I wish I had some good advice for you or could hear the same advice you're looking for. I have a 16 year-old. I'm under the impression that in my local area, the only services available are thru the school. Even though we have a county 'DD Services' I have never been able to get anything through them and it has been so long that I'm not sure I believe their 'services' really exist anymore. I've been told that when my son is an adult he can get services through a brokerage, but that doesn't help me now, and as far as my experience tells me may not help him then either. I'm hoping someone else will see this and respond for you. Then we'll both know.

I live in a medium sized city in a fairly progressive state, so I find the dearth of help actually available atrocious.

Anyway, I wanted to say, you're not alone, and I hope someone will answer.

Best Wishes.

I was never diagnosed as Autistic or on the spectrum. I am 68 y. o. and back when I was young, children were not often diagnosed, particularly in a rural environment such as the one I lived in. I started to think I was Autistic when I was 11 or 12 when I saw an article about it in a major magazine. I identified with wanting to sit in a corner and rock myself. I also enjoyed other mindless repetitious activities, but my Mom wouldn't let me do those things. I was learning to count and so it in a sing-song voice of notes which drove my Mom crazy [so to speak.] Gradually I learned to be able to cope with my life. I may have been higher on the spectrum mentally but I felt quite out of touch with my environment. I always loved people but felt at a loss to understand them or to communicate, particularly verbally. I liked to write, but I didn't find it easy to make myself understood that way either. I was coping, but still felt the disconnect until a couple of years ago when I started taking some things: Wellbutrin, methyl-B12, methyl-folate, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, and eating a Brazil nut a day for its selenium content. It seems like it was the ALC that helped me most to feel like I could understand people and my environment better. I didn't think I was depressed [except with something like a giant, invisible tongue-depressor stick] and the SSRI type of anti-depressants made me feel worse. The other things I started taking at the same time were mostly things I researched out as things that could help with my thyroid problems. I was hyper-thyroid but felt like I was hypo. I had high levels of both types of antibodies that could either stimulate the thyroid or destroy it. The symptoms, including the "brain fog" went away. I had already been able to go off the anti-thyroid medication and through an amazing quirk of circumstances, to go on thyroid hormones, first the T3 or Liothyronine at 1/8 the smallest dose, then the T4 or Levothyroxine. The T4 made my TSH drop, showing the doctors I was hyperthyroid again, so I had to go off them. That was when I was prescribed the Wellbutrin, which immediately seemed to fix everything. I have noticed the disconnect returning when I forget to take the ALC, though, and if I miss the methyl vitamins too often, it seems like my T4 rises and the T3 falls. Now I'm happily in the middle of the normal range in the thyroid tests and with the antibodies testing appropriately low. I think it was the thyroid malfunction, that caused they Autistic symptoms, or the subset of processes to turn T4 to T3 and to produce sufficient TSH to have the cycle work properly that helped those symptoms disappear. I hope my experience helps you understand what you might be able to do for your son.

I have a son who is 19 and in my state, we are doing services thru vocational rehab. My son is high functioning. When he graduates this year, he will be employed thru them. he has a vocational plan much like an IEP in school. he will have a job coach and a job shadow.

I'm in the UK and in the same potion ...zero support