Are you less aspie now than you were when you were little?

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I know I was. When I was little, I was more inflexible and more concrete. I was more literal too when I was a kid and I remember when I was little, I hated it when my teacher changed desks around in my class and it bugged me everyday. I wanted everyone to be in the same spot like it was when school year started and I remember it would upset me if I couldn't sit in a certain spot.
I also used to have poor motor skills and bad hand eye coordination and I used to have poor balance and I was very psychically clumsy so I had to do therapy. I used to play with my toys the same way over and over instead of a different way and I hated to wear jeans. I also hated it when my friends moved furniture around in my doll house but yet I turn around and do it to other kid's doll houses when I be at someone's house not even considering they might not like me doing it because I don't like when kids do it to me.
I also used to be OCD about cleaning. I couldn't have one thing left out of place, and I clean clean clean and then when I was in high school I learned to get used to not having a display house.
I used to not really care about others kids either and I was hard at understanding their emotions like if I sprayed a child I wouldn't know why they were crying and why everyone was yelling at me to stop what I was doing. I know normal kids do those things too but they full well know what they are doing and are choosing to do it and they know how the kids kids are feeling but they are just choosing to not stop while an ASD kid doesn't understand why everyone is so upset and why they are yelling at them to "stop" and why kids are crying.
I also hated when kids broke rules and it would drive me crazy and it upset me. I can remember my school counselor telling me kids won't always get caught when they break rules because what are we going to do, put cameras everywhere and have it on every single person so we can catch every rule they break.
I used to get very confused too when I see kids breaking rules because it mess up my mind and I think the rules have changed so it's okay now to do it. So I do it and get in trouble and I thought I was being discriminated. I was to an extent because it was all caught on videotape in school and the teachers still made a big deal out of me to my mother even though they saw other students doing goofy things but when I started doing it, they blew a fuse.
Took me till I was 17 to figure out there are rules and people will always break them, just because they do it doesn't mean it's okay. They're the stupid ones for not following them and I'm the smart one because I am following them.
I also used to be very rigid when I was a kid. If I got an idea in my head of wanting to do something I had to do it or I get very upset if I didn't because it was what I had planed out for the day.


Now I am less everything and I am more flexible and more spontaneous. I even did the aspie quiz answering questions about myself in my childhood and I came out with a high score and my score was a lot lower when I took it again answering questions as an adult.

I'm not less autistic as an adult than as a child. Just older.

Are non-autistic people who change throughout their life considered "less non-autistic" as they get older?

I still play by the rules, that is important to me , and I want to instill that to our children...I am not as clumsy, I learned to become more balanced...I learned to speak more clearly , more precise, with less mumbling, although I still stutter when I 'm tired or flustered...I look at people's faces more, look into their eyes with greater comfort than when I was younger..I have become more comfortable in my skin, and accept me as I am ..I know I am different, and I am at peace, and also proud of myself for hanging in there alll these years as the different child....

Then why am I less aspie. I even got a lower score on the aspie quiz because of so many skills I have learned and how I have learned to cope. I even outgrew some traits.

Last edited by Spokane_Girl on 17 Dec 2007, 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've learned more about interacting with people, letting others talk, trying not to talk too much or too little, being appropriate, etc. Sometimes I can seem to "pass" quite well, from what I've been told. Other times I want still want to run away from people and find them exhausting and bewildering and untrustworthy. I minored in theater - perhaps that helped.

For me, I believe I tried to correct myself to the point of over-correcting myself......does that make sense?

I think my obsessions are deeper now, and because I'm more aware of my social shortcomings, I'm more withdrawn and anxious. I definitely like to spend more time by myself than as a kid. I think as a kid I was so unaware of anything being wrong with me that I was just more happy overall. However, as a young kid I stimmed openly because I didn't know how to hide it, so it was more obvious that something was wrong.

YEP!! ! I WAS going to detail it, but I'll spare you.

Except for things like depression, most of us improve with age, at least until we reach the point of brittle. I have fewer sensory problems and have learned how to cope with most things in life.
When I was a child, my only friends were over the age of sixty. I think some were in their eighties. I loved visiting these calm, sweet people. I would give them one of my latest art projects (you know, aliens made from pipe cleaners and parts of egg cartons) and they would give me cookies and we would chat. I would tell them there really were white elephants in Thailand and the king would give them to people he didn't like to bankrupt them with the care of the sacred animals, and they would be interested, which none of the kids at school were.
We had a party at our house last month, and someone told me one of the boys had asperger's. I showed him a shell of a worm tunnel I found at the beach, and he started telling me about how hermit crabs chirped, and next thing we had left the party and spent an hour online until we found the site that let us listen to hermit crabs. I had a lot of fun with the little guy.
At 55, I'm a grandmother. Maybe now it's my turn to pay attention to the smart, lonely kids.

I can cope with problems better than I used to. With practice and better judgement I don't overreact as much and my social skills are better. My hormone levels have changed, and that tones things down a bit. I still hyperfocus as much as ever, but I have better control over it.

That is a nice twist. I am not that old but, if not for the fact that my interests run so counter to the average male(I am not interested in sports, or disgusting things, etc...) I would have been a big brother. Who knows, maybe one day I'll get something setup like you happened into.

I had a few "baby sitter"s. I never liked that, or felt it was right and HECK, sometimes I was ALONE late at nigh with NOBODY, and I did ok. Anyway, one baby sitter was probably in her 70s or 80s. I was definitely younger than 7 at the time. One thing we did that I guess was nice was watched jeopardy and perry mason. I guess I have liked about every drama Raymond Burr ever did.

Anyway, after thinking about the time, and looking at wikipedia, maybe I was about 3. I got the feeling the shows were new, and that wouldn't have been true after 3. I believe I moved there when I was about 2.

I can relate to this.
When I was younger, say under 10 years old, I didn't realise that I had a "problem" as such. I knew that I didn't have friends, but didn't care. As you put it, quirky...I stimmed openly, I didn't think that what I was doing was considered "off" and didn't know how to control it. I put myself out there to the world and was oblivious to the fact that I was doing anything socially unacceptable.

Now, I wouldn't call myself "less aspie". I am more withdrawn which makes me appear shy and maybe a bit aloof, but not as much of a social misfit as I was when younger.
I am also more self aware now.

Yes.

I'm less Aspie-ish now than when I was growing up. You learn to adapt, mimick and adjust your thought process to fit in a bit more with an NT world.

As I grew up, I learned to hide a lot of my aspie traits from bullies etc...

Now that I'm older and well away from those sort of social issues, my traits are resurfacing.

Indeed.