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Autism and ageing

  • Author Author Masaniello
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  • Blog entry read time Blog entry read time 1 min read
Do autistic people age better than neurotypicals? Given we are often neglected, derided, and abused in our younger years, are we more used to the marginalisation of ageism when we get old (whatever 'old' means)? As I get closer to sixty, I have not achieved various benchmarks that the average person is supposed to have obtained and I have missed many so-called rites of passage. I cared about all that in my younger years but I certainly don't now. Not giving a rat's arse has made me a happier person today. I really don't care about the wrinkles, the lack of a relationship, and so on. Yet these things terrify a lot of people.

I wonder how the popular and handsome neurotypical young guy in his twenties copes with the losses that come with ageing. Maybe he's fine with it but if so, he needs good coping mechanisms and a reasonable level of acceptance. If not, all the cosmetic surgery in the world is not going to give him back his youth.

Comments

AprilR
I don't know about the emotional-psychological side of it, but i am in my 30s and people tell me i still look like a high schooler.
 
Masaniello
AprilR said:
I don't know about the emotional-psychological side of it, but i am in my 30s and people tell me i still look like a high schooler.
Click to expand...
I finished high school before Reagan completed his first term but I too am assumed to be a bit younger than my real age.
 
S
I have no doubt that it's better at over six decades than it was at two. I agree that the wrinkles don't matter. In fact, because of the social isolation I didn't wreck my skin with as much sunlight when I was young, so the delayed benefits are here for me to enjoy.

But still, there is that free-floating anger inside. A dread of saying anything to people that they might judge. I'm surrounded by people who burned the candle at both ends who are nearly dead, and plenty who are gone already. The ones who are still alive often are bitter. I'm not, but bitterness and anger are two separate things. I really shouldn't be angry, because sometimes, I look around and realize that still I'm happier than I used to be in some important ways. There is a clarity that comes from a lifetime of being "canceled" from the "conventional wisdom." I can look at things on a blank sheet of paper, and appreciate them differently.
 
B
Interesting thought/question: do we age better? Not sure. Genes play a part, granted. But, at 70 and the oldest of 3 brothers, many people assume I am the youngest, not the oldest, and when I say I am 70, many say...you mean 60? or less? I have no real way of judging, I look in the mirror and I see me. But this shock/denial from others regarding my real age happens weekly, and never as a punch line for a joke, so I assume it is real and true. My wife is 20 years younger than I but many assume there is only a few years age gap between us. (no, she's not a "trophy wife" at all - she was tired of the "boys" her own age and vowed that her next boyfriend would be an older guy....and then I met her.) So, for what it's worth, this is my comment on the question.
 

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Masaniello
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