Autism symptoms tend to decline with age, but support, monitoring remain beneficial
firemonkey
Citizen
in General ASD
Early emerging autism spectrum disorder symptom levels often declined across development, according to an analysis of a prospective population-based cohort published in American Journal of Psychiatry.
However, impairment continued to manifest into adulthood for certain individuals.
Masking? Avoiding things you couldn't avoid as a child?
Comments
As an adolescent and young man,I believe very high levels of testerone played a large part in me being more social and open to social communication (with girls) than at any other time.
Also, as a child, even though I had sensory issues, my sensory issues have actually gotten worse the older I've become. They have not gotten better.
But the PTSD from the horrible realities of being an autistic young person haunt you for life.
On top of this, our efforts of making sense, navigate and adjust to mainstream society will usually make some things easier, while generating a whole host of new issues, some much more serious than the problem they were supposed to fix.
I think it's a bit of a vicious circle and both parties contribute to it.
I often think of the elder members of our ASD tribe, knowing that I might be there too one day and wonder if the increase in exposure to trauma and stress (through being in a medical model of disability world) exacerbates our risk of developing dementia conditions.
In my experience, both our society and the medical profession are very under-developed (to say the least) when it comes to acknowledging the dangerous effects of prolonged stress and helping people minimise the risks.
In recent years, I actually noticed a rise in suspicious "studies" and shoddy articles (cough cough, often pushed or sponsored by corporatist culture) about the "benefits" of stress and they often distort, misrepresent and cherry-pick valid scientific data to project some credibility. I particularly noticed conflating short-term stress (which can have indeed some positive effects) with long-term/chronic stress which is highly dangerous in all circumstances. I think some of the people and groups that benefit greatly from the status quo are doubling down as awareness rises.
Sometimes both occur together.