It would be really helpful if you could share some ways that someone could help your family. This is a great way to put ideas out there and it's also good practice for those of us who struggle when it comes to asking for help.
One of the things that are difficult in my life as a special needs Dad is coming to terms with my own humanity. What I mean by that is accepting my limitations as a parent, embracing my emotions and not beating myself up for getting frustrated with my kids. There are a plethora of reasons that being human makes Autism and Special Needs parenting more difficult. For the purposes of this post, I want to talk briefly about frustration. There's this unspoken belief that simply because a child is Autistic, has Special Needs or maybe even fragile health, that as a parent, we aren't ever allowed to be frustrated with them. I don't know who started this or why it's such a popular belief but this needs to change because…
As an Autism and Special Needs parent, I've found it very difficult is prioritize things. In a more typical situation, I would be able to decide what's important and what can be put in hold or brushed aside. Unfortunately, in my life, it's not that simple. Everyone in my house has very demanding needs and all of them are of equal importance, especially to the person concerned. While there are things that can always be put on hold, usually everything that's considered more everyday life kinda things, the vast majority can't. It's very difficult for me because in order to meet one person's needs, it feels like someone else's will have to go unmet and that's not okay. If one person has a 100 things that require their undivided attention,…
As an Autism parent, one of the things I've learned is the importance of being positive. Autism parenting can often be stressful and filled with challenge. It's easy to get caught up in all the stress and lose sight of all the amazing bits and pieces that can go along with raising an Autistic child. Yes, being positive is important. That being said, I'm not here to talk about being positive all the time because sometimes, the positive can be too hard find. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes life is unfair. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel that isn't a train. I've had countless moments over the years where I'm so incredibly overwhelmed by everything, I…
I'm feeling incredibly defeated today and there's a number of legitimate reasons for that. It's important to put things into context so here's a but of background. Life is tough for my family on a good day. Including myself, there are five people in my immediate family, and four have special needs. All four are in various places on the Autism Spectrum. Three struggle with serious anxiety that impacts their daily life. Three have ADHD. Three have serious sensory processing challenges that interfere with their daily life. Two have asthma. One has food allergies. One struggles with a very rare fever disorder. One struggles with Schizophrenia, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, significant cognitive impairment, Common Variable Immunodeficiency, an extremely rare Autonomic disorder, epilepsy, neuromuscular issues, a blood disorder, Ehlers-Danlos (possibly vascular) and…
First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I truly wish all of you the absolute, very best. Now on to something a bit more serious. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I've been talking about depression quite a bit lately. There are a few reasons for that but most of them don't really matter at the moment. I feel that it's incredibly important to talk freely about mental health issues because we have to de-stigmatize the topic. We've made a ton of progress over the years but we still have a long journey ahead of us. There is absolutely no reason that anyone should ever feel shame for living with mental illness. The main reason I've been talking more about this lately is because…
I'm struggling with depression at the moment but I want to be open about my struggle.