u/BigDougSp

Hey folks, I have a question about using a child seat in the back of my 2026 Rav4 Hybrid XSE. That being said, I do tend to overthink things...

I have my toddler's child seat installed in the rear passenger side of my vehicle. Since I have side curtain airbags, does this pose a danger to my child, or does the car seat itself provide protection from the side airbags?

I hadn't really thought about that until now, and perhaps I am overthinking it, but does anyone have knowledge about this?

For the record, I am not really tested nor officially diagnosed, but I am fairly certain I am on the spectrum. I am not sure where on the spectrum I am (if folks still use that analogy), but I know myself and my peculiar traits and that was good enough for me. As I age, it has gotten harder.

I am a 46 year old male. My entire life I have been socially awkward, crowds bothered me, super particular about preferences, a bit of a chatterbox once I open up, unable to lie, and of course VERY into special interests. I have learned through life to change my behaviors so that others perceive me as "normal," which I now understand is masking. This continued into my 30s, but I found myself growing MORE socially awkward.

In my 30's, I became a lot MORE picky, and though I can "function" in a social group, I really prefer more... smaller... social interactions, and started to be more introverted. Unless I think and plan it out ahead of time, it became a lot more difficult to maintain conversations. Sharp background noise started to irritate me, and folks started replying to things I say with "Why did you say that?"

Once I passed 40, all of these became more extreme. I CANNOT do small talk. I AVOID hanging out in large groups and I am a lot more... anxious. My mask falls off a lot more often and folks general have started to perceive me more negatively. Crowds drive me crazy

After many discussions with my therapist, as well as a few online assessments she recommended (nothing official), it is clear that I am autistic. While this in a way, justified a lot of confusion I have had in life, it also seemed to open a floodgate. On top of all of his, I find myself even LESS tolerant of the things that bother me, more things bother me, and violations to my sense of justice have become much more impactful on my mental health. At 46, I feel like I have a lot less control of myself and having a harder time masking to fit in, if I can at all. There are many more examples that seem to have gotten harder for me, but I don't want to make this post too long.

Anyway, do the characteristics that we neurodivergent folks carry become more extreme with age, or are all of these changes just what happens once we find out that there IS an explanation for the way we are? Mental health in particular has really taken a dive. I also recently had child, which changes life a lot. Does anyone else, particularly middle aged folks here have any insight?