How to parents of autistic children cope with life? Speaking for myself, I don't know. I know I'm depressed and tired all the time. Recently I have been getting sick after eating. The stress is killing me. How are we as parents supposed to cope with this level of chronic stress? There is little to no help out there. For the amount of kids that are autistic you would think that there would be more support centers. At least in my area there isn't even a support group for parents of autistic children. We get lumped in with support groups for other disorders.
Respite care? What's that? Aside from my parents we get nothing. There needs to be support for the parents because we are all on the front lines. Lizze and I have become like shut in's because we rarely ever go anywhere. We can't even let the kids play outside because the kids in my neighborhood make fun of Gavin. The parents of these kids are even worse and use words like "retard" when referring to Gavin. It takes everything I have not to react to these things.
As parents to these special needs kids we need support and understanding not judgement and ridicule. A little compassion never hurts either. I have read about movie theater's that have a night just for autistic kids and their families. They show movies that are hand picked to be the least stimulating as possible. These are things that can help parents cope and make them feel a bit more normal. I wish there were more places out there that did things like these.
What are the stats now 1/110 kids are autistic? Why don't we see more being done on a local level. In my town which believe is on the map has nothing. We have to go through MRDD and that's if there is even funding available. We have done everything on our own with the big exception of his school. We are lucky in that area because we have a school just for autistic and adhd kids about 5 mins from my house. But there are so many kids that don't have this opportunity because there are no special schools.
I guess I just needed to vent a bit. I wish I could put into words what our lives are like. I mean do it in a way that people will just understand. As parents of these special needs kids our plates are already full. We need things to make life easier not more difficult.
LT
