[Life/General] Adulting with Autism Resources

[elialshadowpine]

So, I have a friend I was talking to, and she sent me a piece of writing about herself. It fit autism to a T, and I passed her the RDOS Autism test that I used to help figure out that I needed to talk to my psych about a diagnosis. My friend is going to be talking to her therapist, but I told her I'd ask my friends list because I know so many folks who are neurodiverse.

Do folks have any links or resources they'd recommend for adulting/social skills for a 19 year old young woman currently living with her parents? I've given her some search terms, but I know she'd very much appreciate any stuff that's "vetted" by neurodiverse folks.

Also, she is on my friends list on Dreamwidth, so if you are able to post those links there, that would be helpful. Any written advice in comments are also appreciated. I'm going to toss this public so that folks who I don't also have friended on Dreamwidth can click the link at the bottom of the post here and go forth and comment.

Love y'all!

Comments

Hello! Just browsing the 'latest' here on DW tonight...

[mellusions]

I don't have any links because, honestly, I haven't used much of any resources, other than some books like AsperGirls that you can find on Amazon and the subreddit for aspie girls. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 40 (common for females of my generation/1971) and I had mostly accepted/figured out a lot of what works or doesn't work for me by then just by feeling my way through things. I thought I would still comment though to open up a conversation about it, if anyone wanted to ask me questions. (And I promise I won't be offended if it's not helpful and no one comments back! :))

I was unsteady/unstable as HELL at age 19 and, honestly, I cry a lot when I think of my younger self. I thought I was crazy and always, always like if I just tried HARD ENOUGH and put more EFFORT into things, I would be more 'normal'. It was this thing that I was always reaching for, but never quite touching. It consumed me and made me hate myself because everything I failed at seemed directly my fault. My life now is clearly much more stable than, say, my first 32-ish years* but every day is a challenge and I still crash hard sometimes. (November was....not good. Worst meltdown in at least 2 years for me.) On the positive side, I've been married for 25 years to a wonderful person and somewhere in there I figured out how to make money from home doing something I like to do to (glass artist). My neighbors and his relatives think I'm the weirdest person ever but I can live with that. I'm also happier and laugh more than most of them. :)

*Around the time I started telling doctors to SHUT THE HELL UP when they tried to tell me I was depressed or had an anxiety disorder. Anxiety doesn't make you feel like a knife is cutting you when a random CAT HAIR gently falls on your arm when you are in the middle of an epic meltdown. Depression isn't waking up and not being able to access the words in your head to have a spoken conversation with someone or feel like their words are coming at you like a blizzard of static that you have to painfully (and slowly) translate into something you understand, and then being so exhausted your body forces you to sleep whether you like it or not. :(