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QUESTION: I'm curious to know what sort of health/mental problems I might be
faced with as an aspergers sufferer growing older. Now finally knowing
what is wrong with me (AS diagnosis at 48), I can look at options like
maybe assisted living for people on the autistic spectrum . But how
far does one have to be on the spectrum to qualify? Since I am non
verbal, mostly mute, I worry about dementia, alzhemiers, strokes. Some
would suggest I have some of these symptoms now. How does growing old
interact with AS?
I live on the west coast and would be interested in knowing if there
are assisted living arrangements that I could begin looking into.
California would be nice, also Oregon. I am sort of the opinion that
I am slowly turning into a vegetable, and would like to plant myself
somewhere where I could get watered occasionally before that happens.
ANSWER: Have you had a brain scan, etc. just to check? Its probably autism, but
never hurts to double check. For myself I definitly lost social skills
and gained social phobia during several years of being highly stressed
and isolated.
The good thing about autism is you can learn at any age, the bad thing
seems to be that having a fluid brain structure also means you can
'unlearn' as well. It took me a few years to get back to what I had
had before in social skills. Social phobia is approaching a level
(low) now that I haven't experienced since before middle school.
You may be able to get back somethings with practice as well. At what
level does the muteness seem to happen? Does it ever spontaneously
clear up with excitement about a topic?
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