Gavin had a massive blowout this evening. This particular tantrum was very violent, loud and full of self-injury. Perhaps it would be best to start at the beginning. The boys were all playing together.  Everything seemed to be going well.  At some point things took a turn and Gavin began having behavioral problems.  There was no apparent trigger, he simply turned. It began with Gavin smashing one of Elliott's favorite stuffed animals into the ground, over and over again.  Elliott asked him to stop and Gavin refused. Elliott asked again. Once again Gavin refused and continued smashing the little blue Smurf into the ground. When Elliott asked him to stop again, Gavin responded by chucking the Smurf at Elliott as hard as he could. Gavin openly admits to doing this…

Lizze has been really sick today, in the form of tummy problems and greater than usual amounts of pain.  She just woke up from a nap and hopefully will be doing better. We are having to keep a close eye on Gavin's interactions with the boys.  He's being very, very manipulative and we have to quash that as it happens.  Gavin doesn't understand that the people in your life aren't there to be manipulated into doing what he wants.  Unfortunately, our attempts thus far have been mostly futile. Our goal is to help Gavin to acclimate to a very basic set of guidelines that will help him to function within society. We want the very best for him and the concern is that if these behaviors continue, he's heading for…

One of my readers brought up a really good point the other day. I haven't talked about much about how Gavin's doing with his psychotic break. I'm not sure why I haven't spoken about it. Gavin's anti-psychotic meds have been officially maxed out. Of this doesn't work or when it stops working, we are left without recourse. Thankfully, it seems to be helping. While he's still visiting his "visibly challenged" friend Sonic, these visits are less frequent.  Unfortunately, there's really no way to tell anything for sure because Gavin is a bright kid, who's been well therapized. He knows what to say and what not to say. We just have to watch him closely and try and see what's going on beneath the surface. From what we can ascertain, he's…

Elliott's been on this nightmare kick for over a week now.  Every night he's having nightmares. This has gotten to the point that he doesn't want to go to sleep. He doesn't remember what the nightmares are about, either that or he simply doesn't want to talk about it. Tuesdays appointment with Dr. Pattie was focused solely on him. I was wondering if any of your kids on the Autism Spectrum have nightmares and if so, are they able to tell you about it? This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Follow @Lost_and_Tired Visit the My Autism Help Forums To reach me via email, please Contact Me

One of the things I like to do is build up my readers.  By build up my readers, I'm referring to helping you all to remember that you don't have to be perfect to be a good parent. I want you all to remember that we all makes mistakes. For that matter, I've got a PhD in mistake making. Honestly, I'm just about as far from perfect as you can get, despite anyone's perception to the contrary. This little exercise is meant to help you remember that you are a good parent, despite how you may feel. Over the years, I've discovered that as parents, we tend to be our own worst critic. We tend to focus on what we do wrong and gloss over what we do right. I'm…

Something that we don't hear people talk about much is the toll that special needs parenting can take. There have been statistics thrown around for years and to be honest, I don't know how accurate they are.  All I want to do is share my personal experience as a special needs parent for over a decade. Maybe you can relate, maybe you can't.  In my experience, special needs parenting can be extremely stressful.  Every day is spent forging through rivers and moving mountains, simply to take a few steps forward. This journey through life is full of tension, frustration and plethora of other feelings that can be challenging to cope with. It's really easy to lash out at those around you, simply because they're there and you're feeling so overwhelmed.…

I wanted to stop by and say hello.  I haven't written much today for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that my phone is stuck in 2G which is too slow to be of any use.  Since my phone is the only connection I have left to this site, it's difficult to keep it updated until they get this fixed. Today's been a rough one by all accounts. We had some difficulties with Gavin that have sorta tainted the afternoon. He's in a better place now but he was self-injuring again and so he's got the bumps, cuts and bruises to live with. Elliott and Emmett have been having a decent day. There have been a few challenges but nothing major. I was able to get some errands…

Today has been one of those days where I'm really fighting the overwhelming feeling that I should just give up. We've tumbled so far down the ladder at this point, I don't know what I can possibly do to get us righted and back on course.  I've been on the phone with T-Mobile again this morning because we have almost no service at our house anymore.  Today has been especially bad and as you can see in the screenshot below, I can't even send a text message. We can barely make or receive calls either.  This means that we are almost completely cut off.  I'm going to have to walk two blocks just to try and upload this post and make a necessary phone call. I realize that this is…