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Do you know how old you are?

Lady Penelope

Well-Known Member
So I know how old I am but whenever I'm asked I have to think what year we currently are and do the math.
I was born in 1981 so I think... ok it's 2017 so I'm 36. I can't seem to remember any other way.

I also don't feel 36.
I don't know what 36 is supposed to feel like but I don't think this is it. I still feel like a teenager and look like one... I'm told.

Might be the whole aspies maintain childhood interests and a sense of naivety and childlike wonder and enthusiasm for their passion/obsession thing. Maybe.

Thoughts?
 
I don't really know what any age is supposed to feel like....I just feel like me.

I think (for myself anyways) the only thing that causes certain years to feel a certain way are circumstances, so there isn't really a universal feeling for any age....just certain common threads that occur.
 
I don't really know what any age is supposed to feel like....I just feel like me.

I think (for myself anyways) the only thing that causes certain years to feel a certain way are circumstances, so there isn't really a universal feeling for any age....just certain common threads that occur.

Do you know how old you are without having to think about it?

Do you feel how you thought you would at that age? Say, when you were 10 and thought what it would be like to be 30, at 30 do you feel like you thought?
Does that even make sense? :oops:
 
There is a whole lot of stuff about this on the thread 'Problems With Not Looking Your Age'.
It seems lots of us don't look or feel our biological age.
 
Do you know how old you are without having to think about it?

It takes some months past my birthday before I can remember. If I'm overwhelmed or distracted I often have to calculate.

Do you feel how you thought you would at that age? Say, when you were 10 and thought what it would be like to be 30, at 30 do you feel like you thought?
Does that even make sense? :oops:

I'm not sure I understand, but that doesn't mean that what you're saying/asking doesn't make sense :)

I think maybe it's just a question I can't answer, because I never imagined being 30, never imagined any part of my life at 30, let alone what feelings I might have about myself or my life or what just "being" would feel like (the last one doesn't seem to change.....or maybe only in very subtle ways at the interplay between thought/memory and the basic core that is "me" -- the core never changes).

In the same vein, if I try to imagine being 60 right now, nothing happens. It's just a huge blank that will have to be filled in later.

It's sort of like, I don't understand what people say when they talk about "feeling like an adult" versus "feeling like a child".....I don't know what those things mean, unless you're talking about specific roles relative to other people -- then I think maybe I get it, at least partly....maybe.
 
There is a whole lot of stuff about this on the thread 'Problems With Not Looking Your Age'.
It seems lots of us don't look or feel our biological age.
Ok thanks. I couldn't find anything but will have another look. Carry on.
 
Quite often mentally speaking I don't feel like my age. However physically...well....that's another matter sometimes as well.

Though when celebrities near my own age die, it becomes abundantly clear. :eek:
 
It takes some months past my birthday before I can remember. If I'm overwhelmed or distracted I often have to calculate.



I'm not sure I understand, but that doesn't mean that what you're saying/asking doesn't make sense :)

I think maybe it's just a question I can't answer, because I never imagined being 30, never imagined any part of my life at 30, let alone what feelings I might have about myself or my life or what just "being" would feel like (the last one doesn't seem to change.....or maybe only in very subtle ways at the interplay between thought/memory and the basic core that is "me" -- the core never changes).

In the same vein, if I try to imagine being 60 right now, nothing happens. It's just a huge blank that will have to be filled in later.

It's sort of like, I don't understand what people say when they talk about "feeling like an adult" versus "feeling like a child".....I don't know what those things mean, unless you're talking about specific roles relative to other people -- then I think maybe I get it, at least partly....maybe.
I think you do understand what i mean. Feeling "adult" vs "child" makes no sense to me either. It's along the same vein. I feel like me...not an age or state of being. But i did think about what my life would be at 30 and how i thought I'd think and feel ... but i just feel like me and i think i think the same... i maybe in one of those weird moods today...
 
I think you do understand what i mean. Feeling "adult" vs "child" makes no sense to me either. It's along the same vein. I feel like me...not an age or state of being. But i did think about what my life would be at 30 and how i thought I'd think and feel ... but i just feel like me and i think i think the same... i maybe in one of those weird moods today...

Is it sort of....anti-climactic, or puzzling, or just....not what you expected? Or.....?
 
Is it sort of....anti-climactic, or puzzling, or just....not what you expected? Or.....?

I think maybe i was hoping I'd feel more confident in myself. You know what ... as i was thinking of this reply i think i know what it is. I only just found out about asd this year and how it relates to me. Perhaps being undiagnosed as a child warped my thoughts so that i thought I'd fit in when i was older. That i was more mature than my peers and had different interests...i felt so out of place and out of sync ... maybe my magic age of acceptance was 30 and having reached that age and still feeling lost made me question.

I may be onto something ...

But my original ponderance was how i have to do the math to work out my age. I never remember off the top of my head :p wondered if anyone else struggled.
Might also be cos i don't place any value on age. You are who you are. I don't see it as a restriction per se or hold it against someone like most in society seem to.
 
I think maybe i was hoping I'd feel more confident in myself. You know what ... as i was thinking of this reply i think i know what it is. I only just found out about asd this year and how it relates to me. Perhaps being undiagnosed as a child warped my thoughts so that i thought I'd fit in when i was older. That i was more mature than my peers and had different interests...i felt so out of place and out of sync ... maybe my magic age of acceptance was 30 and having reached that age and still feeling lost made me question.

I may be onto something ...

But my original ponderance was how i have to do the math to work out my age. I never remember off the top of my head :p wondered if anyone else struggled.
Might also be cos i don't place any value on age. You are who you are. I don't see it as a restriction per se or hold it against someone like most in society seem to.

Ah, okay.

I do get my age into memory as a fairly automatic-recall thing, but I have had to stop and calculate.

Does that mean you also don't automatically know how old you were in a specific year? I always have to calculate for that.
 
I think maybe i was hoping I'd feel more confident in myself. You know what ... as I was thinking of this reply i think i know what it is. I only just found out about asd this year and how it relates to me. Perhaps being undiagnosed as a child warped my thoughts so that i thought I'd fit in when i was older. That I was more mature than my peers and had different interests...i felt so out of place and out of sync ... maybe my magic age of acceptance was 30 and having reached that age and still feeling lost made me question.

I may be onto something ...

But my original ponderance was how I have to do the math to work out my age. I never remember off the top of my head :p wondered if anyone else struggled.
Might also be cos I don't place any value on age. You are who you are. I don't see it as a restriction per se or hold it against someone like most in society seem to.

I think as you get older you can be more interesting to other people. As they get bored with themselves they flock to new thoughts and ideas like piranhas round a fresh finger.

I also feel my age more as things start to crack when I move, eyes are changing, things like that.
People would say to me when young "you'll know all about it when you're my age"
So its the start of payback time for them.

But they're dead so cant appreciate any cracks or pains I get.

If we were to meet again in heaven they could ask me about the pains of aging. I'd just say it didn't happen. They'd be none the wiser.
In your face.... dead people.
 
I do sometimes have to go back to my birth year to be sure as well because it's not something I think much about until someone asks.
Also not sure if it's relevant but there is a checklist of Aspergers traits in females which I filled out and one of them was 'young sounding voice' which does apply to me.
Anyone else?
 
Physical circumstances like the bodily aches and pains and some changes in looks is the only difference.
In my mind and ways of thinking about life stay the same.

I don't have any trouble remembering my biological age.
Not yet anyway.
 
I do sometimes have to go back to my birth year to be sure as well because it's not something I think much about until someone asks.
Also not sure if it's relevant but there is a checklist of Aspergers traits in females which I filled out and one of them was 'young sounding voice' which does apply to me.
Anyone else?
Yes. That's me too. Look and sound like a teenager...
 
Ah, okay.

I do get my age into memory as a fairly automatic-recall thing, but I have had to stop and calculate.

Does that mean you also don't automatically know how old you were in a specific year? I always have to calculate for that.
No idea how old i was in a specific year but recall events from that year and I'll know my age from that. If i think of a song i liked in 1996 i then know i was 15 based on the music but not the year...
 
Oh, I definitely need to do the math using my birth year to know my current age (and my parents' age, for some reason, but not other people's).
If I'm asked, say, at the doctor's or something, there is usually an awkwardly long hesitation as I go "Ummm... I'mmm... 27? No, no, wait... 32! 34?". Sometimes I just reply with my birth year, and let them figure it out because I can't from the stress it's causing. It is weird.

As for feeling my age, I'm not sure. Is age even supposed to be felt? I know that I'm always very surprised by the stark contrast when I meet or see another person my age, they always seem to be living a completely different life, like they've given up on all of their hopes & dreams, settled for the absolute less, and it's showing. Meanwhile, I still pass for about 10 years younger, but it's not just the looks, it's something else. I'd say it's the freedom. Sure, my life is often in shambles, but I don't have the ties most people in their 30s do, and when something fails, then I just try to reinvent myself again. Maybe a bit like a teen trying to figure out who they are or want to be?
 
Oh, I definitely need to do the math using my birth year to know my current age (and my parents' age, for some reason, but not other people's).
If I'm asked, say, at the doctor's or something, there is usually an awkwardly long hesitation as I go "Ummm... I'mmm... 27? No, no, wait... 32! 34?". Sometimes I just reply with my birth year, and let them figure it out because I can't from the stress it's causing. It is weird.

As for feeling my age, I'm not sure. Is age even supposed to be felt? I know that I'm always very surprised by the stark contrast when I meet or see another person my age, they always seem to be living a completely different life, like they've given up on all of their hopes & dreams, settled for the absolute less, and it's showing. Meanwhile, I still pass for about 10 years younger, but it's not just the looks, it's something else. I'd say it's the freedom. Sure, my life is often in shambles, but I don't have the ties most people in their 30s do, and when something fails, then I just try to reinvent myself again. Maybe a bit like a teen trying to figure out who they are or want to be?

That's interesting.
The question and 'what do you do?'
My answer I haven't decided yet. Kind of fits.

You can't be broken if you don't make yourself up to be a person in the first place.

I've actively avoided trying to have ties and the life that most people have.

I did also burn all my bridges out of curiosity (partly,some thankful necessity)

Like that song,(Pete Seeger and the start of weeds) everybody living in
'Little boxes,little boxes'

All growing the same life.

Overall, I've been lucky,but I digress.

Is feeling your age like feeling its Tuesday when it has been Thursday all day?
 
I know how old I am, but occasionally I'll get it a year out if I've had a birthday recently. Sort of the same way when we enter a new year, I keep writing the previous year for a little bit until I get used to it.

I don't feel 31 though, I'd say more late teens early twenties, but I think that's just because I can be immature and I see all the people I went to school with doing proper adult things like buying houses, having kids etc and I'm just like nope no interest in all that jazz.
 
No. It doesn't really occur to me to be a certain age.

I live in my head where age doesn't exist only thoughts, ideas, hopes and dreams.

It's only when someone asks me I bother to check.

I do have to work it out though.
Sometimes I guess (who would ever know? MI5 aren't questioning me)

If someone asks I can answer as if I know exactly how old I am.
I was born in a year where 9 was the last digit- just add one to the last digit of the current year.

Giving an answer quickly appears like I know how old I am all of the time
(I don't, I just work it out quickly)
 

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