Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone. I have recently been diagnosed with autism at the grand old age of 29. To be honest, that suddenly makes huge parts of my life make sense. The problem is I now have no idea what to do with that information, all my googling assumes I want info on children and I'm feeling lost and overwhelmed with everything. Does anyone have any advice that might help me come to terms with it? I know sticking a label on the problems I've always had doesn't change anything about who I am, but it still feels huge.
There aren't a lot of services out there for adults at the higher functioning end of the spectrum (which I'm assuming you are since you're diagnosis has been long after childhood) as the limited services available in some areas of the country are directed at adults requiring things such as sheltered housing / daily carers / day care facilities etc. Unfortunately this appears to mean that we're also left to find our own information with which to make sense of our new diagnosis and that is difficult to source for the same reasons - most leaflets and books discuss the lower functioning end of the spectrum or children / teenagers / parents / carers.
This forum is the best resource I've found as it not only 'normalises' what feels very strange at first because you get to meet such a variety of different people on here and (I at least) relate to so many of the different things discussed here.
If you hang around, including reading old posts, there is a mine of information from much more experienced 'Aspie's' including many really useful and informative links to things such as books, research papers, other chat forums, and blogs etc.
The rest of this site does offer links to things too such as possible services and resources in your area. Good Luck and, as Blade said, take it slowly. From my experience, when the information starts flowing in it's all too easy to become max-ed out with it all.