Though our understanding of autism has greatly expanded, many autistic individuals are still missed or misdiagnosed. This highly accessible book clarifies many ways that autism can present, particularly in people who camouflage to hide their autistic traits.

Feeling burnt out? You’re not alone. Autistic burnout is a challenge faced by many individuals on the autistic spectrum. And Autistic Burnout Recovery is here to help. This transformative guide is designed to empower individuals on the autism spectrum to manage and overcome burnout. Crafted with empathy and insight, this guide provides practical strategies and exercises to help you navigate the unique challenges associated with burnout.

Autism—that’s being able to count matches really fast and knowing that 7 August 1984 was a Tuesday, right? Well, no. In this book, Bianca Toeps explains in great detail what life is like when you’re autistic. She does this by looking at what science says about autism (and why some theories can go straight in the trash), but also by telling her own story and interviewing other autistics.

Marian Schembari was thirty-four years old when she learned she was autistic. By then, she’d spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn’t just act like everyone else. Therapists told her she had Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, and recurrent depression. They prescribed breathing techniques and gratitude journaling. Nothing helped. It wasn’t until years later that she finally learned the truth: she wasn’t weird or deficient or moody or sensitive or broken. She was autistic.

From childhood, Laura James knew she was different. She struggled to cope in a world that often made no sense to her, as though her brain had its own operating system. It wasn't until she reached her 40s that she found out why: Suddenly and surprisingly, she was diagnosed with autism. With a touching and searing honesty, Laura challenges everything we think we know about what it means to be autistic. Married with four children and a successful journalist, Laura examines the ways in which autism has shaped her career, her approach to motherhood, and her closest relationships.

Barb Cook and 14 other autistic women describe life from a female autistic perspective, and present empowering, helpful and supportive insights from their personal experience for fellow autistic women. Michelle Garnett's comments validate and expand the experiences described from a clinician's perspective, and provide extensive recommendations. Autistic advocates including Liane Holliday Willey, Anita Lesko, Jeanette Purkis, Artemisia and Samantha Craft offer their personal guidance on significant issues that particularly affect women, as well as those that are more general to autism.

Written by a therapist who is actually autistic, this neurodiversity-affirming workbook offers skills to help you cultivate self-acceptance, manage intense emotions, and be your own advocate when needed. You'll take a good look at the situations or people that caused you to mask in the first place.

In this first-of-its-kind book, Sol Smith combines current research, his personal experience as a late-diagnosed autistic adult, and lessons learned as an educator to show how you can transcend common mischaracterizations, overcome shame, and gain the skills to flourish. Sol knows that neurodivergent people often feel that nothing they have been taught relates to how they experience the world. To resolve this conflict, they try to change or mask who they are, which can cause isolation, depression, and anxiety. He advises the opposite: Understand yourself, accept yourself, and reduce conflict.

New edition 2021 with updated research, additional insight, and strategies for communication, information about autism in special populations (such as the gender diverse, those with problematic internet use and gaming addictions, females, and more), and a new section on aging and dementia. Autism is a childhood condition...right? Not right. Children with autism grow into adults with autism. The great strides we have made in understanding childhood autistic behaviors and interventions have lagged dramatically behind the needs of aging autistics.

Most masked Autistics have spent a lifetime being told how to perform neurotypically: how to behave, how to carry themselves, what to feel, and how to live. With his previous book, Unmasking Autism, Devon Price, PhD, has given them the space and the tools to unmask and embrace their neurodiversity. But no matter where you are in the unmasking process, there is still work to be done.

Self-Care for Autistic People can help you engage in some neurodivergent self-care—without pretending to be neurotypical. You’ll find more than 100 activities that help you accept yourself, destigmatize autism, find your community, and take care of your physical and mental health. You’ll find solutions for managing the challenging aspects of autism, as well as ideas to bring out the many positive aspects. With expert advice from therapist Megan A. Neff, this book will help you make the most of your life and your diagnosis.

Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story”, how the process almost ruined her life, and how she is now trying to recover.

It is a myth that autistic children grow into 'less autistic' adults. In fact, many autistic adults feel more overwhelmed as they age as the stresses of social demands such as relationships, parenting, or the work environment increase. Niamh Garvey offers tips and tricks designed to reduce sensory and emotional stress and look after your autistic self. From understanding what's happening when the stress response kicks in to using the 'detective habit' to spot your individual strengths and triggers.

Like many others on the autism spectrum, 20-something stand-up comic Michael McCreary has been told by more than a few well-meaning folks that he doesn’t “look” autistic. But, as he’s quick to point out in this memoir, autism “looks” different for just about everyone with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Comedian Pierre Novellie was on stage when a heckler suggested he was autistic. Usually, this disruption would be water off a duck's back but two things made this heckler different: first, he was himself autistic. Second, he turned out to be absolutely right. This random encounter led to a diagnosis of autism at the age of 31 that unravelled his world, explained his struggles and answered questions that had bothered him for his entire life: why were the other kids obsessed with Britney Spears instead of The Goon Show? Why don't people ever say what they mean? Why is everyone chewing so loudly?

Marian Schembari was thirty-four years old when she learned she was autistic. By then, she’d spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn’t just act like everyone else. Therapists told her she had Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, and recurrent depression. They prescribed breathing techniques and gratitude journaling. Nothing helped. It wasn’t until years later that she finally learned the truth: she wasn’t weird or deficient or moody or sensitive or broken. She was autistic.

I'll Just Be Five More Minutes is a personal essay collection of laugh-out-loud-funny, tear-jerking, and at times cringey true stories of Emily's experiences as a neurodivergent woman. With the newfound knowledge of her ADHD, Emily candidly reexamines her complicated relationships (including one with a celebrity stalker), her money problems, the years she spent unknowingly self-medicating, and her hyperfixations (two words: decorative baskets). A memoir-in-essays both entertaining and enlightening, I'll Just Be Five More Minutes is for people with ADHD, as well as those who know and love them.

Autism—that’s being able to count matches really fast and knowing that 7 August 1984 was a Tuesday, right? Well, no. In this book, Bianca Toeps explains in great detail what life is like when you’re autistic. She does this by looking at what science says about autism (and why some theories can go straight in the trash), but also by telling her own story and interviewing other autistics.

It seemed to me that many of the moments when my autism had caused problems, or at least marked me out as different, were those moments when I had come up against some unspoken law about how a girl or a woman should be, and failed to meet it. An autism diagnosis in midlife enabled Joanne Limburg to finally make sense of why her emotional expression, social discomfort and presentation had always marked her as an outsider.

When Ellie Goldstein was first diagnosed with Down Syndrome, her mother was soon told that her new-born would amount to nothing. For 21 years and counting, Ellie Goldstein has been defying the odds and overcoming every hardship thrown at her. Told she wouldn't walk, Ellie has danced on mainstages. Told she wouldn't learn, she has gained a college education. And told not to dream, Ellie has gone on to become the first model with Down Syndrome to be photographed for Gucci and continues to change the face of fashion from the inside out in countless international campaigns.

Though our understanding of autism has greatly expanded, many autistic individuals are still missed or misdiagnosed. This highly accessible book clarifies many ways that autism can present, particularly in people who camouflage to hide their autistic traits.

Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story”, how the process almost ruined her life, and how she is now trying to recover.

Through the intimate writing of critically acclaimed autistic author Kay Kerr, Love & Autism presents an uplifting celebration of neurodivergent love, the search for it and a deeper look into the lives of autistic Australians.

In this intimate and insightful mix of memoir and manifesto, Annie Kotowicz invites you inside the mind of an autistic woman, sharing the trials and triumphs of a life before and after diagnosis.

The difference that being female makes to the diagnosis, life and experiences of an autistic person is hugely significant. In this second edition, Sarah Hendrickx combines the latest research with personal stories from girls and women on the autism spectrum to present a picture of their feelings, thoughts and experiences at each stage of their lives. Outlining the likely impact will be for autistic women and girls throughout their lifespan, Hendrickx surveys everything from diagnosis, childhood, education, adolescence, friendships and sexuality, to employment, pregnancy, parenting, and aging.

My name is Mickey Rowe. I am an actor, a theatre director, a father, and a husband. I am also a man with autism. You think those things don’t go together? Let me show you that they do.

Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking about how we live and learn - individually, uniquely, and with advantages and upshots to every type of brain and body. He explores the toll that being not normal takes on kids and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem.

This intimate memoir reveals the woman inside one of autism’s most prominent figures, Jennifer O'Toole. At the age of 35, Jennifer was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, and for the first time in her life, things made sense. Now, she exposes the constant struggle between carefully crafted persona and authentic existence, editing the autism script with wit, candor, passion, and power. Her journey is one of reverse-self-discovery not only as an Aspie but - more importantly - as a thoroughly modern woman.

In Off the Spectrum, cognitive neuroscientist Gina Rippon sheds light on how old ideas about autism leave women behind and how the scientific community must catch up. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, simply didn’t bother looking for it in women, creating a snowball effect of biased research. Correcting a major scientific bias, Off the Spectrum provides a much-needed exploration of autism in women to parents, clinicians, and autistic women themselves.

In this candid, witty and insightful exploration into therapy, Steph Jones uses her professional and lived experiences as a late diagnosed autistic woman and therapist, as well as consulting therapists from across the world and tapping into the autistic community, to create the ultimate autistic survival guide to therapy. Steph confronts the statistics, inadequate practices and ableist therapists head on and poses the questions of how we can make therapy neurodivergence-affirming and how to create safe spaces for autistic individuals.