Question for Adult Members

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When you rethink about the path you took, is this how you imagine your life being like? are you happy? sad? I am 20 years old right now and I am curious what life is like when you age while having Asperger.

I’m pretty okay.

I didn’t really have a notion about what life would be like at age 57.

I’m better off than when I was a youth.

I'm not much older than you, but here goes anyways.
I feel like it only gets better as time passes by.
I'm getting better and better at dealing with my problems, and I'm more comfortable being myself. I no longer feel the need to chase human connections, or the preassure of fitting in or being able to do everything that everyone else is capable of doing. I'm fine with going at my own pace.
Compared to the average person my age, I'm definitely under-accomplished, but it doesn't bother me anymore. I have many goals I want to reach, but am also quite content with being where I am. Working hard has proven to get results, and I'm confident that most things work out for the best.

Hi; I'm 62. So here goes:

I was a kid during the '50s and '60s, and a young adult during the '70s and '80s. A huge amount changed, societally. Much good, much not. The decline in earning potential for nearly everyone in the labor force was a factor I hadn't reckoned on. The increased, albeit often covert, stigmatization of people with lower incomes, or disabilities, or merely old age was another such factor. The professions I'd hoped to join essentially vanished or became untenable (education, print journalism) and I had to settle for a very much second best there. And, of course, the retirement incomes I saw my grandparents and great-aunts / great-uncles enjoy (fresh out of the New Deal) evaporated for most of this society by the time I was in my 40s. I saw old people pushed out of apartments so they could be sold to yuppies as condos; I saw sick people pushed on to the streets so the residential facilities could be closed and the staff fired. I saw a great reversal of meaningful progress in this country, at the same time people were becoming more and more fascinated by bright blinking lights and shiny objects (tech, celebrity culture). And the skyrocketing costs of education and healthcare - both driven primarily by greed uber alles - make me worry for the young generations here and those who will follow.

OTOH: I have seen the positive results of Loving vs. Virginia (interracial couples still make me catch my breath and bring a happy tear to my eye). I saw the Poor People's March, the enactment of the Voting Rights Act. I've seen systemic injustices (against people of color, LGBTQ people, women of any and all colors and orientations) outed. People naming them and not being brushed aside, ignored, dismissed as cray-cray. It's a start. And I've certainly seen the backlash to this too.

I saw the "housing bubble" for what it was, I saw the "tech bubble" likewise, I'm sitting back and watching the cryptocurrency bubble now (including news sites that want to take over my laptop's CPU to mine cryptocurrency in exchange for accepting my ad-block? Hell no!).

Although my Asperger's set me apart for most of my life, I'm grateful for it. The outsider perspective it gave me was painful at times but was exactly what I needed - it gave me enough detachment to see through most of the BS and manipulation in this society, and hold on to what I could find of goodness.

My life definitely didn't go as I'd expected and hoped when I was young - but neither did the society around me. I've managed to keep my balance through some serious turbulence and at this point, I'm content. I've been loved, I've loved back, and I mean that in human terms. And I've had dear, loving animals with me all my life long. If love is the thing that matters, I've done well enough; I'm content. And I see enough awareness around me that I still have hope for the future, for the younger ones here and those to come.

It's not what I imagined, but with someone as weird as I am I think it would have been hard to predict, either way. Things could have turned out a lot worse.

Thank you everyone

I didn't really imagine anything cuz my brain isn't good at imagining in general & I had so many issues & struggles related to my many physical & mental disabilities that it was hard enough for me just to deal with the present without worrying about my future. I think I'm fairly happy nowadays cuz I'm living in a much better environment for me now with a girlfriend who really understands & accepts me. We do have our issues & problems sometimes party due to our many disabilities but we try to work things out where as before I moved things never got resolved with my parents. We'd just act cool again a while latter like nothing happened & the same $hit would happen over & over again.