Regressed?

Is it common to regress with your mental health the older you get? Or is there something else going on with my brain? A year and a half ago I was working 20 hours a week sometimes more and I was talking with people my own age and kinda being friends with them and I was able to communicate just fine with my managers and coworkers. Now I am not working and my anxiety is bad and my communication skills are worse and I need a pacifier at times for sensory relief. I am autistic and bipolar by the way

I’m just wondering if it’s normal for this to happen the older you get.

I used to take month or so long breaks between work assignments - work for two or three years, then break - and i would almost forget how to talk! I didnt go on vacation or anything, i just stayed home, caught up on sleep and exercise and some socializing. But living alone, and especially if i took a break from therapy, i remember feeling very uncomfortable with talking.

Also, yeah, a person will regress in therapy, if youre doing it right, IMO. Youre getting in touch with earlier feelings and trying to re-resolve issues.

Well... I don't know as it's common to regress with your mental health the older you get. From what little bit I've read, people in their 50's tend to struggle with more depression. But then as people get into their 60's & beyond they tend to become happier & more content. (I don't know it that's either true or accurate. It's just what I seem to recall having read somewhere.) It's probably different for everyone I suspect.

That's not the way it has been for me. I managed to keep myself on an even keel so to speak, & keep all of my mental health issues hidden, until around the age of 50. Around that time I had a not all that serious (in the whole scheme of things) bout with cancer along with some related physical issues. And that ended up being the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. So, as a result, I've been slowly unravelling ever since. (I still am.)

I have been able able to recover my ability to keep it all to myself over time. But every day I wonder how much longer I can manage to continue. Anxiety has become a major concern for me the older I've gotten. And my communications skills have gone down the tubes because I'm pretty-much a total recluse at this stage of my life. So while my experience doesn't make regressing as one gets older common, or "normal", that has certainly been the experience I've had.

From a personal experience, I witnessed my high functioning ASD husband (now ex-husband) regress from being able to hold down a computer engineering job (he always had problems communicating with other people) to not even being capable of paying Bill's or working anything but routine functioning. No idea if there was anything else going on except adult ADD but his psychiatrist told him to go to a neurologist & he refused. No idea why this happened to him but the regression was obviously noticeable