
Am obsessed about psychopharmacology.
Currently a part-time pharmacology student at University College London. |
|
| Back to top |
|
cbeckmandc
Butterfly
Joined: May 15, 2012
Age: 43
Posts: 15
|
| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 9:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I've read Tony Attwood. I believe he actually says Aspergers get better with age. That is why it is often difficult to diagnose as you get older. The reason is that we "figure out" how to fit into NT society. For example, although I have no innate understanding of social cues I can use my brain to figure out social cues that I've figured out in the past. |
|
| Back to top |
|
FishStickNick
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 05, 2012
Posts: 957
Location: My own head
|
| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I wouldn't say I've gotten worse than age. I've gotten better in some respects, but I will say that ever since I've gotten a real job, some of my weaknesses have become more apparent. |
|
| Back to top |
|
Onyxaxe
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: Dec 19, 2011
Posts: 177
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
| There's no debating whether I got worse with age or nor. I was pretty NT as a child, just reserved. Now I have meltdowns, trouble getting my limbs to coordinate, mute spells, trouble in public due to noises and lights. Most symptoms aside from anxiety and ocd surfaced around 14 or 15, I'm 23 now and it's unbearable sometimes. |
|
| Back to top |
|
ozman
Snowy Owl
Joined: Jun 18, 2012
Posts: 161
Location: Australia
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| for me i was getting worse, probably because I thought I was in a healthy relationship, in reality I was really hurting my nt wife- I can now see that many ( but not all) of my aspie ways are not healthy, and I need to change/grow/evolve. Whether this saves my marriage is irrelevant, although it is a bonus if it does... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
