AuDHD Women: Navigating Life After Late Discovery: A Compassionate Guide to Living with Autism and ADHD

by Sarah Jones, Diamond Door Press

You’re not too sensitive. You’re not lazy. You’re not broken. You’re AuDHD. And you’re not alone.

AuDHD Navigating Life After Late Discovery is the empowering, validating guide every late-identified woman deserves. This isn’t a clinical textbook. It’s a warm, practical companion for women who have spent years masking, people-pleasing, pushing through burnout, or wondering why life feels so hard for everyone else. And short and sweet at 100 pages, it's perfect for a busy mind.

Inside you’ll

🧩 What Autism + ADHD (AuDHD) really looks like in women
🌪 How traits like masking, sensory overwhelm, emotional intensity, and executive dysfunction actually show up day-to-day
🔥 The truth about burnout, meltdown cycles, and why rest is not optional
💬 How to navigate relationships, limerence, boundaries, and communication differently
🗓 Routines and regulation strategies that work with your brain, not against it
🔍 How to rethink your past through a neurodivergent lens (without guilt or shame)
👧 Parenting with AuDHD
🛡 Advocating for yourself in a neurotypical world
✏ Journal prompts, checklists, and scripts to support real-life change

Whether you’ve just received a diagnosis or discovered the term through your own research, this book will help you make sense of what never quite added up and give you tools to move forward with clarity and self-trust.

Stop trying to be who the world told you to be. Start becoming who you actually are.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

106 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 29, 2025

Reviews

[Dakota Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a world that misunderstands and misdiagnoses many women on the autism spectrum, especially when compounded with ADHD, fitting in can be impossible. Masking our differences, berating ourselves for not being able to do things the same way as our neurotypical peers, and carrying guilt for overwhelm and meltdowns can plague even the most optimistic souls. But the truth is that we were never broken. We were simply misunderstood. This compassionate guide helps women on the spectrum define and understand their uniquely beautiful minds, showing that each and every one of us has the power to accept ourselves for who we truly are.
“AuDHD Women: Navigating Life after Late Discovery” by Sarah Jones is a gentle guide to defining autism and ADHD in the lives of women who discover their neurodiversity later in life. It is a sad truth that many women go undiagnosed or receive a misdiagnosis due to decades of stereotypes and tests designed for children or men. Many neurodivergent women have adapted to survive, learning to hide our differences behind a mask of “normality”. This guide helps women to see and understand the reason behind masking, how much it can drain you, and why it it’s okay for the mask to come off. The guide puts names to many challenges neurodiverse women may have faced in childhood, such as being labelled “moody”, “emotional”, or “defiant”, when in fact their minds simply process information a little differently.
This guide is not a workbook or intended to provide professional help. Instead, it is crafted to be a compassionate guide through understanding and processing the myriad of emotions that come with a late diagnosis, helping neurodivergent women see that there is nothing wrong with them. Autism, ADHD, and the combination thereof is not something to be “fixed” or “cured”; it is simply another way of being, worthy of acceptance, love, and celebration.
As a neurodiverse woman, I appreciate this guide’s approach to facing emotions, processing past hurts, and understanding oneself without looking through a warped mirror of self-blame and societal expectations. Especially designed for AuDHD women, this guide can nonetheless help people on other parts of the spectrum to better define their own unique way of thinking, even an Aspie like me! Friends and family of neurodiverse women can also benefit from this guide, as the book gently shows how being neurodiverse can feel, especially without understanding what is truly going on inside you.
All in all, this concise, gentle guide earns five out of five stars for increasing awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity in women. A great pick for any who discover their neurodiversity later in life, or those who simply need to know that they are not alone in what they are feeling, this beautifully written guide extends the hand of friendship and acceptance to a group sorely in need of it.
I received a free review copy of this book, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Emma Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book arrived in my life at exactly the right moment, just as I'm piecing together a lifetime of "why am I like this?" with the fresh clarity of my AuDHD diagnosis. It's like having a compassionate friend who actually gets it, gently walking me through all those painful memories of struggling in silence while everyone else seemed to navigate life effortlessly, and suddenly those experiences make sense through a neurodivergent lens.

What makes this book invaluable isn't just the validation (though finally seeing my masking, sensory overwhelm, and burnout cycles named and explained is deeply healing), but the practical tools it offers for moving forward like real strategies for managing relationships, setting boundaries, building routines that actually work with my brain, and advocating for myself without apology. At just 100 pages, it respects my ADHD attention span while covering everything I need to understand my past without shame and navigate my present and future with self-trust. This isn't about fixing myself; it's about finally understanding that I was never broken in the first place, and that realization is priceless.

[Cait's Reading Nook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was a supportive guide for neurodivergent women. It was inclusive and reminding women who receive a late diagnosis to be kind to themselves as they process their diagnosis. The overlap of symptoms between autism and ADHD are outlined in the book as well as their distinct symptoms.

I thought the chapter on best practices to advocate for accommodations in the workplace and to advocate for oneself in relationships and in health a neurotypical world resonated. The explanation on how the impact of burnout is different and unique was thorough.

The journal prompts are helpful at the end of each chapter to recap the key concepts of each chapter as well as to be used in future journaling.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Vikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was truly an eye-opener for me. AuDHD Women helped me understand not just why I think the way I do, but also how those thought patterns connect to being AuDHD. It put words to things I’ve felt for years but couldn’t quite explain, and that validation alone made it worth the read.

What I especially appreciated is how the book goes over symptoms in a clear, approachable way. Instead of being overly clinical, Sara Jones writes with warmth and empathy—like a supportive friend who “gets it.” The balance of information, practical tools, and emotional reassurance made it both grounding and empowering.

If you’ve recently been diagnosed or are just beginning to explore the idea of being AuDHD, this is a fantastic place to start. It’s not heavy or overwhelming, but it still offers depth, comfort, and a sense of community.

[HeloReads98 · Rating 4 out of 5]

AuDHD Women is a good introductory book for anyone wanting to learn about neurodivergence, especially in women. It highlights how autism and ADHD in women are less frequently diagnosed, not only because of preconceived ideas about these “disorders”, but also because women tend to mask far more than men.

It’s a (very) quick read, ideal for someone who doesn’t know much about the topic yet (for example, a woman who’s starting to ask herself questions or who has recently received a diagnosis). I would have liked the book to go into the subject in greater depth, but I don’t think that was its aim.

The journaling prompts were genuinely good, and they can definitely help deepen one’s self-understanding.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Raphaella Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book if you have just been diagnosed

I love this book. I am a late diagnosed and this book became my starting point for trying to understand a lot of things about myself. The author writes beautifully, with so much compassion and ease. It is easy to follow and not overwhelming at all.

The journal prompts are amazing. I even kept a separate notebook just to write her prompts down. If you are someone like me who likes to write things down, this book is especially helpful. Repetition really helps me, and writing allowed me to begin remembering and connecting certain things from my life. I highly recommend creating a journal alongside this book so you can jot things down as they come up.

Overall, this was a great and very helpful book.

[P.M.G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok. It’s a quick read doesn’t add much new information to the conversation about AuDHD and late diagnosed women.
The journal prompts might be helpful to someone early in discovery and acceptance. It does get very repetitive with the phrase “you may/might” being used far too much (entire paragraphs where every sentence starts like this multiple times).

[Kati Petrou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative,practical

This book was really helpful and is written very compassionately - it's structured in a way that is easy to digest with lots of practical tips on how to think further on the subtopics and guidance for implementing different strategies and tips. I left with a lot of takeaways.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am who I am and that's all that I am.

I recommend this book to women who have recently been diagnosed later in life with ADHD. Audhd. This has been an Awakening for me. I'm finally given myself permission to be who I am. I like me. Always have. But learning that there's a reason for me. I can love who I am. Be proud of who I am, the person I am quirks and all.

[Agata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Might be ok if you're just starting your hyperfocus on neurodivergence, but honestly, it didn't add much to my knowledge from the other books about ADHD and ASD as separate phenomena. I'd be keen to read more on the results of both divergencies combined.

[🏑 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Reading this book actually made me sit down and reflect more on my life. It made me feel seen and heard, which I haven’t my entire life (which is a concept the book explores.) So grateful to have found this book

[Brittany Sabik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read if you finally want to be seen!

Amazing book with some amazing tools. I have never felt more seen and validated! I have some tools and information I can also share with my loved ones!

[Chloe Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little book - has depth but isn’t too overwhelming.

[Letia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very affirming and supportive especially if you’re newly diagnosed.

[Halle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this all around. Easy read! Very validating!