Worsening Autism?

[Gamma V]

For the past year or so, I feel as though my autism has been worsening. I often find myself zoning out and/or getting overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks, like helping my mother in the kitchen. In some ways, I'm becoming more routine-oriented, particularly when it comes to pairing soda with meals. I've also become fixated and somewhat inflexible on things like my favorite character to roleplay as on a forum roleplay. Finally, I find myself more likely to misinterpret things. Just now, I was yelled at for eating a hamburger my mother had made for herself. I asked my stepfather before eating it, and he said my mother made it but didn't want to eat it. I took that to mean that I could eat the burger and did so. Is my autism getting worse, or are my family members just getting tired of it?

 

[Kenneth]

I'm no expert, but to me it doesn't sound like your autism is getting worse, but rather that your tolerance towards specific things is lowered. Also autistic people are naturally routine oriented, and in some cases these routines can change over time (from what I've read). And I think the burger thing was just a misunderstanding.

 

[Judge]

Agreed, that sounds like just a misunderstanding. If someone told me no, they weren't going to eat it that it could have meant it was ok to take it. Or not.

Kind of like having someone fill up a glass halfway and then having to ask them is the glass half-empty or half-full ?

Some scenarios are just easy to misunderstand. Best not to be so hard on yourself.

 

[Suzanne]

Couldn't have chosen the words as well as Kenneth has: not worse; your tolerance has lowered.

As for the burger. I believe even an nt would interpret that, or perhaps have called out: hey, is it true that you don't won't it after all? We take things literal. So, you don't want it, then it is free to eat and gobble gobble

I just asked my husband, who is an nt, if he ever experiences a sense of staring and being unable to stop staring and he says that he finds himself staring, but not to that extent, in other words, looking into himself, so to speak, but this is different and just a couple of day's ago, it hit me again. It is like my brain is gluing my eyes and I have to physically shake myself.

I think also self awareness plays a lot into apparent "worsening autism/aspergers".

 

[Progster]

I don't think that autism can get worse or better, but our ability to cope with it, or tolerate it as @Kenneth says, can vary. If a person with ASD is anxious or depressed, that can affect that person's ability to cope and that might make it seem that the autism is getting worse. I've noticed that since being on antidepressants my anxiety is less, and that means that I have less social anxiety, I'm a bit more confident, and can cope better with things like changes to routine. However, more confidence means that other ASD traits, such as making faux pas, might emerge.

 

[LogicalMind]

Maybe if you can find a: 1) Trustworthy 2) Polite ... autistic man or girl, that you can become friends with in person to person near where you stay...it can help with social norms/skills.

I only became better, when I started trying to make 1 or 2 friends, and meet them once a month. But they would have to be comfortable friends.

I think...we need to try to build ourselves socially, and try to learn...I know we will all repeat mistakes and that is ok...and people do get tired of us lol... but we need to continually add a tiny bit of new learning, on an occasional basis...not to burn us or stress us out...but to help us develop

 

[Chance]

For the past year or so, I feel as though my autism has been worsening. I often find myself zoning out and/or getting overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks, like helping my mother in the kitchen. In some ways, I'm becoming more routine-oriented, particularly when it comes to pairing soda with meals. I've also become fixated and somewhat inflexible on things like my favorite character to roleplay as on a forum roleplay. Finally, I find myself more likely to misinterpret things. Just now, I was yelled at for eating a hamburger my mother had made for herself. I asked my stepfather before eating it, and he said my mother made it but didn't want to eat it. I took that to mean that I could eat the burger and did so. Is my autism getting worse, or are my family members just getting tired of it?

Burger and misunderstanding aside I also think that in some ways I get "worse"... But I dont think its possible, or impossible.

As we age we "collect" more an more information we store in our heads... Inside my head is like this vast library of the pictures of all the things I have learned... I am constantly adding to these word pictures and just like a library I try to arrange them so I can find them again... Well as that library gets bigger and bigger... It gets to be more of a challenge to go get stuff at times...

Thats my crude definition... It works for me and helps me not feel any more crazy then the crazy example I just allowed to be placed out in the open... : )

 

[Streetwise]

Burger and misunderstanding aside I also think that in some ways I get "worse"... But I dont think its possible, or impossible.

As we age we "collect" more an more information we store in our heads... Inside my head is like this vast library of the pictures of all the things I have learned... I am constantly adding to these word pictures and just like a library I try to arrange them so I can find them again... Well as that library gets bigger and bigger... It gets to be more of a challenge to go get stuff at times...

Thats my crude definition... It works for me and helps me not feel any more crazy then the crazy example I just allowed to be placed out in the open... : )

ahh you haven't got to The it's all spilled out stage of everything you've stuffed in your head,prepare for that ,if only I had a nappy for what spills out of my head now.
male or female prepare for perimenopause ,men get it as well ,your body interprets that hormonal change as death and you suffer panic attacks that cannot be medicated .
start bumping up vitamin b magnesium potassium vitamin E vitamin C iron , for men vitamin b and potassium .

 

[Nightingale121]

There is a thread about autistic burnouts that was started by @Warmheart a while ago: https://www.autismforums.com/threads/asd-midlife-burnouts-loss-of-functioning-skills.13780/

Maybe you can relate to this, @Gamma V?
I think this topic is also connected to what @Progster and @Kenneth said.
If you experience burnout, this will lower your ability to cope and "act normal" because it's basically a crash after coping for so long.

Maybe you're exhausted from all the coping, perhaps always trying not to make your family angry and "supress" your autism in order to do so, and can now no longer keep up with it?

 

[Judge]

These days I worry more about being burned out by age alone...which continues to catch up. Particularly short-term memory issues. The past week I've struggled to consistently remember that coriander is synonymous with cilantro. Weird stuff like that. Which seems to go into a sort of "black hole".

Autism? Hmmm. Tough to understand whether it's truly any better or any worse. Though I like to think that self-awareness mitigates some things at least.