Help for HFA/Asperger's, does it exist?

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Both of our kids (one nearly 18 and the other 25) have Asperger's. Both struggle with executive function issues and some of the usual Asperger's type challenges. There has been little to no available help. We were able to get some special ed services for the older one thanks to someone in the school realizing he had Asperger's and helping get him diagnosed. Beyond that help of any kind just does not exist here. The younger has a good therapist that has been helpful but there is only so much she has been able to help with.

All of the services where we live are geared at either very young children or those who are low functioning and need daily living help. It is strange, you mention someone has Asperger's and they (the couple of service organizations) start talking about group homes and nursing care? They really seem to have an odd view of people on the spectrum.

Has anyone found something through support groups or a book or anything they felt really helped someone sort out how to deal with the daily living challenges?

Unfortunately, outside of WP I don't think there is much for HFA adults. I think trial and error is the best (and frustrating) system I've found . My son is a young HFA adult, and we have been slowly "weaning" him to full independence. Losing the structure of school was hard for him after graduating.

This is indeed a problem, there is little to no help for those on the milder end of the spectrum, they fall outside of society becouse they are too high-functioning to fall in the ADA (which will allow help), but not high enough to function normally.

The only options professionals see are to shoehorn the high functioning ASD'ers into the same care as the lower functioning ones, under the guise of "well, it beats nothing at all".
Professionals themselves don't really know how to deal with the high-functioning autistics, their existence hasn't been accepted for too long at all, untill only a few years ago; it was impossible to be a 'high-functioning autistic'.

There isn't much. They just have to figure it out on their own.

I made all my transitions like an NT, one big step. Nobody died, but it wasn't pretty. I think taking those transitions in smaller steps helps with the stress load and learning curve.

I was lucky in a lot of ways. I had an autistic parent to learn from, and I had to start taking on responsibilities at 12. So by the time I got out on my own, I knew how to do things like basic cooking and cleaning and laundry. I sucked at it-- the food was awful, I couldn't break tasks down or self-motivate, I had to figure those things out by trial and error-- but at least the skills were there.

I'm not sure if there is much older Aspies like myself can do to help--seems like the younger generation needs to figure it out for themselves. 20 year olds listening to 50 year olds isn't going to happen. And, we have our own issues to deal with.

I think the main help for young adults with asperger is their parents to teach them daily living skills.
It is best to teach these skills as early as possible, no later than for NT kids, if the child is high-functioning and not intellectually disabled.
But 18 and 25 are not too late to learn.

Speaking as one of the most "high-functioning" Aspies, and more experienced, within the world right now, each individual has their own unique challenges. A lot of this "Autism" phenomenon actually comes from many of the neuro-toxins that are within the food/water/air-supplies. You absolutely MUST keep your Aspies off sugars (refined/processed), feed them with with organic/healthy food instead, and for the sake of further-protecting their neuro-functions, make sure the water is clear/fresh/clean/purifed, rather than letting them drink any of that tap-water.

Now for a few more specifics. Aspies operate BEST when they have the tools that allow them to set things up that are done in a somewhat automatic or semi-automatic (not the gun-type) manner. For example, when cooking, a slow-cooker can be used since they typically have timers, and reduces the risk of burning your house down by accident. For faster cooking, a modern-day pressure-cooker can work, due to the automatic-timers, also reducing chances of roasted home by accident.

Another thing that they, and soon even everybody else in the world will need, for that matter, involves the knowledge and getting the resources set-up to where they are able to produce their own electricity, grow their own food, generate their own water, and build their own house on any unused/unclaimed plot of land that has not been stolen yet. Additionally, Aspies learn best on their OWN, free from the "indoctrination" systems of the U.S. "education" system.

Not all Aspies learn the same way, but I find that the learning curve is something of a form of delayed gratification, such that things simply do not click in the beginning, perhaps even for the first 90% of the learning curve where most people may have understood 90% of the content before even reaching the 50% of the course mark, but once an Aspie manages to reach the 95% or so of study/research in any particular category/discipline, the Aspie can often actually end up even surpassing the so-called "experts" within those fields. Figure out ways to free up your Aspie's free-time so that they can concentrate on learning what they need to learn instead of wasting time struggling for survival...

P.S.: Setting up a system to grow your own bio-fuel may also be a good idea, such that you are supplying your own gas to any cars you may own, instead of relying on the expense of obtaining fuel from the gas-stations.

What help I've gotten has been me helping myself.

Probably the biggest thing is getting a mobile phone. I've found so many apps that have made a huge difference to my functioning. I'm actually thinking that independent living is reachable now, but there's no way I could live independently if I didn't have my apps.

Specific apps I use for my disabilities:

A calendar app with reminders
An app that gives RPG-style rewards for doing daily chores (plays a triumphant noise and gives me xp when I check off a task as done)
A visual scheduling app (I've had bad experiences with apps designed specifically for this, so I use an app intended to create slideshow videos instead) which I use to record how to cook recipes
A period tracker that predicts when my next period will start
A grocery list app that I enter things into when I notice we're out
A sleep tracker that I enter bedtimes and wake-up times into
A mood tracker that I record meltdowns into
A diary card app that I fill out which includes stuff about how well I'm looking after myself and what I'm proud of doing each day
A meditation app that I listen to when trying to meditate
A money tracking app that I enter money I receive, purchases, bank deposits and withdrawals and my current bank balance into

Probably the specific apps and such would be different for each person, but I strongly recommend getting a mobile phone (I've had Apple and Android both and they both have good apps)

If I didn't suck at tech, a lot of those apps would probably be useful to me.

I imagine they could be very helpful to the younger generation that has grown up tech-savvy.

I could have used an app to break down everything that needed to be done in a week, and list daily chores (a reward for checking them off would have been great).