Resources for Women On The Spectrum

Post Reply New Topic

I was trying to find resources on dating and relationship, specifically for women on the spectrum.
Any resources gears specifically toward women would be appreciated, but it's the dating stuff I'm really struggling with.

When I search for women+autism+dating, I get back articles and posts with dating advice for men about women....which is not super helpful for me.

A quick Google search on "women autism dating guide" has led me to the following:

- Sex, Love, and Dating for Women With Autism: How bending the rules may be necessary for happiness within relationships, by Claire Jack Ph.D., Psychology Today, March 6, 2020.
- Autism & Dating: 3 Young Women Tell Us About Their Love Live by Jenn Selby, Refinery29, 4 April 2019.
- Dating on the Autism Spectrum: Tips for Neurodiverse Women by Dr. Tasha Oswald, OpenDoorsTherapy, September 17, 2020.

I haven't yet read the above, so I can't comment on how good they are.

Perhaps I and a few other autistic women here who have been relatively successful at finding relationships can give you some advice based on our own experience? If so, are there any specific questions you would like to ask, or are you just asking for general advice? It might also help if you could tell us a bit about your situation, e.g. your approximate age (no need to be specific if you prefer not to be), your hobbies if any, what kind of job you have if any, your living situation, and whether you are now in school.

In the meantime, I recently posted this message about how I've managed to avoid abusive relationships.

I've had other women on this forum flame me for it, but learning to flirt helped me a lot. Many men (whether NT or ND) looked for flirty hints to believe that a female liked them.

Without (my) delivering flirty hints, guys were flabbergasted when I told them that I liked them.

Here are a few relevant resources I found when I first started looking.

• Autism Spectrum (Australia) - Offers information and advice, diagnostic assessments, behavior
support, parent and family support, and adult programs. Has useful fact sheets, including one on
Girls and Women on the Autistic Spectrum.
• Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN) (US) - Provides community, support and resources for
autistic women, girls, transfeminine and transmasculine nonbinary and genderqueer people, trans people of all genders. Has useful PDFs of “Information & Resources for Newly Diagnosed or Recognized Autistic Women & Nonbinary Individuals” and “Autistic Burnout”.
• Embrace Autism (Canada) - A platform that distributes autism research and experience-based
information. Cofounded by a psychotherapist and a graphic designer, both autistic. Their blog has multiple posts about women and autism.
• Felicity House (US) - NYC center offering support, social events and community for autistic women.

I've found female Reddit subs to be friendly and open to people asking questions
r/aspergirls
is good for general talk. They want to keep that PG. They started a sub for more adult questions, but I can't remember what it's called.