[ciaranm]

It's different, certainly. I'm talking second hand about someone so I don't want to attribute too much of what are my observations as truth - but he's definitely more aware of when he's struggling and can articulate that better compared with when he was younger. He's also at a secondary school with very small class sizes that's set up to help with cases like his, which helps.

He does have other health issues that make day to day life difficult in other ways, so I don't want to say everything's rosy. Still lots of hard work for my parents to manage.

[mercer]

It can be tough to find the niche to thrive in, but I've seen it work quite a few times. So at least it's possible. Sometimes it does require a degree of permanent care by parents/guardians, but some degree of autonomy and even 'thriving' is possible. Don't lose hope!