Hello

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself (38M).  I'm a proud husband and father (we have two wonderful girls aged 2 and 5).  Sorry if what follows is a bit rambling, just wanted to say hello but also putting this into writing feels like a first step somehow.

Over the past few years our 5 year old has shown symptoms which have progressively lead us to believe that she may have some degree of ASD.

As we've learned more over the past few months, a lot of what we've read has resonated with me personally, and I myself have been tested and confirmed as suffering from "mild" autism.

As a starting point I'm not really sure how I feel, somewhere between a selfish sense of relief at the diagnosis (explains so much in terms of my personal journey) but also fearful (although I'm "high functioning", I also have struggles with anxiety, depression and relationship maintenance, and I struggle not to worry about my daughter and how we can begin to do the "best" things for her in terms of her longer term happiness and security).

If anyone has any suggestions on some good resources for beginners please let me know.  Specifically I'm keen to learn more about:

- the condition as a whole
- the experience of others and how they may have processed a relatively mature diagnosis at the age of 38
- positive experiences of others who may have been diagnosed alongside their children, and how they "helped" (at the minute, I feel like something of a curse to our family and am looking for some inspiration!)

Also I hope I haven't caused any offence in the above post, I know terms like "mild" and "high functioning" might be slightly controversial maybe or out of date - please feel free to correct my ignorance and help me learn!

Nice to meet you,

Chris