“I’m sorry about him.” My wife and I heard this mother say numerous times. We were waiting in line at the shop. The lady’s son had started talking to us and asking us questions. We noticed this made the mother uncomfortable which lead to her making excuses for him, telling him several times to stop interrupting us. The young man was clearly interested in what my wife was purchasing. He turned to me and asked me several questions about what I was holding too. Again, his mother continued to apologise while telling him to stop.
“I’m not blaming my autism for anything I’m proud that I have autism and it doesn’t matter if I do stuff differently that’s okay, nobody is normal if you think your normal maybe you don’t know what the definition of normal and different mean because if everybody was normal life would be real crappy. God made everybody different for a reason in brace your differences”
I've been learning not to focus on the 30 hours of school she doesn't attend per week or the endless juggling of multiple allied health and medical appointments. Even further the constant seesaw of medication changes, self-harm, overstimulation, fighting and misunderstanding. If this becomes our focus and measure stick, I would feel defeated and fighting a lost battle. Instead, I've been determined to notice these huge milestones these past months that demonstrates a positive movement forward;
We are for the first time trying to understand the complexities of the comorbidity of our princesses mental health diagnosis and autism.
Last week I had a daughter with autism (level 2) this week I have a daughter with a suite of disabilities that are fighting for a front row seat, in her every day. A child that I thought saw the world through the single lens of autism, now viewing life through a multiple lenses mixing anxieties, depression, and social phobias blurring her reality and messing with what we thought was her normal. So I am hurting because my daughter hurts, but I'm also angry because my daughter hurts. When your daughter has only been giving half the diagnosis, it means we've just been treating a symptom, not the cause.
Upon reflection, we have concluded that this year has been the most tumultuous and difficult for our princess and as such for us. We had high hopes for her first year of high school, a timetabled and predictable space, others in her class with similar struggles and specialists that could walk alongside her.
It's been a while between drinks, but here we go my latest instalment. After seven days in the hospital, one month at home and numerous medical appointment I'm on the mend. But it's taken its toll on my princess. This blog forms an update of the last 90days, a crazy 90 days of learnings, frustrations, healings and for my princess a time of much-needed pushing.
To say "Its been a tough holiday period for the princess" would be an understatement.The normality of school, bedtime, packed lunches and her gymnastic lessons create a rhythmic stability for her
It's easy to teach, discipline and model the correct and expected behavior for our own family. Although we have been really taken a hit this past few weeks from others (mostly complete strangers.)
My ASD Princess 
Recent Comments