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Is it possible to "outgrow" autism?

SchrodingersMeerkat

SchrodingersMeerkat

trash mammal
I was diagnosed at seven but once had a psychiatrist basically tell me "You may have been autistic as a child but you aren't anymore. You're bipolar and if you don't take this medication I can have you committed. I have a child with Asperger's and you aren't anything like him. Blah blah blah!" I got fed up and just walked out and never came back. I think he was some-kind of narcissist and he was angry because I wasn't going to bow down to him just because he had a degree. I knew he could not have me committed because I was wasn't hurting myself or showing intent to hurt anyone else. He also had JUST MET me.

My mother was with me and saw the whole thing and she says he basically threw an adult temper tantrum. Something told me to NOT go in there by myself. I wanted to file a complaint but my mom didn't want to "rock the boat" whatever that meant. Anyhow, is it possible to outgrow autism?
 
No. Concerning this man's autistic child - autism is a spectrum for a reason. Also, a child with no or little coping mechanism cannot be compared to an older person who already had some experience with the neurotypical world.
 
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SchrodingersMeerkat said:
I was diagnosed at seven but once had a psychiatrist basically tell me "You may have been autistic as a child but you aren't anymore. You're bipolar and if you don't take this medication I can have you committed. I have a child with Asperger's and you aren't anything like him. Blah blah blah!" I got fed up and just walked out and never came back. I think he was some-kind of narcissist and he was angry because I wasn't going to bow down to him just because he had a degree. I knew he could not have me committed because I was wasn't hurting myself or showing intent to hurt anyone else. He also had JUST MET me.

My mother was with me and saw the whole thing and she says he basically threw an adult temper tantrum. Something told me to NOT go in there by myself. I wanted to file a complaint but my mom didn't want to "rock the boat" whatever that meant. Anyhow, is it possible to outgrow autism?
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No 47 still autistic your psychiatrist obviously has barely any contact with people on the autism spectrum he only understands Kanners autism ,the new Label is low functioning autism.
If you change check they understand it! A lot are clueless about female autism
 
To threaten you to take medication or be committed in this situation is abuse and I would have definitely made a formal complaint against him, this is extremely unprofessional when you haven't hurt yourself or anyone else. I assume he was trying to force antidepressants onto you which I am very much against as they rarely help and more often cause long term harm, but it doesn't stop far too many medical "professionals" prescribing them as a "quick fix" when they should be looking at providing real help to reduce the actual causes of anxiety and/or depression (this shouldn't exclude aspies). Also he should know that all autistic people are unique, different aspies show some traits more than others while some may not even be noticeable at all, so saying that you are nothing like someone else with Asperger Syndrome means absolutely nothing on it's own and as you also stated he'd only just met you so was making assumptions from very little data.

As far as growing out of autism, well if you were indeed autistic to begin with you cannot grow out of it which means you are still autistic and a so called "professional" like that should know this. You can improve however, especially if you had slow development as a child which often includes slow speech. Like my 2 brothers my development was extremely slow as a young child, except unlike them I started to improve and as an older child and I learned to count, read and write Etc. (sadly my brothers still can't count to 5 even as adults). I however kept many autistic traits even in adult life and am still autistic. Various autistic traits can also be controlled and handled better by many aspies with experience, there's some autistic people that are excellent at pretending to be an NT for instance, but again they're still autistic even if they don't initially appear to be.

I see your mother was reluctant about making a complaint, but if no-one complains about so called "professionals" like him, nothing will ever improve and he will continue treating people this badly unchecked.
 
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This happened several years ago when I lived in San Antonio. But then I hear psychiatrists are especially horrible in Texas. I have no idea what Abilify is or was, but that's what he was trying to push on me as soon as he walked in the door. I've had HORRIBLE reactions to medications in the past and explained I what I was on at the time was working just fine and I didn't want to try anything else. He tried to tell me I NEEDED Abilify. I kinda doubted his kid had Asperger's and if he wasn't just making it up to try to get me to side with him. I always wondered if he had a kid at all.
 
People change over time. You might get better or worse, but you aren't likely to change major brain physiology. And you can learn how to act a bit more NT over time, and learn to deal with upsetting situations better.

But do you really want to be NT? I don't. I just don't like how they think, even when I like them as people.

Edit: Better or worse isn't really a good phrase for it, but...
 
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Sorry to hear about that experience. I've had that type of crap before, it's just a good thing you weren't alone.

You can't outgrow autism in the way he's suggesting. If this guy really has an autistic kid and a PHD and thinks that I just feel sorry for the kid and suggest he check his education. Sure, you can learn over time to cope better and better, so in that way you can outgrow it, but you can't literally outgrow autism.
 
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Gritches said:
Sorry to hear about that experience. I've had that type of crap before, it's just a good thing you weren't alone.

You can't outgrow autism in the way he's suggesting. If this guy really has an autistic kid and a PHD and thinks that I just feel sorry for the kid and suggest he check his education. Sure, you can learn over time to cope better and better, so in that way you can outgrow it, but you can't literally outgrow autism.
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If this kid exists, having a father like that I feel really bad for him even if he isn't autistic. I feel bad for the wife too.
 
SchrodingersMeerkat said:
This happened several years ago when I lived in San Antonio. But then I hear psychiatrists are especially horrible in Texas. I have no idea what Abilify is or was, but that's what he was trying to push on me as soon as he walked in the door. I've had HORRIBLE reactions to medications in the past and explained I what I was on at the time was working just fine and I didn't want to try anything else. He tried to tell me I NEEDED Abilify. I kinda doubted his kid had Asperger's and if he wasn't just making it up to try to get me to side with him. I always wondered if he had a kid at all.
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Abilify is an antipsychotic which in my opinion can be even worse than antidepressants and are sometimes used on top. Please click here for more information on the drug (unbiased).

I read an article from 2013 that was talking about some unwanted side effects of Abilify, but even more interestingly it stated, "Last year this medication had sales of over $5,000,000,000, making it the # 2 medication on the top 10 hit parade of best selling drugs (in dollars).", this proves how much antidepressants and antipsychotics are big business and also just how much they're in my opinion over prescribed, and that's just 1 out of many mind altering drugs that pharmaceutical companies are making huge profits from. It truly is shocking!
 
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Side note, I am autistic AND bipolar and I take meds, and if you want to chat about the meds you may or may not take, etc -- my inbox is open to you.

As for the question, you don't ever become neurotypical, but you can gain adaptive skills that help you "blend" in society. In fact, most adult autistics do. That is probably why you don't look like this crapsack doctor's son. Just like you don't look like your younger self (and he probably won't look the same way when he's your age, either).
 
I concur with the post above.

To be honest I think I was 45 before I finally succeed in reliable masking, but it still bursts out from time to time
 
No. You won't outgrow it. You'll find ways to cope with your day to day. Which may feel like you no longer experience that which you're struggling with ... In effect there maybe truth in that because you find ways to adapt and that may change the tiniest part of you.

Honour it, and you'll find ways to cope.
Ignore it, and it will come back and bite you in the ***.
 
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