Stratergies for Autism?

Post Reply New Topic

Are there any manuals or good strategies for improving quality of life if you have autism/aspergers?

The only one I've read is "Solutions for Adults with Asperger's Syndrome" by Juanita P. Lovett, Ph.D. and it has been somewhat helpful.

Upon browsing Amazon, "Social Skills for Teenagers and Adults with Asperger Syndrome" by Nancy J. Patrick and "Asperger Syndrome and Anxiety" by Nick Dubin both look interesting and possibly the most helpful out of the searches I made. There is also "Asperger's Syndrome Workplace Survival Guide" by Barbara Bissonnette that looks promising but isn't released till May 28th.

What's up with the lack of resources?

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Love-Positiv ... 931282935/ is a good book.

I'm sure there are more resources for specific problems/areas of life, the ones I chose just felt like the best ones in general out of what I browsed for.

It is true though that most of the help books are intended for chidren/parents of children with ASD, which might could still be applied to adults with some analyzing. There is also the nature of ASD and the vast differences between the people with it, one solution may not work for every problem under a given affected area of life (such as sensory overload). Aside from professional therapy, this forum is full of people who are ASD, NT, or in between who could offer help that a book may not be able to accurately assist you with.

Hi,

I want to recommend "Living Well on the Spectrum" by Valerie L. Gaus. It is a book specifically written for adults with AS/HFA to target and resolve their difficulties with things like higher education, relationships and the workplace. It's quite a new book which may be why it's not well known yet, but I purchased it after a strong recommendation on this forum and I found it pretty life-changing.

The first half of the book is a detailed explanation of what's going on in the mind of people with higher-functioning autism from the autistic person's perspective (a different approach to other well-known books about autism and AS which tend to describe the symptoms from the perspective of an outsider, which aren't very helpful in terms of self-understanding). This is very helpful in understanding why certain things are so difficult for us. It then guides the reader through worksheets and strategies designed to identify the problems and work through or around them. If you put the time into actually doing this the results can be great, but even just reading the book through brings a lot of answers.

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Well-Spect ... lerie+gaus

Hope this helps!

All the "niceties" social rules that resources expand on all the time don't help if you remain unaware of certain hidden social rules, which they don't mention because mentioning these rules shows NT society in an unflattering light. Being considered a super-polite moron is not an empowering goal. On the contrary, it can be even dangerous. A worthy resource will be the day they inform aspies what's really going on, the pecking order rules and such.

That's right - aspies don't know these things. And NTs apply them instinctively, so they can't explain it to us with words. Plus it makes them awfully uncomfortable to utter in words such unflattering matters. It's incredibly hard work either for an aspie or an NT to publish such insights, but that's the only material worth paying for.