Undiagnosed dude here, been accused of it my whole life and people I assume that I have it, yadda yadda
But at every point in my life, I’ve lost people because they grew up while I remained childish. And I guess I’m at that point again, I didn’t want something about my personality I can’t change be the reason I lose people who are important to me
Does this make any sense
I stopped wanting to “be grown up” when I got the feeling that this would mean permanently sacrificing joy. I hated the word “mature” and stopped using it, along with other words that felt constraining. Maybe that was just a part of growing up in a hyper-Protestant environment though.
I still love running and leaping and climbing and rolling and miming and singing and joking, so it came as a bit of a surprise when someone a bit older than me described me as “responsible”. Embracing the full cognitive and affective potential of a human being is a good thing.
Nah I agree, “mature”;“grown-up”;“adult”-- all a social construct that essentially refers to the sacrificing of your humanity to assimilate and have your labor exploited without complaining. I’d assert that this is a big reason autism is marginalized, as most of us simply cannot abide by this rule, and this rule is a necessary component for capitalism to exist.
“You will stick to doing things that you are required/expected to do, and every expression you have must be some flavor of dutiful submission.”