Why does none of this make sense?

If I could pick up on this aspect of the discussion, there's not much out there on how to self help. Failing adequate support services what is needed urgently is a user's manual for living with autism.

The trouble is this is a condition where we are all very different and individual - not just degree of severity, but degree of presence of different aspects, with various comorbidities and issues of low self esteem and depression on top. Hence one person's interpretation of a guide is much unlike another's.

I've mentioned before Marc Segar's "Coping: a survival guide for people with asperger's syndrome", that was published on the web 17 years ago through York University. www-users.cs.york.ac/.../survival  Someone immediately responded that he/she didn't recognise themselves.

Another is Marc Fleisher "Survival Strategies for people on the Autism Spectrum" Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2006. Some things in this I cringed at - oh no, not me - it's a very individual perception of coping, but if you are patient with it it is full of good advice. I had forgotten in particular that it includes a "Further Education and Training Guide" Chapter 7, pertinent to other current threads, which is written from a person with autism perspective.

This individuality has generally discouraged others from publishing guides based on just themselves, so the other way out is collective. However the attempt to balance different perspectives can end up saying nothing much at all.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers also produced something out of the Sheffield Hallam stable in 2008 "A Self-determined future with Asperger Syndrome - Solution Focussed Approaches" by E Veronica Bliss and Genevieve Edmonds. This was a cooperative venture by someone with aspergers and a professional with twenty years experience. It is based a lot on dialogue - people discussing their issues - a sort of edited highlights of coping.

Sheffield Hallam went on to publish a series on adults speaking out about asperger syndrome, published by Jessica Kingsley, eg Asperger Syndrome & Employment, Asperger Syndrome and Social relationships. These continued the personal experience and insight dialogues, but I'm not sure who they are for - informing professionals or helping people on the spectrum. And who wants a whole series or roundabout dialogues, when what is urgently needed is a handy guide.

In contrast what is so sad is the copious amount of well-intentioned but dry and uninspiring publications on managing with autism written by professionals from outside. They always have pages of tables on how to plan every aspect of life, written with often little grasp of the real issues, from a perspective that people on the spectrum are just idiots who need to be shown how to do everything. That so misses the point. I'd give an example, but eventually I had a clear out and gave most of them away.

I think it would be possible to create something that presented and compared approaches rather than detailed blue-prints for daily living. What is needed are tried and tested approaches and strategies, rather than trying to address each and every scenario.

For example I made much use of pocket notebooks from my teens onwards. I wrote down when people said something about what I'd done wrong, that I could follow up on later, or observations on how other people behaved. I became an anthropologist studying and recording facets of human life, and tried to use it to act out a more effective daily interchange. The artificiality was clumsy and obvious, but back went the review and evaluation into the notebook for next time.

If I could pick up on this aspect of the discussion, there's not much out there on how to self help. Failing adequate support services what is needed urgently is a user's manual for living with autism.

The trouble is this is a condition where we are all very different and individual - not just degree of severity, but degree of presence of different aspects, with various comorbidities and issues of low self esteem and depression on top. Hence one person's interpretation of a guide is much unlike another's.

I've mentioned before Marc Segar's "Coping: a survival guide for people with asperger's syndrome", that was published on the web 17 years ago through York University. www-users.cs.york.ac/.../survival  Someone immediately responded that he/she didn't recognise themselves.

Another is Marc Fleisher "Survival Strategies for people on the Autism Spectrum" Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2006. Some things in this I cringed at - oh no, not me - it's a very individual perception of coping, but if you are patient with it it is full of good advice. I had forgotten in particular that it includes a "Further Education and Training Guide" Chapter 7, pertinent to other current threads, which is written from a person with autism perspective.

This individuality has generally discouraged others from publishing guides based on just themselves, so the other way out is collective. However the attempt to balance different perspectives can end up saying nothing much at all.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers also produced something out of the Sheffield Hallam stable in 2008 "A Self-determined future with Asperger Syndrome - Solution Focussed Approaches" by E Veronica Bliss and Genevieve Edmonds. This was a cooperative venture by someone with aspergers and a professional with twenty years experience. It is based a lot on dialogue - people discussing their issues - a sort of edited highlights of coping.

Sheffield Hallam went on to publish a series on adults speaking out about asperger syndrome, published by Jessica Kingsley, eg Asperger Syndrome & Employment, Asperger Syndrome and Social relationships. These continued the personal experience and insight dialogues, but I'm not sure who they are for - informing professionals or helping people on the spectrum. And who wants a whole series or roundabout dialogues, when what is urgently needed is a handy guide.

In contrast what is so sad is the copious amount of well-intentioned but dry and uninspiring publications on managing with autism written by professionals from outside. They always have pages of tables on how to plan every aspect of life, written with often little grasp of the real issues, from a perspective that people on the spectrum are just idiots who need to be shown how to do everything. That so misses the point. I'd give an example, but eventually I had a clear out and gave most of them away.

I think it would be possible to create something that presented and compared approaches rather than detailed blue-prints for daily living. What is needed are tried and tested approaches and strategies, rather than trying to address each and every scenario.

For example I made much use of pocket notebooks from my teens onwards. I wrote down when people said something about what I'd done wrong, that I could follow up on later, or observations on how other people behaved. I became an anthropologist studying and recording facets of human life, and tried to use it to act out a more effective daily interchange. The artificiality was clumsy and obvious, but back went the review and evaluation into the notebook for next time.