Adult autism diagnosis is awkward. You do all this research, finally arrive at a comfortable position with diagnosis (whether that's self-diagnosis or professional), and... then what? If you're anything like me, it probably feels as though there's a book you should really be given, and in lieu of that you're going to go looking for it. So here's a list of stuff I've found helpful. Though, as a disclaimer, I suspect autism is (and our life experiences are) sufficiently heterengenous that the same things strongly resonating with other people will be a bit of a crapshoot.

In general, I think the guiding principle for finding helpful content should be its relatability. I cannot overstate how helpful it is to hear people describing their life experiences and think "Oh, damn, I thought I was the only one!" After struggling to figure out why you don't fit in for so long, embracing community and shared experience is so valuable.

Books

• Self-Care for Autistic People by Dr. Megan Anna Neff (of neurodivergentinsights.com)
  • This is perhaps the book I'd hand out to people post-diagnosis. Not particularly in-depth, but that'd be to the detriment of the book as a good survey of things you might want to consider post-diagnosis. Then being aware of concepts and keywords, you can go off and do your own thing with whatever material you found relatable.
• Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price
  • Don't think I found this quite so relatable as others have, but still, pretty relatable. An almost abruptly emotional subjective account of a journey from living undiagnosed to positively integrated autism. It's so heartening to read things things that are even somewhat relatable and thus know that you're not alone.
• Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
  • Not really helpful in a psychological sense, but the history of autism is fascinating and also super fucked up. Long!

Posts

• Shifting my Unmasking from Revealing to Unearthing - poweredbylove.ca
  • A wonderful reframing of "unmasking" in post-diagnosis. After a lifetime of trying to contort ourselves into conformation with society, rediscovering ourselves is not something we're apt to approach in the kind, gentle manner it requires (more like trying to coax a scared rabbit out of its warren by screaming at it), so I found this to be very valuable.

Podcasts

• The A Team Podcast
  • Three late-diagnosed autists discussing their experiences
  • I'm loathe to link the Apple Podcasts site, but the official one is now defunct. Earlier episodes can also be found on YouTube