Post diagnosis care

There really is no follow-up. I had a little support in the charity sector, but that was it.

Further to Autonomistic's comment, I also feel that different autistics present in such different ways, and have such different needs dependent on other factors (degree of financial (in)security; type of workplace, if any; family situation) that a lot of advice I've seen online in places such as this is often unhelpful to me as an individual. I'm not really sure what kind of advice would really be useful to me or if it even exists..

I think all of this is so highly individual.... and it's not like the current mental health support is working great for neurotypicals either, let alone autistic people... There are so many people that are facing mental health issues and burnout- I have recently quit my job and I have a really bad burnout. Now I have found out that two more people at my former work are suffering from burnout at the moment. There are so many demands and stress factors in life and I don't think we are really taught to deal with these- I think they really should teach people skills to deal with anxiety and stress at school. That would be much more useful than some of the other things they try to teach us there.... 

I am sure you will figure out what works for you eventually as well! That's what I hope for myself too... I recently was sent some resources from an NHS CBT and anxiety management course and I took away some useful pointers from there. I think it takes time and it is easy to not see that we progressing. I took away a lot of tips from these forums too. It feels like I am doing worse than ever, but I think things are probably progressing somehow. But I totally agree that there is a lot of unhelpful advice out there.... also from professionals... I think one of the worst I have come across was one professional spending weeks convincing me to ditch my belief that 'I can do almost anything, if I work hard enough and put my mind to it'. (She claimed it was stopping me from accepting help...). Then the other advice that really was counterproductive for me was when they encourage socialising etc when you appear depressed (though I think I was actually burntout)- only recently I have learnt that when I am burnt-out and I push myself to see people, it just backfires. I need energy to socialise (and I do sometimes like to see a friend 1 on 1, but I need to be in right frame of mind and have a minimum of energy to do so) So I think for years I was trying to fix my issues by pushing myself and always doing more, rather than actually stepping back and embracing rest. 

Ann :) said:

one professional spending weeks convincing me to ditch my belief that 'I can do almost anything, if I work hard enough and put my mind to it'.

To be honest, I probably have the opposite problem of being trapped in a "learned helplessness" situation of thinking I'm never going to achieve anything I want and should just accept a miserable, or at least reduced, life (reduced in content, not years).

I agree about "pushing oneself" when depressed. I struggled with what was diagnosed as treatment-resistant depression for many years, but in retrospect some (not all) of it was autistic burnout and pushing myself was not always the right thing to do.

I agree with this, particularly about depression.

I agree Ann. I feel myself and my son keep in our ‘safe’ routines but they can also be a sort of trap where we get stuck in ‘grooves’ of thinking. We’ve had a lot of upheaval and change over the past couple of weeks and although it’s been hugely stressful I think it’s also been slightly helpful to be forced out of routines (possibly anyway). Now we feel very shook up and unsettled but I’m hoping that it’s also been a bit of a circuit breaker on some of our more unhelpful mental trains of thought. 
In previous eras people used to go to Spas by the coast or in the mountains when they were suffering from  ‘nervous exhaustion’ - to have complete rest. I think I’d benefit from that sometimes. 

I agree Ann. I feel myself and my son keep in our ‘safe’ routines but they can also be a sort of trap where we get stuck in ‘grooves’ of thinking. We’ve had a lot of upheaval and change over the past couple of weeks and although it’s been hugely stressful I think it’s also been slightly helpful to be forced out of routines (possibly anyway). Now we feel very shook up and unsettled but I’m hoping that it’s also been a bit of a circuit breaker on some of our more unhelpful mental trains of thought. 
In previous eras people used to go to Spas by the coast or in the mountains when they were suffering from  ‘nervous exhaustion’ - to have complete rest. I think I’d benefit from that sometimes.