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This page offers gentle, general wellbeing suggestions, not a substitute for professional support or medical advice. If a hard time will not lift, please reach out to your GP, a psychologist, or one of the support services below. For help right away, 000 and Lifeline (13 11 14) are there any time, day or night. You deserve care, and asking for it is a sign of strength.
Looking after yourself is part of looking after your child. Start with one small thing, that really is enough.
Learn about autism itself. Understanding what is happening reduces stress, and it helps most in the early period.
Talk with other parents who have been through it. Peer support was one of the most common elements across effective programs, and you can start in the Community section here.
Try a short relaxation or mindfulness practice. Meta-analyses show it reduces parental stress, anxiety and low mood.
Research consistently identifies social support as one of the strongest predictors of parent wellbeing in autism families, more powerful even than the severity of a child's diagnosis. A peer-reviewed systematic review of psychosocial interventions for caregivers of autistic children found that peer support and group-based interventions are among the approaches with the strongest support. The AutismX community is built on this evidence.
Post a question or share a win on AutismX and read the replies. Noticing that others have been through the same things reduces isolation almost immediately.
Contact Amaze on 1300 308 699 to find a local or online support group in your area.
Contact Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737. They run free peer support groups specifically for carers nationwide.
You do not need to share everything to benefit. Simply listening to others in similar situations is healing on its own.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Frontiers in Psychology found that mindfulness-based interventions reduce parental stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in autism families, and also improve autism-related behaviours in children. Part of the reason is co-regulation: a calmer parent's nervous system helps settle a child's nervous system too. Five consistent minutes has measurable effects.
Download a free app such as Smiling Mind (free, Australian-made), Headspace (free tier), or Insight Timer (free). Each offers guided sessions of 5 to 10 minutes.
Choose one consistent time, whether that's after school drop-off, before bed, or during a morning coffee.
Start with a body scan. Sit quietly, close your eyes, and slowly notice each part of your body from feet to head without judging what you feel.
Do not aim for a quiet mind. Mindfulness is about noticing thoughts without being swept away by them, and any practice counts.
Sleep deprivation is one of the most significant drivers of parental burnout and dysregulation. A 15-day daily diary study of parents of autistic children found that caregiving role overload, depressive symptoms, and parental burnout are closely connected day to day, and sleep is the foundation that determines how much strain you can absorb each day. Protecting your sleep is a priority, not an indulgence.
Identify the single biggest barrier to your sleep right now, whether it's a child who wakes in the night, difficulty switching off, pain, or anxiety. Name the specific problem before trying to solve it.
If your child's sleep is disrupting yours, speak to their paediatrician or your GP about sleep support. This is a solvable problem with specialist help.
Create a 20-minute wind-down routine: dim lights, no screens, a warm drink, something calm. Consistency matters more than perfection.
If persistent sleep problems are affecting your mental health, tell your GP. Sleep disorders are medical conditions and are treatable.
Respite care, time away from caregiving, is one of the most evidence-supported interventions for preventing carer burnout. It is also one of the most underused, because many parents feel guilty for taking it. Parents who use respite have better mental health, more sustainable caregiving, and better relationships with their children. Using respite is part of caring well for your child.
Call Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737 to find out what planned and emergency respite is available in your area. It's a free call and a free service.
If your child has an NDIS plan, check whether it includes short-term accommodation or in-home respite. If not, ask your planner about adding it at the next review.
Start small, perhaps a two-hour break for a walk, a coffee alone, or a nap, before working up to longer periods. The goal is recovery, whatever that looks like for you.
Notice and name the guilt when it arises. Then do it anyway.
Physical exercise is one of the most evidence-supported interventions for anxiety, depression, and stress, all of which autism parents experience at higher rates. Exercise reduces cortisol, increases serotonin and dopamine, and gives you a stretch of regulated breathing that calms the nervous system. Even a 20-minute walk has measurable effects.
Choose a form of movement you do not dread, whether that's walking, swimming, cycling, dancing in your kitchen, or a 15-minute YouTube yoga session.
Attach it to an existing habit. Walk after school drop-off, or do 10 minutes of stretching after the kids are in bed.
If leaving the house is difficult, search for free home exercise videos. Many are designed specifically for time-poor parents.
If chronic pain or physical health issues are a barrier, speak to your GP about what is achievable. Movement supports mental health at any intensity.
The Raising Children Network identifies helpful self-talk as one of the most effective daily strategies for autism parents. What you tell yourself about your situation, whether it is fair, manageable, or hopeless, directly affects your stress level and your capacity to cope. Shifting from catastrophising to realistic, compassionate internal language is a learnable skill.
Notice a negative thought you return to frequently, like "I cannot do this" or "Nothing I do makes any difference".
Write it down, then write a more realistic alternative alongside it. Not falsely positive, just accurate: "This is very hard. I am doing my best and getting some things right."
When the negative thought arises, acknowledge it: "That is the stress talking." Then consciously choose the realistic version.
If negative self-talk is persistent and accompanied by hopelessness or low mood, discuss this with a GP or psychologist. It may be depression, which is treatable.
Practising gratitude, specifically noticing and recording positive moments, is well evidenced as a daily stress management strategy. It works not by denying difficulty but by training your attention to notice the full picture rather than only what is hard. Over time this shifts the baseline from survival mode toward something more sustainable.
Get a small notebook and keep it somewhere you will see it each day, such as on the bedside table or next to the kettle.
Each day write down three things that happened. They do not need to be good. "Liam laughed at the dog" counts. "I ate lunch sitting down" counts too.
On difficult days, write down just one thing. That is enough.
Read back over the previous week every Sunday. That is where the accumulating evidence of your own capacity becomes visible.
Research suggests autism parents more often experience anxiety, low mood and burnout, and are also less likely to seek help, because a child's needs usually come first. GPs can assess your mental health, prepare a Mental Health Treatment Plan and refer you to a psychologist under the Medicare Better Access initiative, which currently covers up to 10 individual subsidised sessions per calendar year, and connect you with services. A 15-minute appointment can open the door to sustained support.
Book an appointment specifically to talk about how you are coping, not your child's health, but yours. Tell the receptionist you want time to discuss your mental health.
Before you go, write down in dot points what you have been experiencing: sleep, mood, anxiety, energy, relationships. It is easy to minimise things in the moment.
Ask your GP about a Mental Health Treatment Plan, which currently provides up to 10 individual Medicare-rebated psychology sessions per calendar year, plus up to 10 group sessions.
If cost is a barrier, ask about bulk-billed options, or contact Medicare Mental Health (formerly Head to Health) on 1800 595 212 for free and low-cost mental health services.
Find a bulk-billed GP near youThe Raising Children Network identifies organisation as one of the most effective stress management strategies, because much parenting stress comes from a felt sense of chaos and loss of control. Getting organised does not mean doing more. It means reducing the cognitive load of managing complex information, and one organised area creates genuine relief.
Choose one area that causes daily friction, whether it's the weekly therapy schedule, the NDIS paperwork, or school communication, and spend 30 minutes creating a simple system for it.
A shared family calendar, a single folder for therapy correspondence, or a 15-minute weekly planning session can each dramatically reduce stress.
Do not try to organise everything at once. One thing, done well, is the goal.
If coordination is genuinely unmanageable, ask your NDIS planner about a support coordinator whose role is to manage this for you.
Autism parenting success is often invisible. Progress can be slow, hard to see, and rarely celebrated by others. Research on self-efficacy shows parents who recognise their own competence and progress have significantly lower stress and better mental health. Naming your wins is not vanity, it is maintaining the evidence base for your own capacity.
At the end of each day, say or write one thing you did well, not perfectly, but well enough. "I stayed calm during the meltdown." "I remembered the noise-cancelling headphones." "I asked for help."
Share one win per week on AutismX under a Win post. The reaction you get from other parents is itself a wellbeing strategy.
If it feels impossible to identify any wins, that is itself important information. Speak to your GP, because this pattern is associated with depression.
Notice what you are already doing and have always been doing. You are doing more than you think.
Free Australian Government services for carers, including counselling, peer support groups, respite care (planned and emergency), online skills courses, and tailored practical help such as transport. Emergency respite is available 24/7.
Australia's largest autism organisation. Autism Connect is the free national autism helpline, offering independent expert advice on finding support services, navigating the NDIS, and accessing wellbeing support. Also lists peer support groups nationwide.
A free, confidential service available any time, day or night, for anyone who needs a kind, listening voice, no matter what you are going through. You do not have to be in crisis to call; reaching out early is always okay.
Other AutismX parents are going through this too. Post in the community and you will not be alone in it.
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